What could possibly be wrong with that?

We here at Socorro News hate to be party poopers and naysayers. But sometimes it's necessary to "dig a little deeper" and ask some tough questions. This is an opinion piece, so forgive us while we climb up on our soap box for a few minutes. The little tidbit we didn't mention was that this 6 part TV series will be created in consultation with our friends at EMRTC, the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, at New Mexico Tech. Well, you might ask: what's wrong with that?

Slippery slope?

This may not be a popular thing to say, but our concern here is that this might be a slippery slope towards indoctrinating our young people into a culture of militarism. When your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail, as they say; while when your only tool is bomb making, well, everything starts to look like an easy target. This mentality, sadly, is partly to blame for the invasion of Iraq and the ballooning federal deficit under the current administration due to the (3 trillion dollar plus) war costs. In this instance, we have a cartoon-themed show geared towards kids (and, sure, kids at heart) with a military angle to it; a subtle way of marketing militarism and the military industrial complex to kids? EMRTC and bomb testing is grown up stuff - and it's even debatable whether grown ups should be doing it. Marketing this stuff to kids is dubious in our view.

Aren't you making a mountain out of a molehill?

Think we're blowing things out of proportion? Think it's all in our heads? Well, we would also point you to the EMRTC summer camp for high school kids. No, we're not making that up. While EMRTC promises that their bomb training for area high school students will focus on non-military uses, we're not so sure. Once trained in making bombs, and more importantly in the mindset of bomb-making, it's not that difficult to make the transition to using bombs in other contexts. We believe there are so many constructive technologies that we can teach our kids that spending time teaching them destructive technologies is not productive. We fully support New Mexico Tech's summer science program for high school students, for example. This program focuses on math, science, and the application of these tools in astronomy and physics. Programs like that make us proud to live in a town with a world-class university like New Mexico Tech!

Agree? Disagree? Tell us what you think.

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