strong no to anti-science Nickole A. Garcia

[Kirsten Stromberg]

To the school board;

I am writing from the Barranca district. I own a home here.

We must remain a town that stays at the forefront of scientific and medical research.  Good health measures support the development of our children. Our children benefited from strict protocols, and did not suffer due to masks.  Their lives were saved by good governance.

Nickole Garcia is dogmatic, is anti-science, and is swayed by conspiracy theories.  Anyone who votes her in will never get my family’s vote again.  Not mine; not my brother’s (he is a home owner here also; is working at the Lab;) not my elderly parents, who still care about education.

I am also writing on behalf of my father, former Nuclear Medical Advisor to NATO, who owns a home here and is still living at 91. He has an M.D., and multiple PHD’s in nuclear medicine and physics.  My mother, who has taught kindergarten as well as high school on military posts worldwide, has a Master’s Degree in education.

My father, Col. L. R. Stromberg, was an Army surgeon who saved men’s lives in battle; commanded MASH units during the volatile time after the Korean War when hostilities were still occurring daily; commanded research that involved all three Armed Forces branches.  After the military, my father was director of infectious disease research for both Baxter and Abbott, and stayed on top of current matters.

He is in full possession of his faculties, but has trouble writing and typing currently. He supports wearing masks, social distancing, and even staying home if necessary again.

By contrast,  Nickole Garcia  turns a blind eye to genuine research, and instead listens to talk-show-level falsehoods.  Do not put our children at risk.  She is supported by people who on social media have, here in Los Alamos, who use the phrase and quote her using it also (I hesitate to type this: “Panic Porn.”)  That is what she calls intelligent discussion of science.

It is unconscionable. Her impact upon our children would be tangibly negative, and her appointment would be unacceptable to anyone of reason.

Do not elect her to the most important position: that of being on a board which determines the future of our most valuable resource, our children and their lives.

With determination, and with no confusion on the matter,

Kirsten P. Stromberg