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LP journal
One man’s gun is another man’s scrap metal.
Big guns for Bennett Secretary of State Ken Bennett isn’t just about foreign policy. He’s also committed to rescuing old gun barrels from the scrap heap. In August, Bennett launched Salute the Fallen, a privately funded program whose single mission is to save the colossal metal guns salvaged long ago from the military ships USS Arizona and USS Missouri, now rusting in a heap on the East Coast, from being melted down. Bennett proposes that Arizona residents chip in, purchase the gun barrels (which are little more than metal tubes), and donate them to the state. The gun barrels could, Bennett posits, become part of a monument to our namesake battleship alongside the USS Arizona’s anchor at the Capitol. But first we’ll need to scrape together the half-million dollars it would take to buy them and have them professionally cleaned and shipped here 12
Latino Perspectives Magazine
¡ October 2011!
by December 7, the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In a press release, Bennett pleads for the wellbeing of the guns from the USS Arizona, whose demise began America’s involvement in World War II, and the USS Missouri, where Japan’s surrender ended it. The 14-inch USS Arizona gun barrel weighs 70 tons; the 16-inch USS Missouri gun barrel weighs twice as much. Both pieces of history are languishing at U.S. Navy storage facilities in Virginia and Maryland. “Veterans have a direct and emotional connection to [the gun barrels], having served,” says Bennett, who’s trying to raise the $500,000 through sponsorships and donations at the website gunstosalutethefallen.com in order to mitigate the taxpayer burden. “It seems to be something we should have in Arizona.” Others think the guns should be sold for scrap. “It would serve our state a lot www.latinopm.com
better to sell these guns and use the money to pay for education funding,” says Tom Sarda, who’s been prowling local political websites and posting warnings about Bennett’s plan. A veteran himself, Sarda is planning to launch a website opposing the purchase of the guns. “These guns represent a very bad memory that doesn’t have much to do with our
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez
state,” he says. “The bombing of Pearl Harbor is the story of a sitting duck called the S.S. Arizona. Let’s don’t waste money on a ship that’s already been memorialized in Hawaii.”
Not with mi abuelo, you don’t Fans of immigration reform and anyone who isn’t crazy about New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez have been celebrating