WAKEUP
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August 24, 2018
I love Jesus, who said to us:
heaven and earth will pass away.
When heaven and earth have passed away,
my word will still remain.
What was your word, Jesus?
Love? Forgiveness? Affection?
All your words were
one word: Wakeup.
Antonio Machado, Robert Bly translation
Suggested actions:
1. Get your city, county, and/or tribe out of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC).
- Why? In a nutshell:
- Because (as we all know) your city, county, and/or tribe is NOT sustainable, is NOT taking proper care of or adequately educating its children, is NEITHER taking care of its environment NOR beginning the necessary deep adaptation to climate collapse NOR undertaking any significant steps to mitigate that collapse, does NOT have any vision of a sustainable future, and IS facing a storm of catastrophic events for which it is neither prepared nor doing anything significant to prevent, and thus is failing in the core functions of government;
- Because not just RCLC but LANL itself is a destructive scam under any (but especially the present) circumstances;
- Because LANL especially (but also Sandia National Laboratories and the occupying US military) are trying to force a fundamentally false, self-serving "story" on New Mexico to the exclusion of life-affirming and life-giving narratives around which real social and economic development could occur, and the RCLC is a part of this;
- Because our political leaders ARE in a trance; and
- Because if WE and THEY do not wake up, our children and grandchildren will NOT thrive despite our best efforts.
- In New Mexico, the weapons labs are our biggest form of political heroin and a major cause of New Mexico's relative decline (from ~1973 to ~1995) and its subsequent (~1995 to now) failure to thrive (see here and here). The RCLC is a major pipeline and pusher for this deadly drug of political somnolence.
- There will never be a better time.
- Remember:
- What the RCLC does or does not do, its effectiveness, and the validity of its expenditures -- these are not the main issues. The issue is the RCLC itself. The RCLC is LANL's primary (though far from only) "team-building" vehicle for local government leaders. Local leaders THINK they are lobbying (e.g. for cleanup dollars, although that is illegal under the terms of the RCLC's DOE grant). The reality is that THEY, the local leaders, are being lobbied -- to be complacent, to be "on the team," and to willy-nilly accept a military-industrial-plutonium-nuclear waste identity and story about the future.
- Just in itself, the RCLC is -- seemingly -- a small problem but a big political opportunity -- a gateway to clear political thinking and independence from the military-industrial complex, to which New Mexico is in thrall.
- Refusing to bow to a tyrant seems like a small thing. It is not.
- No matter who is elected, New Mexico will decline further unless we can kick our militaristic, plutonium-laced political habits.
- How?
- Write letters to editors (LTEs) or guest editorials.
- Find out which of your elected officials have been involved in RCLC junkets; publicize this.
- Meet with elected officials with a goal of getting your city, county, and/or tribe out of the RCLC, immediately.
- If your local newspaper has not yet editorialized against existence of the RCLC, talk to the editors.
- Spread the word in your networks and via social media.
- What are some talking points?
2. We urge you to publicly confront -- via LTEs for example or even better, at campaign and campaign funding events -- ALL candidates who are not:
- Advocating emergency action to mitigate climate collapse and to adapt -- deeply -- to the inevitable climate tragedy already in the pipeline; and who are not at the same time
- Calling for dramatic decreases in the scale and international commitments of the US military. It will be impossible to realize environmental and social goals without redirecting a majority if not the bulk of discretionary spending to those ends, rather than to global empire as at present. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts that interest on the federal debt will exceed defense spending by 2023. For this reason alone, in the very short term our society is likely to change dramatically for the worse if it does not begin a dramatic turn for the better. The status-quo "incumbency" in both major parties support decline. New Mexico, economically peripheral and in the climate-collapse bulls-eye, will decline more steeply. The pittance we get from bombs -- sterile for economic development -- will not staunch our relative decline; and who are not
- Publicly opposing construction of one or more consolidated storage sites for spent nuclear reactor fuel, which aside from being very bad nuclear waste policy (for all the reasons you know and we and many others have articulated) would grievously harm this state's reputation and future prospects.
All of our current congressional delegation support the absurd construction of additional nuclear weapons production facilities at LANL. Excuses aside, this is evidence of a deep societal and environmental death-wish, of the suppression of basic human morality, and of a cavalier attitude to international laws and norms. Would such persons be capable of the vision and leadership necessary to turn this state around? The evidence is otherwise.
Elections comprise a small portion of the wide political possibilities available. Let's turn our light around and look within ourselves for the courage to take decisive action whether it be constructive or in resistance -- and, for a few people, for some of the time, dealing with our corrupt electoral system and its reform.
3. Prepare yourself, your family and friends, and your community for "deep adaptation" to the unavoidable collapse of many aspects of our society we currently take for granted. It is never too late to start talking, thinking, setting priorities, sharing feelings, clarifying values, and making commitments. Some form of collapse is now inevitable; total human and natural catastrophe might not be.
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Dear friends on our New Mexico "short list" --
In the above, we are not asking you to undertake benign, or merely symbolic, actions that express your opinion or make a point but accomplish nothing. We are asking you to join us in making a difference. First, the RCLC. Then, the nuclear weapons mission and pits. Throughout, emergency climate advocacy and the transformation of our own lives and social networks, laying the groundwork for more.
Meanwhile let's get this two-bit, corrupting RCLC thing out of the way.
Some might say, "Oh, the RCLC is not very important. I want to express myself about pit production." That's fine, but please understand that in our representative form of government, if your town or county or tribe is a member of the RCLC it is already expressing itself, in person in Washington or by proxy, as being on LANL's economic development "team" and as such in favor of pit production, not withstanding whatever resolutions that have been or may be passed.
It would be better to withdraw from the RCLC and then pass the anti-pit resolution (along with a lot else).
Many people in New Mexico seem not to understand how colonized they are.
Or some might say, more uselessly and wishy-washily if not also downright amorally, "Let's pass a resolution against pit production until it can be made safe." That resolution supports nuclear weapons as long as "we" are made safe. What kind of political statement is that? It is not even possible. It has no problem with threatening genocide. It subtracts from, rather than adds to, the life-giving resistance we need.
Some like the idea of the RCLC lobbying for cleanup money. Aside from being illegal as noted above for DOE funding -- and otherwise illegal under the state's anti-donation clause, isn't it? -- and aside from being demonstrably ineffective at said lobbying, and aside from being redundant to and competitive with the representative government we already have (raising even more serious questions) as well as redundant to the ample lobbying resources of the corporations involved, and aside from the vast inefficiency and mismanagement of the cleanup to date, what's not to like?
Thank you all,
Greg & Trish, for the Study Group
PS: Our web site features new content you might find helpful in your work:
Our New Mexico senators could rescue the DNFSB if they really wanted to, but they also want pit production. The crisis has been engineered to facilitate nuclear production, including the proposed round-the-clock "surge" in pit production at LANL as soon as LANL is "ready." A task before us is to pour the pressure on to repeal DOE Order 140.1, and save DNFSB in other ways. Please contact senators Udall and Heinrich if you can. They are currently making positive noises, but are they really going to help?
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