‘A Chance to Grow Up’ : Young Pair’s Petitions Urge World Leaders to Renounce Nuclear War, Weaponry

He is a 12-year-old American, terrified of nuclear war as he saw it portrayed on a TV movie. She is a 12-year-old Soviet immigrant, frightened by images of herself sitting in a house waiting for the bomb, or running from a nuclear blast.

Together, Josh Frankel and Bela Kisamov, Irvine neighbors and longtime family friends, decided to do something about it.

Several months ago, they formed Children Against Nuclear War, a two-member organization that has been soliciting signatures on petitions urging world leaders to embrace cooperation and communication rather than weaponry and war as ways to solve problems. “We want to be assured that we will have a peaceful world and a chance to grow up,” the petition reads. Underneath are spaces for 20 signatures. Signers are asked to make five copies of the petition and mail them to others around the world, asking them to send completed petitions to the leaders of their countries.

“We want them to know children around the world feel the same way,” Bela said. She also hopes that the petitions will encourage other children to feel that they can help the cause of peace.

Josh, a sixth-grader at El Camino Real elementary school, is the son of Kate Frankel, a manufacturers representative, and Mitchell Frankel, an insurance consultant. Bela, a seventh-grader at Sierra Vista Middle School, is the daughter of Faina and Nalick (Norm) Kisamov, both engineers who emigrated from the Soviet Union eight years ago with their three children.

Josh and Bela were 4 years old when they met at the Orange County airport. Kate Frankel had answered an ad seeking volunteers to help Soviet Jews settle in Orange County. She had been assigned to meet the Kisamovs and their three children, none of whom spoke English, at the airport. To bridge the communications gap, she brought along her two children and a large sign reading “Kisamov.”

The Kisamovs’ relief at finding friendly faces “in the middle of nowhere” turned the meeting into a round of hugs, kisses and tears. “We’ve been like family ever since,” Frankel said.

Though communicating was difficult at first, they knew that they all valued children. There were shared family picnics, pool parties, beach parties, games, television, a few English lessons and soon, conversation.

The Kisamovs’ children had heard about the dangers of nuclear radiation after the Chernobyl disaster. They had seen an art exhibit by survivors of Hiroshima. The Frankels, ‘60s activists who are recommitting themselves to social causes, also talked about nuclear issues at home.

Talking of Life and Death

The subject of an anti-nuclear club for children came up one day when Josh and Bela were thinking about growing old, the universe and life after death, they said.

“We talked about how we’d suffer if we lived through a nuclear war,” Josh said.

“I got scared just talking about it. I’m more concerned about my family. I don’t know what I’d do,” Bela said. “There wouldn’t be anything left if we had a nuclear war.”

“If the explosion doesn’t kill us, the radiation will,” Josh said. He asked Bela to help him form the club. She agreed.

The two children then sat down with Kate Frankel to discuss how they could make a statement against nuclear war, and they decided on a petition. Frankel helped them with the wording after they decided what they wanted to say.

Josh and Bela sold brownies and cookies they had baked themselves to cover the cost of printing and mailing the petitions. They also passed out petitions at the Mother’s Day Peace Bell Rally in Orange and among their classmates.

The Orange County chapter of Alliance for Survival has distributed copies of the petition at its rallies and is giving them to U.S. senators in Washington, Frankel said.

Petitions to White House

The children have not sent petitions to friends in Bela’s hometown of Kishinev because it might cause them trouble, Faina Kisamov said.

They are unsure how many signatures have been collected so far, or how many leaders have received their petitions.

For their part, Josh and Bela have gathered enough signatures to fill about 10 petitions and so far have sent four or five of them to the White House.

The reactions from their peers have varied, they said.

Many children don’t want to appear “wimpy” by showing they are afraid of nuclear war, Bela said. Others take an aggressive stance. Some of her American classmates have called her a “Commie,” said Bela, who is now a U.S. citizen.

“I don’t think they know how bad I feel,” she said.

To her, Americans are different from Russians only in that they come from another country. To Josh, Russians are “just people” like Americans.

“In the ‘60s, I thought we could change the world,” Kate Frankel said as she watched the two children chase each other in her backyard. Now, she said, “I don’t think I’m the one. I think they’re the ones.”

Children’s Words to World Leaders

Text of the petitions being circulated by Josh Frankel and Bela Kisamov:

We, the children of the world, join together to tell our leaders we are worried about nuclear war. We want the leaders of our world to find ways to cooperate in the elimination of the production of nuclear weapons and spend more money on education and things that benefit mankind. We want them to solve problems by communication, not wars. We want to be assured that we will have a peaceful world and a chance to grow up.