Letters to the editor

Editor:

Residents of Socorro have unwittingly served as sacrificial lambs for far too long, and are still paying the price—as are New Mexico taxpayers! Back in 1972, unbeknownst to its residents, the town became the site for testing deceptively named depleted uranium (DU)—which in fact is not depleted, merely slightly less radioactive than non-“depleted” uranium—at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. In 1998, award-winning investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill traveled to Iraq, where he learned from doctors about a dramatic rise in cancer, birth defects, and other illnesses, attributed to the US military’s use of DU during the Persian Gulf War. Similar health problems appeared in Socorro, leading at least one local person to discover in 1986 that DU testing was taking place on the Socorro Mountain just two miles from his family home. His father, who had spent hours in his garden while black clouds moved overhead from the DU test site, eventually died of cancer.

Currently, the town of Socorro, where DU weapons were tested for decades, is slated for expansion into a major military weapons testing and development site. This vastly broadened experimentation will again take place at New Mexico Tech, an institution funded by our tax dollars, through its Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC: www.emrtc.nmt.edu). Let’s not pick up the tab for the contamination of Socorro residents! Land of Enchantment, not Sacrificial Populace! Let’s make sure the people in Socorro are not subjected to toxic weapons testing into the future.

Arla S. Ertz

Winston

Editor:

I’d first like to acknowledge the Chieftain’s reporting on important Socorro City and County issues like emergency services, the city’s banking status, SCOPE, MRGCD’s irrigation season and the new facility for the Friends of the Socorro Public Library which included yet another RISE crew contribution to our community; all issues of importance to your readers. Thank you!

Next I want to encourage your reporting on additional issues that impact our community. For instance: How have cuts to federal programs and employees impacted us locally? (e.g. I am aware of two positions terminated at Bosque del Apache NWR which may impact the Refuge’s participation in Festival of the Cranes, an important event for Socorro’s tourism and economy.) How will potential Medicaid cuts impact individuals, health care facilities, etc? Exploring this issue before the congressional budget vote would empower local citizens to be proactive in communicating with our Senators and Representatives. How are NMT monies currently invested and what is the status of the whistleblower suit? NM Tech is an integral part of our community.

The press is more important than ever and coverage of “hard news” provides an important service to your readers and this community.

Sandra Noll

Socorro