[FRIAM] Fwd: NO LANL IN SANTA FE! Wednesday, 12; 00 outside SF City Hall; bring friends
thompnickson2 at gmail.com
thompnickson2 at gmail.com
Tue Jan 14 14:30:12 EST 2020
Ach!
I glad we are talking about this. It is the kind of issue that we, in particular, ought to think up and speak out about. My own impulse would be to entertain the possibility of a LANL-SF, but negotiate some sort of arrangement, say, perhaps, that no classified work could be done in here.
But now I have heard from several voices that I respect deeply, each speaking from very different kinds of experience, and all appearing to agree that even in the absence of War Heads, hosting a national laboratory would not benefit Santa Fe. But what are the alternatives? In other words, are the ills you identify inherent to all human institutions, or really only inherent to government ones. Would it be better if CMU put a campus here? I have heard many of you express the same doubts about universities. Would it be better if Google or Amazon put a campus here? Why? Why are large for-profit institutions more to be trusted than government and academic ones? At least with government institutions there is the possibility of regulating them by popular will. Amazon, not so much. Is your position that EVERY institution should be so small we can drown it in a bathtub? So, set the threshold for anti trust action VERY low. How bout this: every corporation with more than a billion dollars in assets must place 5 percent of its annual income in a trust fund to encourage competing start ups. Well, OK, split the College of Santa Fe campus up. Give it to ten different real estate firms with instructions that they must work independently. Treat it as a hazard, rather than an opportunity.
I heard a similar proposal for a solution to the truth problem on the internet. Every retweet over ten-thousand contributes funds a conterarian tweet on the same stream. In fact, how about a retweet limit on all messages. No message can be retweeted more than ten-thousand times.
Nick
Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
<mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
<https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Steven A Smith
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2020 11:48 AM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: NO LANL IN SANTA FE! Wednesday, 12; 00 outside SF City Hall; bring friends
Merle, et al -
Though I reject most of the extreme arguments I hear on both sides of this issue, my instinct is that it would be better if Santa Fe did NOT invite LANL/NNSA into the development of this critical/central/prime location in the heart of *greater* Santa Fe.
I've been living in a variant of this high-dimensional, nonlinear, sometimes subtle and nuanced question all of my (adult) life. I came to LANL at 24 as a technophilic peacenik who believed MAD made sense (1980) and was happy to ensure that WE had the BIG STICK. I raised two children In Los Alamos and finally left in 2008 (27 years later) after Bechtel took over, remaining in the region and in high-tech work. Along the way I was confronted with *many* changes in the international political, cultural and scientific landscape. The end of the Cold War and nuclear testing, a nuclear arms-race between India/Pakistan, two Gulf Wars, a deep and abiding awareness of the reality and threat of Climate Change (and other parallel Endogenous Existential Threats).
I went through a few personal transformations as well, including shepherding my two daughters into maturity along the way. My opinions have become much stronger, broader and more nuanced over the years and I am thankful to have had the perspective offered through the rich gradients formed by our "tri-cultural heritage". LANL is much more/less than a traditional "Anglo" company town and the work that goes on there is much more/less than virtually any other facility. Adding Pu Pit production has expanded that yet more, while the unfathomably deep explorations into what may very well represent an array of other technological *existential threats*. Possibly equally important sociopolitically, is the role of Santa Fe (and San Juan Pueblo before it) as a locus of European Conquest, including the Pueblo Revolt (I can see Black Mesa from my window as I type).
I agree with most of Ed's assertions about the variability of quality of the work at LANL, and certainly question the average "value received" with such outrageous overheads and oft isolated efforts. I also agree with his summary of the net socioeconomic impact on the region/state. While I was (am via legacy savings and local available services) a beneficiary of the very large amount of money pumped into the region, I see the deleterious effects of it.
With my renewed interest and awareness in the "Endogenous Existential Threats" of our time, I am more sensitive to the callousness of many of the people and programs at LANL toward the local and global environment. The bulk of the memoir Frank urged me to write (to save the list from my TMI/TL;DR posts?) would be armatured around this braid of interesting (in every sense of the word) paradoxes and contradictions.
I think New Mexico's legacy around Science and Technology is real and meaningful, but has also been highly distorted by the influence of government (and specifically Defense-related) money.
Carry On,
- Steve
On 1/13/20 2:41 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Leslie Lakind <leftielakind at gmail.com <mailto:leftielakind at gmail.com> >
Date: Mon, Jan 13, 2020 at 2:23 PM
Subject: NO LANL IN SANTA FE! Wednesday, 12;00 outside SF City Hall; bring friends
To:
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Greg Mello <gmello at lasg.org <mailto:gmello at lasg.org> >
Permalink <http://www.lasg.org/letters/2020/nm_12Jan2020.html> for this letter. Please forward! Other Letters <http://www.lasg.org/letters/letters.html>
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This letter: Press conference outside Santa Fe City Hall at noon on Wednesday Jan. 15 (map <https://goo.gl/maps/ycyfawsEqEYzu3wG9> ) -- please come, and please recruit others
Dear New Mexico friends –
As we have explained in previous letters <http://www.lasg.org/letters/letters.html> , Wednesday is the day on which the City will announce the finalists for "Master Developer" of the former College of Santa Fe site (and possibly surrounding properties as well, a 64- to ~100-acre project). The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has applied for this role. NNSA and/or Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are present in some (not all) other proposals, as tenant(s).
The situation is opaque, fluid, and developing. So far, Mayor Webber has disdainfully rebuffed our requests to meet or discuss the momentous social, cultural, and economic development impacts of placing a nuclear weapons campus in Santa Fe. (Don't be deceived -- that is exactly what LANL is and what this would be.)
People power may be the only force stronger than LANL's money and corruption. We really need you to help us expand our numbers.
If you live anywhere nearby please come to this joint press conference, and please ask as many friends to come as possible. Sheer attendance matters. A strong showing Wednesday will save countless hours of work later, and will give wings to efforts to push back on LANL's entirely unjustified expansion. There are many powerful people in Washington who know LANL specializes in taxpayer ripoffs. Some of them need to see some spine from us out here to take to their bosses.
New Mexico is being selected to be a nuclear weapons support and sacrifice area. That now includes the Santa Fe metro area.
We may not know know the outcome of this first Midtown Campus decision by noon Wednesday but regardless of that we must seize the day.
While it seems absurd that NNSA could be a possible "master developer," we can't be sure that Mayor Webber and the people around him wouldn't want that -- or want, say, a training facility for plutonium workers. We just don't know.
This event will also give us a chance for us to network with each other and with representatives of any other groups present, as well as speak to any City officials willing to do so.
Getting people to come on Wednesday is the sole action item we are recommending right now. It is very, very important!
Thank you!
Greg, Trish, Lydia, Ernie, Michelle, and the rest of the Study Group
--
Greg Mello
Los Alamos Study Group <http://www.lasg.org/>
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America is waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that
1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches.
Werner Herzog
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Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
emergentdiplomacy.org <http://emergentdiplomacy.org>
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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