Just Do It

By Clint Sloan

We stood there in the middle of a large crowd, accompanied by the sounds of crying children and the presence of signs warning about the Swine Flu. We stayed stationary for about thirty minutes, and then started to move slowly toward the large boat. It was time to go to the island – the beautiful island of Vieques.

Vieques would be a place of beauty and amazement. The Puerto Rico tourism industry bragged about Vieques’ beautiful white beaches and snorkeling opportunities. The island was also home to one of a handful of bioluminescent bays in the world, a bay that glows when the water is disturbed. Even though the tourism industry would brag about these attributes of the island, they would attempt to hide the island’s dark history.

The day after we got settled in our hotel, I picked up a map of Vieques. I noticed that the eastern and western parts of island stated “restricted area.” The island’s middle section was the only region containing residents of the island. These facts struck my interest, and the next day I would find out exactly what happened on this island so many years ago.

During the Korean Conflict, the U.S. Navy used Vieques for training exercises. They required all residents to move from the eastern and western parts of the island to the middle. According to Roberto Rabin, a member of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, “the fifty years that the Navy has been operating in Vieques can be classified as a half century of environmental disaster.” The bombing has contaminated the soil and the air. This contamination has caused the people to be more susceptible to diseases; the morality rate for cancer in Vieques is 34 percent higher than in Puerto Rico. Also, 45 percent of Viequenses have toxic levels of mercury. This left the people of Vieques in an unprecedented position; they are now isolated residents fighting the world’s superpower.

The people of Vieques took the streets in protest of the U.S. Navy’s continued bombings of the island. Even though they were protesting, it looked like a fiesta filled with food and dancing. They continued protesting for many years, and it all seemed hopeless.

But a man was killed because of one of the U.S. Navy’s training exercises, and the people became even more furious. Finally in 2003, the U.S. Navy decided to halt all military exercises on the island and have been trying to improve conditions on the island ever since.

This trip has helped me realize that life is truly a precious gift. A lot of Puerto Ricans continue to live in poverty. But despite this, they seem to be full of life. We have everything we could ever want in Oklahoma, but most people seem to be unhappy or not content with what they have. The people of Vieques know how precious life is. Even though they did not have much, they stood up to the world’s largest superpower. If you want to do something, just do it. Remember, everyone dies. But not everyone truly lives.