nuclear-news

Questioning the nuclear weapons centre’s sponsorship of Northern New Mexico College

Northern New Mexico College: A Relationship with LANL at What Cost? BY LAJICARITA ⋅ SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 Last week (September 10) La Jicarita ran an article about the controversy at Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) in Española over the direction in which the college is headed, moving from a “career tech” curriculum that serves the local community to an “academic” one that serves a more regional base. Many of the faculty have voted no confidence in the administration, headed by Nancy “Rusty” Barceló, that is spearheading this transition they believe is more beholden to corporate interests than community ones. Twenty-five percent of the full-time faculty has been fired or has resigned.

In that article we also ran an open letter from Dr. Patricia Perea, one of the fired faculty, which laid out her concerns about these changes at NNMC and also about the college’s connections with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Perea also raised this issue in relationship to the MALCS 2014 Summer Institute at Northern New Mexico College. MALCS is the acronym for Mujeras Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, a Chicana/Native feminist organization that works for social and environmental justice. In another open letter to the community Perea talks about how she was removed from the MALCS site committee because of her questioning of the sponsorship of the MALCS Summer Institute by corporations connected to LANL and the nuclear industrial complex. While the MALCS Summer Institute has come and gone for 2014, it’s not too late to “pay attention” to the the vast network of military and nuclear relationships of LANL contractor and MALCS sponsor Day and Zimmermann, and its relationship to NNMC.

This is her letter:

17 July 2014

Dear Colleagues, Community Members, Family and Friends:

Once again, I write this letter with care, love, respect, and not a little fear. Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) is an organization I hold very close to my heart. ……. I find it imperative that I let our diverse communities know one thing. I have expressed the following concern in both public and private communication via email, conversation, written correspondence. Please take a moment to allow me to address it here.

Sponsorship for the MALCS 2014 Institute.

There are numerous in-kind contributors to the MALCS 2014 Summer Institute at Northern New Mexico College. All of these are local and that is wonderful. However, I ask you to pay attention to one of the major “2014 MALCS Summer Institute Sponsors:” Day and Zimmermann S.O.C. Los Alamos. I have stated before that I voiced concerns regarding sponsorship from Los Alamos National Labs. I have also stated that I was reprimanded by Dr. Barceló for voicing these concerns. President Barceló’s blind spot has now become the MALCS Executive Committee’s informed decision to endorse taking sponsorship, funding and association from Day and Zimmerman S.O.C. Los Alamos.

I did not grow up in northern New Mexico. I did; however, grow up in Canyon, Texas. Therefore, I know I have the experience to speak to a large part of the Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) issue. For over thirty years, my mother worked at Pantex (a nuclear weapons facility). We had great benefits, job security, excellent union representation. Pantex has been a significant employer for much of the populations of color in the Texas Panhandle. It does come at great cost. There are widespread health issues – thyroid cancers, thyroid imbalances, lymphoma, blood cancers, various tumors, etc. When I taught at Brown University, we discussed national areas of sacrifice. Many students were not familiar with this term. I named the effects of living in these areas. To emphasize these effects, I listed every member of my family who has been diagnosed with cancer. To me, this was significant, but nor particularly exceptional (at least not exceptional in the Panhandle). The students were stunned. How could that much cancer happen to one family across generations?

There is no small amount of evidence that links cancer to the radiation produced by nuclear energy and its accouterments. We all know the cancer rates around the Trinity Site in Alamogordo, New Mexico are astounding. We know the effects of the major crises like Chernobyl or Fukushima. Organizations such as Honor Our Pueblo Existence (H.O.P.E.) led by Santa Clara Pueblo elder Marian Naranjo address these issues and struggle to make LANL accountable on a daily basis. I voice concern over the sponsorship of the MALCS 2014 Institute by Day and Zimmerman S.O.C. Los Alamos knowing that it is a double-edged sword. Los Alamos National Labs supports both the community and NNMC in innumerable ways. In just as many ways, it harms.

This we know. But I ask you to consider thinking about Day and Zimmermann, the corporation that provides Los Alamos National Labs with both management and security services. For over 100 years, this corporation (based out of Pennsylvania) has worked in the fields of energy production (oil, nuclear), weapons production, weapons disposal and security management.

They have established, acquired or contracted with the following military suppliers and  partners during the past 70 years: ……….

For me and for the members of our communities who live in national areas of sacrifice; live near or cross the U.S.-México border, serve in the military, it is imperative we inform ourselves of MALCS’ sponsors. It is imperative we know this. As working class women, many of us have family who served in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of us suffer the health consequence of exposure to herbicides and radiation. I mentioned cancer above, but there are incredibly high amounts of immunodeficiency diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in our communities of color, particularly among women………

 I encourage the audience of this letter to demand that a conversation be held at the 2014 Institute regarding the politics of this major sponsorship………..As the MALCS Site Committee, we chose to embracethe connection between our bodies and our environment. We chose to embrace environmental science and environmental justice. How can we, in good conscience, have this conversation when we do not hold ourselves or the partnerships we cultivate accountable? We have worked so hard to form a model of women of color feminism and social change in MALCS, how can we let this go unaddressed? How do we call for a more just world, how do we honor our antepasados, our elders, the seven generations to come when we eat from the poisoned table of Day and Zimmerman?………

In the spirit of the women of color feminists/activists who have come before me, I ask that a discussion of all of the issues raised in this letter be held widely across diverse groups and forums as it concerns all of us. And I ask in particular that a discussion regarding these issues be held at the 2014 MALCS Institute at Northern New Mexico College.

Sincerely, Dr. Patricia Marie Perea

RELEVANT LINKS:…….http://lajicarita.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/northern-new-mexico-college-a-relationship-with-lanl-at-what-cost/

September 18, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster, USA