[FRIAM] Fwd: From The Most Reverend John C. Wester / Archbishop of Santa Fe

[Merle Lefkoff]

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From: Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 4:25 PM
Subject: Fwd: From The Most Reverend John C. Wester / Archbishop of Santa Fe
To: John Finger <johnfinger at gmail.com>




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From: Leslie <LeftieLakind at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 2:43 PM
Subject: From The Most Reverend John C. Wester / Archbishop of Santa Fe
To: <merlelefkoff at gmail.com>


Abolish nuclear weapons
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https://www.abqjournal.com/2509231/new-mexico-work-for-peace-and-wellbeing-not-nuclear-weapons.html
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By The Most Reverend John C. Wester / Archbishop of Santa Fe
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Published: Sunday, June 19th, 2022 at 12:02AM
Updated: Sunday, June 19th, 2022 at 12:15AM
Archbishop John C. Wester

I was stunned to read in a recent article Los Alamos National Lab would get
over a $1 billion bump in its proposed budget and the Department of
Energy’s fiscal 2023 spending in the Land of Enchantment will exceed New
Mexico’s entire state budget by nearly a billion dollars – $9.4 billion vs.
$8.5 billion. Out of that, over 70% will be for programs that seek to
indefinitely preserve existing nuclear weapons and build new plutonium
“pit” bomb cores for new-design nuclear weapons. Further, much of the
remaining money supports those nuclear weapons programs, such as $450
million for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the dump for future
radioactive wastes from expanded pit production.

My Archdiocese is named Santa Fe for the “Holy Faith” of St. Francis,
patron saint of the environment and tireless promoter of peace. Pope
Francis took his papal name from that revered saint and has explicitly
called for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Yet ironically, two of the
nation’s three nuclear weapons labs – Los Alamos and Sandia – are located
within the Archdiocese. That is why 40% of the DOE’s national nuclear
weapons budget of $16.5 billion will be spent in New Mexico alone, double
that of any other state. In addition, New Mexico has the largest repository
of nuclear warheads in the United States, with up to 2,500 warheads held in
reserve at the Kirtland AFB just south of the Albuquerque Sunport.

The New Mexico congressional delegation has always historically supported
the nuclear weapons industry in the name of jobs, jobs, jobs. This needs to
be critically examined and questioned, both morally and practically. Why is
it that New Mexico consistently ranks near the bottom of all 50 states in
key socio-economic indicators? Does the nuclear weapons industry really
benefit New Mexicans as a whole? The facts indicate no.

For example, during the nearly 80 years the nuclear weapons industry has
been in the Land of Enchantment, Census Bureau data show that New Mexico
slipped in per capita income from 37th in 1959 to 49th in 2019. Last year
U.S. News and World Report gave New Mexico a best-state-to-live-in ranking
of third from the bottom and dead last in education. According to the N.M.
Human Services Department, we have the highest percentage of seniors living
in poverty and the second-highest rate of overall poverty, suicide and food
insecurity among children. The Land of Enchantment was recently ranked 49th
among all states in overall child well-being. Not coincidentally, New
Mexico’s population is 63% people of color who disproportionately bear the
negative impacts of poverty.

Let’s try to imagine what $9.4 billion could do for New Mexicans in one
year: Hire hundreds of new teachers, help protect us against increasing
wildfire threats, secure precious water resources, provide medical care for
the poor and clean up contamination from past nuclear weapons production.
Instead, it is going to nuclear weapons forever, even as the chances of
potential nuclear war are increasing and we already have global overkill
many times over.

The Vatican itself has evolved from conditionally accepting nuclear weapons
as necessary for “deterrence” to now declaring even their possession as
immoral. This is because nuclear weapons indiscriminately kill everybody,
and the nuclear powers have made zero progress toward the disarmament they
promised to pursue in the 1970 NonProliferation Treaty. In fact, they are
going backward with Russia’s current nuclear saber-rattling and the U.S.’
$1.7 trillion nuclear weapons “modernization” program. But in truth,
neither country ever had just “deterrence.” Instead, they spent enormous
sums on nuclear warfighting capabilities, which is why we have thousands of
nuclear weapons instead of just the few hundred needed for only deterrence.

Given today’s increased dangers, I quote President Reagan, “A nuclear war
cannot be won and must never be fought. The only value in our two nations
possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure they will never be used. But
then, would it not be better to do away with them entirely?” Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara said of the Cuban Missile Crisis, “Rationality
will not save us. … It was luck that prevented nuclear war.”

Let’s not count on our luck holding out – let’s abolish nuclear weapons as
both President Reagan and Pope Francis have directed us toward. In turn,
New Mexicans should direct their congressional representatives to lead us
toward that promised land while encouraging life-affirming jobs instead.



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-- 
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
Center for Emergent Diplomacy
emergentdiplomacy.org
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

mobile:  (303) 859-5609



-- 
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
Center for Emergent Diplomacy
emergentdiplomacy.org
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

mobile:  (303) 859-5609
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