Editor,
UNM squashed free speech on Friday by silencing dissenters on nuclear weapons production in New Mexico. Maybe University police were following the orders of Sandia National Laboratories officials present at the symposium when they arrested CNM professor and activist Robert Anderson. University police brought down Anderson by force, violently suppressing a person who peacefully requested clarity and a contrasting viewpoint. Other people were escorted out of the building when they raised cloth banners and asked to have a balanced debate on the issues presented on nuclear-weapons manufacturing in New Mexico.
The police actions showed suppression of free speech, making Anderson an example that is intended to have a chilling effect on further dissent.
It appears UNM promoted a propaganda event intended to sell to the public the idea of a new
generation of nuclear weapons, as if this is what our country is demanding. Is UNM working with the labs and the Department of Defense to certify and justify new megabombs to the students of UNM and to citizens in New Mexico? Are they helping recruit students?
The symposium staged for the students and public on Friday promoted compliance on the part of the administration, students, faculty and the citizens of New Mexico in further violating of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by agreeing or acquiescing to opening up a new arms race. What was UNM's intention to allow this event without a balanced, opposing viewpoint? It shows poor judgment and disregard for the public sentiment and the taxpayers that support the institution.
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It appears that UNM, along with the labs, is supporting either the apocalypse or global domination by the United States. Meanwhile, our global atmosphere is becoming a gas oven.
Elaine Cimino,
Director of Citizens for
Environmental Safeguards
