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GITMO GIT’S MO’ GRIEF in SAN DIEGO

Although the immediate closure of the U.S. prison facility at Guantánamo (Gitmo), Cuba was a constant staple of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, all of a sudden there is great consternation and shock, shock that he has done what he said he would do. That shock has been especially resounding here in ultra-conservative San Diego. This is an area that had been “protected” for many years by Congressman Duncan Hunter, the elder, and whose namesake son faithfully is carrying on dad’s work.

Apart from having the best year-round weather in the U.S., San Diego is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, snow-capped mountains, beautiful desert flora and access to now-dangerous Mexico. Its magnificent bay, protected by Coronado Island and the Silver Strand is spanned by a striking, unobtrusive bridge. Along with its superb climatological aspects, San Diego long has been a bastion of military strength for the U.S. A former major naval training center, it remains the location of a a large naval base of operations and ship-repair facility. Coronado Island is home for several aircraft carriers, the airfleets of which are housed at the Miramar Naval Air Base, along with other naval aircraft. Toward the end of Point Loma, where the Portuguese discoverer Juan Cabrilho is said to have set foot upon what was to become the southwest corner of the map of the U.S., is the nest for a nuclear submarine fleet. Then there is the sprawling Camp Pendleton Marine Base, just to the north, at Oceanside.

Naturally, those who people all of these military facilities and their families comprise a goodly percentage of San Diego’s residents. As such, it is expected that they would be of a certain conservative political bent. However, because of the Bush Administration’s taking advantage of the forced insularity and unquestioning attitude of the military to accept ideas handed down from on high, the military in general—and especially here in San Diego—over the past eight years has become a hotbed of Republican partisanship. We have heard that when Dick Cheney traveled as vice president, among his hotel pre-arrangement was the insistence that the television be on when he arrived, and that it be tuned to Fox News. Continuing with the “Fox” theme, it was kind of startling to learn that in Iraq’s “Green Zone” Fox News was/is the de rigueur channel-on for all television sets. From personal experience I have noticed that Fox News is the preferred channel for the expansive San Diego Veterans Administration hospital and annexes. Additionally, the same was true when I visited the VA Blind Rehabilitation units at Palo Alto, CA and Tucson, AZ.

With this background established, it is understandable that sometime before yesterday’s Gitmo closure announcement, the rumor had been circulating here that Camp Pendleton was to be the recipient of the denizens of the abandoned Gitmo. Consequently, Rep. Hunter already had sounded the “NIMBY” alarm, which immediately had been picked up by the right-wing San Diego media. Now, with the heinous deed having been done—and even with no indication from Washington as to the disposition of the Gitmo prisoners—the alarm continues in San Diego at high decibel. The Bush-induced hatred of the Arab peoples and Muslims is well established in San Diego. Duncan Hunter and Rep. Darryl Isa have combined to propose legislation to keep the prisoners out of holy, military San Diego. Rick Roberts, a local radio host and radical right-winger, is contributing to the hysteria by using his program as a vehicle for recording-for-distribution the venting of San Diego citizens against the closing of Gitmo and the now accepted “fact” that the Gitmo remnants are to be dumped in San Diego, at the peril of our military facilities and our very lives.

With all of this hysteria in San Diego about the remote possibility of foreign prisoners being in our midst, it is interesting to reflect upon this comparison: During WWII, German prisoners were brought to the U.S. and settled in the South until the end of the war. They got along so well with the residents of a certain Louisiana town that after the war they returned for a reunion. The Germans were not subjected to the draconian marginalization imposed upon the African American citizens of the town, who were barred from restaurants; hotels; entering the front door of movie theaters; required to sit in the back of public vehicles; relegated to segregated restrooms; and restricted to “colored only” waiting rooms and drinking fountains…