May 29, 2018

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

Five days ago we wrote with a schedule of upcoming meetings for this summer, starting this Thursday 5/31 at 6 pm, in Albuquerque at the World Headquarters, 2901 Summit Place NE.The schedule is also on our calendar.

Light food and beverages will be served.

At this first meeting this summer we want to talk about strategy and actions. Later meetings will involve guest speakers (by Skype) as warranted, and as we may decide at Thursday's meeting. These Albuquerque discussions are open to newcomers, as well as to folks from out of town.

The unprecedented nuclear threats faced by New Mexico include industrial pit production, industrial plutonium processing -- another big proposed mission at Los Alamos -- and the indefinite (not: "interim") storage of potentially all US spent nuclear fuel in a huge array of shallow concrete vaults in SE New Mexico (plus related handling and subsequent waste processing facilities). We have discussed these in previous letters and Bulletins. They are coming at us at a pivotal moment for our state, and our country.

Nuclear weapons, materials, and waste are starting to define our state. Sandia National Laboratories may already have a $3 billion budget; Los Alamos National Laboratory is approaching this.

There are increasingly tight linkages between all plutonium issues, and between plutonium issues and nuclear weapons issues in general. Looking for narrow victories may lead to damaging horse-trading and triangulation.

We want to leverage our collective social and political connections to win on these issues, not just hold signs at various protests, offer comments, etc. That is what we will discuss Thursday. (Feel free to start thinking and exploring ideas on your own or with friends and family in the meantime!)

Please bring your notebook (we can also provide paper if needed).

Part of what we want to discuss are talking points and themes concerning the above issues, as fodder for letters to editors (LTEs) and for your own outreach to other people and organizations. We'll provide background information on these issues -- especially, at this meeting, the consolidated "interim" storage of spent nuclear fuel -- but it would be better to use our precious meeting time to discuss actions than to go over too many factual details.

We don't want to approach nuclear issues in isolation from other aspects of our converging crises. We could win narrowly while losing broadly.

We are very concerned that "progressives" in New Mexico are completely "missing the boat" as to the nature and gravity of the crises we face -- what is "coming down the pike." We see enormous complacency in our communities. What do you think we should do about that?

We'd like to discuss social networks with you, how to activate people, and how to deepen our personal and political approaches, to this absolutely unique moment in human history.

While it is an election year, obviously elections are far from enough; overestimating what elections (and political parties) can do is common in many circles. While the candidates certainly differ, none offer anything approaching an adequate response to the overall suite of crises we face. No matter who is elected to the governor's office, for example, it will be very difficult to turn the state around without more radical political change than any of the candidates can openly talk about if they expect to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters and win the election.

So office-holders will arrive in their respective offices with no mandates for the actions needed, even if they do have an inkling of what some of those actions might be, which is probably not the case for any of them. The very nature of political "success," and "progress," have changed beneath our feet. With real (inflation-corrected, non-debt) overall economic growth neither possible (we haven't had it in a long while) nor desirable (climate protection requires simplification and conservation, not just changing technology and efficiency), there will be no rising tide to lift all boats. Standard prescriptions no longer apply.

In fact, our societal "boats" are taking on more and more water (debt, climate change, resource and habitat depletion, pollution in various forms, human trauma) all the time. Protection of the vulnerable -- in society, in habitats and species -- is now paramount. Priorities must be chosen, and some of today's unhealthy attachments must wither before they kill us -- such as our vast military apparatus.

It is an emergency, despite the soothing repetition of the election spectacle.

Best wishes to all,

Greg Mello