June 11, 2018

Dear citizen activist friends on our New Mexico "short list" --

On May 24 we alerted you to a number of cultural events in Santa Fe's pro-nuclear-weapon "Atomic Summer." We explained our concerns, and alluded to the opportunity we see in this affront. We provided a schedule of our own meetings and events, or rather some of them (calendar).

Our kick-off meeting took place here in Albuquerque on May 31. We barely scratched the surface at that meeting. It was a start.

Our next (and very important) get-together will be in Santa Fe this coming Wednesday June 13, at 6 pm in Room GL103 at St. John's United Methodist Church, 1200 Old Pecos Trail (at Cordova Road; map). This is an organizing meeting, not a presentation or issue-oriented discussion. It is not a public event. Only those on this short list, plus friends, plus spouses are invited. (Subsequent meetings will be public.) As we said in our May 24 letter, we anticipate having further private strategy meetings with those of you who are interested prior to each Santa Fe public meeting this summer, building on this first one.

At this meeting we want to talk about specific actions we can do this summer -- individually and with our families, in our organizations and churches, and also specifically with the Los Alamos Study Group. We want to talk about possible themes and talking points in letters to editors (LTEs) and guest editorials. We want to talk about specific target audiences and assess the realism of tactics. We want to talk about building capacity. We want to help others lead. We want to foster connections and community. This will be a fairly structured meeting.

Our relatively-intensive "Atomic Summer" schedule will wrap up on Aug. 9, Nagasaki Day. As opposed to the entertainment planned and funded by nuclear-friendly forces, the summer events we plan with you will (we hope and pray) set the stage for a dramatic uptick in nuclear and climate resistance, constructive action, and community, this fall and afterwards.

For reference, here's the list of upcoming meetings again.

In Albuquerque: discussion and action organizing meetings at our main office (2901 Summit Place NE, map). Light food and beverages will be served. Guest speakers, mostly by Skype for the climate's sake, will appear as warranted. The unprecedented nuclear threats faced by New Mexico are coming to us at a pivotal moment for our state and our country. While it is an election year, elections are far from enough; overestimating what elections (and political parties) can do is a besetting problem we face. There are wonderful opportunities at hand. We hope we can catalyze some new thinking about, and new effective actions to address, the radical crisis we face. These discussions are open to newcomers. Please come.

• June 14, 6 pm
• June 28, 6 pm
• July 12, 6 pm 
• July 26, 6 pm
• August 9, 6 pm

In Santa Fe: seminars, discussions, and action organizing meetings. After the first meeting, the three 6 pm meetings at St. John's United Methodist Church (July 2, 16, and 30) will be open to the public and will address current issues in a) nuclear weapons, b) nuclear waste, and c) practical development policies and scenarios for New Mexico. We will Skype in nationally-prominent guest speakers for these larger-format meetings. On July 2, 16, and 30 there will be organizing meetings in the afternoon in Santa Fe by mutual arrangement to discuss campaign elements, actions, and follow-on activities.

• June 13, 6 pm, St. John's United Methodist Church, 1200 Old Pecos Trail (at Cordova Road, map), organizing meeting, Room GL103 (not a public event: this list + friends + spouses only)
  
• July 2, 6 pm, St. John's United Methodist Church (Gathering Room, open to public); Study Group organizing meeting earlier in afternoon by mutual arrangement
  
• July 7, 5 pm, Panel discussion with Godfrey Reggio, Greg Mello, others, venue TBD, hosted by the Friends of Tony Price, "Land of Enchantment: Atomic Summer" 
  
• July 16, 6 pm, St. John's United Methodist Church (Gathering Room, open to public); Study Group organizing meeting earlier in afternoon by mutual arrangement
• July 30, 6 pm, St. John's United Methodist Church (Gathering Room, open to public); Study Group organizing meeting earlier in afternoon by mutual arrangement
• August 6, Santa Fe; the precise nature of this event and/or meeting will be decided in the course of our planning group meetings.

Since we last wrote, the battle royale over which site and state "gets" the industrial pit production mission has continued. Developments up to June 2 were captured in this blog post (shorter version here).

We were generally pleased, by the way, with this June 5 editorial in the Albuquerque Journal. We correspond regularly with the press near and far.

An interesting fact: oddly, and of course for their own reasons, the SC delegation – hawks, all – wants the surplus plutonium disposition mission, not the bomb mission. (Local SC boosters want both.) The "progressive" Democrats in NM do want to make new nuclear bombs, and lots of 'em.

On June 7, a federal judge in South Carolina issued a preliminary injunction which effectively bars the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from halting the Mixed Oxide (MOX) program to dispose of surplus plutonium, and in this way places NNSA's just-announced pit plan in jeopardy -- as do amendments to must-pass legislation moving through Congress, some sponsored by our New Mexico Democrats. We'll write about this later, but the long and short of these developments is that Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) remains in the bulls-eye for industrial pit production.

Also since we last wrote, the new managers of LANL have been announced. Yippee. You can find some of the leading articles on this on our home page.

Alas, the new nuclear arms race -- in part centered right here, in northern and central New Mexico -- is far from the only emergency we face. We need to find a way to have an ongoing conversation-in-the-midst-of-action about some terrible truths -- which we can make less terrible, in more than one sense. But only if we step up. Only if we truly live (see this excellent recent piece by Chris Martensen.) Many -- most I would say -- people are far too isolated and are dispirited or worse. Let's fix that. Please join us this summer, starting on Wednesday.

Best wishes to all,

Greg and Trish