ustxtxb_obs_1995_09_15_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

77.10/74:’ ;42 1417 .rfe ‘ 444 42i 8 qta …m4 ift waR4. qiig s 4;r 1″. h p ,!?: 4,4 INsp , ,d A ‘I , 4 42 \(e , t , tt 61;Et.-0 I, e .ct on the psyche of 1.ide in the knol,v1 as either target num Soviet ITliS tes. We all end times. laced any or was S t kown by , I ut mum ti u. and soil contairdnation. The city is now fighting to bring tritillal processing to Pantex. Amarillo turns a blind eye to any danger posed by Pantex for fear of hurting ‘1.4’.. L ZLIA A i h: 4 VI k:idi man, mifit ,vini* abou , ex big s t is that it’s thrn. ::.Adik ..a.# ,…??..-i , makes it int e i, sting are 1 w ..: ..,. city.” His ultimate goal may be the tied: “Fifty yea, sfrom 1701V, if the aqui: gets contaminated, we can see, how happened.” 4!.. di://il,P0pg i. 4111#\(1.4:11 ,p7/1 4’ihbbiesil of the plant’s supporters insist upon its importance to the local economy, to which the throughgoing partisan Marsh responds bluntly and devastatingly: “I suppose the concentration camp was important to the economy of Dachau, too.” For Marsh and others, like the founders of the Peace Farm outside the plant, the ethical issue becomes whether beneficial effects on a local economy are sufficient reasons to support an employer in spite of larger political or moral considerations. This is an issue that goes beyond Pantex, of course, in the context of military cuts across the nation e.g., the recent announcement of plans to close Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio. Amarillo itself has a central atmospheric role in the film. Most of Ratliff’s subjects are interviewed outdoors, and the swaying trees and grasses in the near-constant High Plains winds give vivid testimony to THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19