On the recordDecember 12, 2023
I rise in support of Senator Hawley's motion to table. And I speak today on behalf of: Annie, Henry, Cipriano, Rosemary, Tina, Louisa, Francisco, Laura, Wilbert, Charles, and the thousands upon thousands of people who have endured the agony and suffering brought on by our nuclear weapons testing in New Mexico and across the country. In July of 1945, Annie was in her kitchen with her family when, all of a sudden, they heard a boom. The next second, they were on the floor holding onto one another, trying to comfort each other, because around them windows were shattering and walls were crumbling. When they went outside, they thought that it started to snow, but it was ash falling from the sky. Some families, who were away from the community, later that night returned, only to find clothing that they were hanging on a drying line full of this ash that they didn't know where it was coming from. Both Annie and her youngest sister Marcie were the only two children living in their little home--their casita--in Capitan, NM. Both have died from cancer. Henry was just 11 years old when the bomb went off. He recalls thinking the world was ending. Henry watched as his brother, his nephew, and niece all died of cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 63. I am sorry to say that we lost him in 2022. And it is not just the downwinders who were impacted. Cipriano worked in the uranium mines for 8 years.…
