Whereas, I don’t agree with this form of protest (self-sacrifice), I honor the spirit in which it is being done. Certainly, it is one way to raise awareness.
This is an important statement about Los Alamos and nuclear weapons.
To elaborate and explain my point of view I sent Alaric the following message:
I posted your ‘demands’. What I suggest is that self-sacrifice for creating good in the world is counter productive ultimately. It is like allowing oneself to be shot rather than running and taking cover to live to fight another day.
What I suggest you do that would be more in keeping with your high state of mind and heart is to meditate at the site (or nearby where you won’t be arrested) and do that every day… meditating on clearing the site and correcting the misunderstandings embedded by now in the land, earth and trees etc. And joining with the rest of your group to constructively decommission with your minds the negative creations.
Be careful that you don’t in the process get recruited by the dark energies that will make every effort to suck the energy in their direction. And don’t send them energy in the form of love either simply love them in essence but protect yourselves.
Lastly, be aware that sacrificing your life is what the dark side has been forcing the good people over the years to do… they survive by draining your life force.
By going on a hunger strike you are simply giving them what they want. More life force to drain.
In peace,
Kerry
Here are their demands:
1) We call for a meeting with our Congressional representatives to share our concerns and our commitment to progressively transform all nuclear weapons work at LANL into clean-up, remediation, and other life-affirming sciences.
2) Due to non-compliance of Executive Order 12699 (violations of seismic safety at LANL), continual and ongoing threat of large-scale tragedy, and the presence of contamination in our drinking water, we call for a moratorium on all work that employs Special Nuclear Materials.
3) We demand LANL’s compliance with the New Mexico Environmental Department’s Consent Order of 2005 that requires the closure of Tech Area G, which is located within half a mile of the town of White Rock and is continually threatened by engulfment in fire (the Cerro Grande fire of 2001 came within 1000 meters). In this area 42,000 barrels of radioactive waste are protected by tents.
4) We call for the creation of thousands of jobs in New Mexico to decontaminate our water and our land, which will provide steady work to hundreds of people for decades to come.
5) New Mexico residents who have suffered illness and loss of loved ones as a result of our state’s nuclear weapons activities must be recognized and compensated; therefore we call for a hearing on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) SB 291, (HT 1490), introduced by Senators Udall and Bingaman, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, to move this legislation forward.
6) We call for funding for comprehensive, community-based health studies to document health impacts on residents living in the immediate vicinity of LANL, especially indigenous communities.
7) Finally we call for A Change of Heart. We know that a world of peace and beauty is possible. We call on our scientists to use their brilliance to create this world. Emerging sciences make the previously impossible possible: clean energy, health and security for all, freedom from want, etc. Quantum physics reveals that the universe is a dynamic web of inseparable energies. Humanity is a part of that inseparable web, hence we are all interconnected. In recognition of these scientific revelations we call on LANL director Charles McMillan to draft with us a Statement of Possibilities for the future of science in Los Alamos, specifying how LANL can progressively transform all its life-threatening programs to life-sustaining programs.