大象传媒

Good morning. On this day, in 1991, the United States and Soviet Union signed the START treaty. Though it was overtaken within six months by the fragmentation of the USSR, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was the first of a series of agreements aimed at reducing nuclear arms.

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George Bush had called it 鈥渁 significant step forward in dispelling half a century of mistrust鈥�. Mikhail Gorbachev hailed it as an 鈥榠rreversible process鈥� 鈥� but both knew that there was still a lot more to do. It had begun as a proposal by Ronald Reagan in Geneva in 1985. It had taken six years to get to the START.

It took ten years to fulfil the original START aims.

Meanwhile, despite changes in leadership, further commitments to reductions were made in START 2, and the superpowers engaged in negotiations for START 3, which were superseded by the Treaty of Moscow. Then Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin worked together on New START.

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Sometimes we don鈥檛 know whether our efforts will succeed or fail, but the right thing to do is start, and start again. Not to be discouraged by challenges, changes in leadership, or circumstance, but to overcome them by learning and moving forward.

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The prophet Isaiah tells us to 鈥楩orget the former things;
听听听听 not to dwell on the past.
We want to see that you are doing a new thing!
听听听听-making a way in the wilderness
听听听听and streams in the wasteland.

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Give us courage today, in our lives, wherever we can, to make a new Start, and to keep starting over, daily and persistently, until we have forged peace from our weapons of war, and made this earth a place of praise to you. Amen