Tuesday, 02 May 2000
.....
Sheesh. More temper tantrums in store in Puerto Rico.
Now, the people who want the 60-year-old Navy bombing range on Vieques island permanently closed certainly have a number of points. The bombing and shelling are somewhat dangerous for nearby residents (though certainly less so than, say, San Juan traffic). No doubt the range has caused environmental poisoning, and stymied tourism development on the island.
But the diehard protesters who are going to force federal cops to chase them through the woods on the range are acting as anti-democratic brats. It makes me wonder whether The New Republic may be accurate in calling current leftist activists dumb.
The local government, in response to stray bombs that killed a security guard and led the Navy to close the range, worked out a compromise. The range would reopen for shells and bombs full of sand rather than explosives. And a referendum of the island's population would decide whether the base would be closed permanently.
The referendum is by no means a gimme for the anti-base people, as the Navy is the island's chief employer. The Navy doesn't use Vieques for anything other than target practice, so no range, no base.
But rather than working to win the referendum (I would think calling the Navy economic blackmailers, and promising more tourism might work), the protesters are ignoring the democratic compromise, and occupying the range. We'll be fortunate if promised re-occupation attempts after the expected arrests don't end in some Marine shooting someone (Marines are not cops, and they are excellent perimeter guards if you don't mind your intruders getting killed).
The "oppressors," meanwhile, won't respond to the protesters' ultimatum with one of their own, as I'm sure a lot of talk-radio callers are urging. They won't blast away, protesters be damned, because -- ignoring basic decency for sake of argument -- they actually respond to democratic pressure. Lot of Puerto Rican voters in the New York Senate race, you know.
I am, however, newly grateful for the young folks who stomped around D.C. the other weekend, yelling about the evils of global capitalism. At least they provided proof that this sort of unreasonableness isn't some aspect of Latino culture. What with the Elian Gonzalez hysteria and this mess, I was beginning to worry about the anti-immigration cranks getting fired up again.
This is Here we go again <http://monkeyfist.com/articles/488>