by Christopher Sanchez
Daily Lobo
About 50 students and community members attended a statewide strategy summit on militarization at UNM over the weekend.
Maria Santelli, an organizer of the event, said the summit was in connection with Stop the War Machine, the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, and Students Organizing Action for Peace. The summit was organized to bring the groups together to discuss military issues relevant on the state, national and global levels, she said.
Santelli said the event went well because the groups formed an alliance, which is now known as the New Mexico Peace Alliance.
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"We realized that some of the important things among the peace and justice community are a network community to give support and education on each of our issues," Santelli said. "We're stronger if we're unified."
She hopes to have more summits throughout the year, she said, with the possibility of the next summit being hosted in Las Vegas, N.M.
"This is just the beginning," Santelli said. "We hope to rotate these gatherings and pull in other communities."
There were five workshops throughout the weekend. The workshop topics included military recruitment in public schools, strategic overview of nuclear weapons issues, New Mexico's role in the militarization of space and a political reform discussion.
UNM student Bryan Evans said he came to the workshop because he is interested in becoming more active in countering military recruitment in high schools.
"This is certainly something they need volunteers for," Evans said. "Even doing some of the work in the high schools, so going in and doing some presentations and providing literature and information for our kids that are being recruited."
He was only able to attend the morning lectures, he said.
"The military has spent $4 billion a year in getting high school students in the military, and I think there needs to be some effort put forth to counter that," Evans said.
Santelli said she hoped people came to the event to meet other activists in the state.
"The opportunity to come together in New Mexico is neat," she said.
Greg Mello, of the Los Alamos Study Group, was the lecturer in the strategic overview of nuclear weapons. He said most Americans are against nuclear weapons.
"The American public consistently hates nuclear weapons," Mello said. "Despite all the propaganda. Despite everything, the poll numbers are high. People want complete nuclear disarmament in this country."
He said America's nuclear security is not as secure as people think.
"We hear a lot about loose nukes in Russia. Security at our weapons sites is inadequate," Mello said. "There are natural hazards like seismic hazards."
He said Las Alamos sits on an active fault.
"It's active, It moves," Mello said. "There have been two earthquakes since 1992. They were little earthquakes, but microseismicity like that is an indicator of activity."
New Mexico will be hosting a world peace conference in 2006. New Mexico is unique because of the international border and the testing of the atomic bomb, Santelli said.
"Our economy has depended on the war industry for six decades, yet we're at the bottom of the list in poverty, education and personal violence," she said.
