On the recordJanuary 30, 2024
Last Saturday marked the National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders. The movie ``Oppenheimer'' reminded the Nation that New Mexico is where the government first detonated an atomic bomb. The story that remains untold and the justice that remains unsolved is the explosion's impact on nearby communities. That bomb's radioactive ash showered nearby communities, communities who the government failed to warn or evacuate before the Trinity test. Little girls danced around catching the ash on their tongues, thinking it was summer snow. Those little girls, like thousands of New Mexicans, developed cancer and deadly diseases because of the Trinity test. Outrageously, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act compensated others but not New Mexican downwinders. All downwinders deserve justice. As we remember the downwinders and miners who have already passed and those who still suffer, we must pass the RECA Amendments Act to include them, too. ____________________
