Vieques is a beautiful, 21x5 mile island just east of Puerto Rico. Vieques has a long history of oppression and exploitation, of which the U.S. Navy is the most recent offender. On our visit there last week, we went to an event billed as a "Photo Exhibit" of the clean up of the toxic, Superfund mess the Navy left behind. We arrived at the multi-use building in Isabel II to see the exhibit at about 6:30 PM, just before they closed up for the day. It turned out to be a lot of NAVFAC (Naval Facilities Engineering Command) propagandizing. A pleasant, older man, walked us through much of the exhibit, telling us all about the clean up process, the high wages NAVFAC is paying locals to find and destroy UXOs and warning us not to touch anything we might find on the beach that could explode and kill us. The Navy left in 2003 and NAVFAC hopes that they will be "done" with the clean up by 2021.
A week later, my head still spins with one big question: What the f*** was up with the clowns? Why were the clowns there and why were the clowns still there as the rest of the crew packed up their display boards and briefcases at the end of the day? Are the clowns supposed to make me feel better about the mess my military has made of this amazing and complicated place? You're talking about how to clean up a land you've unethically appropriated, a place where people have been wrongfully displaced and made terminally ill from depleted uranium. Is this really a place for clowns? For free Cheetos and tightly wrapped packs of cream-filled cookies? And when the NAVFAC folks are clearing out of the gym, when the Navy has, at long, painful last, finally cleared out, why are those tired clowns still sitting on a bench, just outside the multi-use building? Why haven't they at least taken off their wigs?
