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Environmental justice delegation of solidarity to Vieques Memphis, Tenn.-In August I was part of a delegation organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation that went to Puerto Rico. There were about 14 of us from Hawaii, California, Texas, Georgia, and Memphis, Tenn. Many were environmental justice activists. The Vieques activists wanted our views about how military cleanups were going in the U.S. They wanted to know if they were getting fair treatment on the cleanup in Vieques after the U.S. bombing. Their sampling of vegetation had found heavy metals and other chemicals. The most beautiful thing to me about Vieques is that everyone is involved-all the way up to the governor-in asking the U.S. to stop the bombing, stop killing the islanders, poisoning the people. As I was boarding the ferry I wanted to make sure we were going to the right place so I said, "Vieques si?" The guard answered me back in Spanish, "Navy out!" It's no different from what the U.S. government has done at the Defense Depot in Memphis, Tenn. When the government gets into a place, they do exactly what they want to do. In Puerto Rico they have destroyed two-thirds of one of the most beautiful islands I ever saw. We looked down into the valley where the bombing takes place and the lagoons were brown. Everything else was a piercing blue except where they were doing the bombing. When people got tired of the Navy bombing, Roberto Rubin of Vieques purchased a lot across the street from the Navy. They set up a peace and justice camp so they could still do their rallies and civil disobedience and were a thorn in the U.S.'s side. They took control of the gate and wouldn't let any of the Navy people in. The Navy tried to make another entrance and 2,000 people flocked down to the fence and blocked them. The activists hold a vigil every night at the federal penitentiary because so many of them are in jail. The Puerto Rican activists got the idea of civil disobedience from the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. They keep going to jail and the government keeps giving them more time to serve. I feel that the U.S. is not hearing anyone of color regardless of where they are. The worst thing is that they have killed leaders there for speaking out against the bombing in Vieques. The health effects of the bombing are just like here: reproductive illness, all types of cancer, including rare forms of cancer-identical kinds of cancers that we have here around the Defense Depot and at Kelly Air Force Base. All of us have the same type of problems-same chemicals. Vieques' groundwater is contaminated-all of it. They can't use it. Once land has been contaminated by any military facility, it's over with. They were using depleted uranium (DU) tipped tank piercing bullets. But they said they weren't using DU. The Military Toxics Project found out they were. The people want their land back but they want it back pristine and clean like it was when the U.S. got it. -Doris Bradshaw |
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