Albuquerque Journal - Sometimes it takes intensive, focused, grass-roots action to make something happen in Washington, where big-money special interests dominate the agenda and the legislative pace is glacial.
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| Los Alamos National Labs |
That’s why a coalition of business and civic leaders from northern New Mexico, hoping to stave off budget cuts at Los Alamos National Laboratory, traveled to the nation’s capital last week. The group of nine – including representatives of the Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Albuquerque Chambers of Commerce, Gov. Susana Martinez’s chief of staff and others – met with all five members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, as well as top officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Their message? Please don’t let LANL wither on the vine. The nation’s national security – and northern New Mexico’s shaky economy – depend on it.
The coalition, operating without a formal name, is an outgrowth of a similar trip that the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (comprised mostly of city and county officials) made to Washington in April to lobby for nuclear cleanup money at Los Alamos. Last week’s trip took a more business-centric approach. Read full story here: (subscription required)
News New Mexico
Large NM Group Visits Congressional Delegation in Washington D.C. on LANL
Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - In the Albuquerque KOB-TV newsroom where I worked years ago was a sign, “Another Day, Same News, Different People.” Every day there were stories of auto accidents, shootings and investigations. They just happened to different people. Last Friday there was another massacre. The details do not matter. The reason for this latest murderer killing a bunch of innocents does not matter. The only thing that matters is the ease by which this was done. It was the latest of many “fish-in-a-barrel” shootings where victims have no way to fight back. The perpetrator started shooting knowing he was the only person armed because he was in a gun-free zone. The attraction for the shooter was that these victims were defenseless. The predictable political response after each of these “fish-in-the-barrel” massacres is that guns should be outlawed. Calls to disarm our population ignore that in Mexico guns have been outlawed yet Mexico is overrun with gun violence. Like our massacres, the citizens of Mexico are exterminated without recourse by criminals who smuggle in drugs and guns from all over the world. The Mexican government cannot stop them. Picture this: in the Old West a group of citizens are in a theatre when a gunman bursts in and starts shooting. What happens? The perpetrator is turned into a human sieve by the return fire from the audience. People in the Old West were armed. Do we have any Old West examples of someone attacking a group of people similar to our current massacres? We do not. Read column
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