Dear Source,
The U.S. Navy leaving Vieques and St. Croix will definitely create short-term hardship, but government military spending should never be relied on as a basis for true economic health. The military is a here-today-gone-tomorrow resource, unreliable and capricious.
Money spent by the military is a drug that makes local governments lazy. It gives us an excuse to keep from doing the hard work needed to develop a real (civilian-based) economy, and perpetuates the same sort of dependence and underdevelopment that has characterized Caribbean societies from the beginning.
Mr. [Arnold] Golden was right to list the effects flowing from Vieques and Roosevelt Roads shutdowns; but isn't a real society one based on peace – isn't that what we're taught in church every week?
The Navy does not care about local economies and cultures. It acts pretty much like rude, boorish tourists we love to imagine swaggering around down-town Christiansted, blowing their money on expensive meals and booze but showing not a grain of curiosity about the deep history and meanings of our island. An exaggeration, yes, but losing Navy money reveals all too painfully that we have been caught neglecting our homework. We should be moving toward independence, away from dependence.
Pete Pappentick
Trenton, N.J
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