National Catholic Reporter  The Independent News Source  On
nuclear weapons, 'silence is indefensible'   Arundhati Roy, the
great Indian writer and activist, has said, "There's nothing new
or original left to be said about nuclear weapons." Nonetheless,
she speaks out because, in her words, "silence would be
indefensible." Silence is the norm. We live our day-to-day lives
with these weapons capable of destroying our cities, our
countries, our civilizations, even our species. How can silence
be the norm?  This is what Roy herself says about nuclear
weapons, "Whether the meaning of life itself. Why do we tolerate
them? Why do we tolerate  Do we really trust our political
leaders and those leaders who might come to power in the future
to never unleash the fury of nuclear war? Do we believe that all
leaders under all conditions, no matter how rushed or stressed,
will refrain from using this power of annihilation? Perhaps we
do, and this would explain the widespread complacency and
Perhaps we just feel impotent t