Fort Ord

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

I detect some confusion about the role the CAREER/PRO has been playing
at Fort Ord. It's based upon a misunderstanding of the conflict there. I
don't blame people for the misconception, because it's what we (Aimee
and I) thought until we started going down there regularly. In fact,
it's the prevailing point of view that we have helped circulate through
the normal functioning of this newsgroup.

We learned otherwise as we talked to every member of the Restoration
Advisory Board, plus others in the community.

The myth is that the principal conflict at Fort Ord is between "the
community" and the Army. I don't disagree that the Army has made plenty
of mistakes, and that it has to be held accountable.

But the main conflict at Fort Ord is between a small faction of the
community, with no apparent political support, and the remainder of the
board. This faction pretends to speak for the entire community, and it
interferes with the efforts of others to participate on a equal footing.

We were brought into the Fort Ord situation not simply to deal with the
so-called "Question of Privilege," but to help the Restoration Advisory
Board work out its internal disputes, problems which were hampering its
effectiveness. As such we were mediating AMONG community members of the
RAB, in full consonance with our mission of empowering public
stakeholders in the military base cleanup process.

It's easy, in other communities where a fairly unified "community" finds
itself in an adversarial relationship with the Army or other polluters,
to fit everything into that mold. At Fort Ord, however, we found that
not to be the case.

Lenny

Lenny Siegel
Director, SFSU CAREER/PRO (and Pacific Studies Center)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@igc.org