RE: Regarding Vieques Declaration (of War)

[Morales Miguel L PMCD <mlmorale@apgea.army.mil>]

Thank you very much for your kind remarks.  As a DoD employee, I am
committed to ensuring that all stakeholders have a role in addressing
environmental and health issues where chemical weapons are being stored and
destroyed.  Meaningful public participation, for all Americans, reaches into
the core of the U.S. Constitution.  It provides the public the right to be
involved in the decision-making process on actions that occur in their own
backyards. DoD's responsibility for public participation needs to go well
beyond meeting the requirements of the law. 

The biggest lessons that we have learned ( a lot of them the hard way) from
our history and experience in the Chemical Weapons Destruction Program is
the importance of public involvement and public input:

Lesson one: the military is not autonomous.  We recognize that our
operations or proposed operations have an affect on the public that cannot
be ignored.  People have a right not only to know what you're doing, but
also to have a voice in what you're doing.  We have to find opportunities
for their voices to be heard.  We have to get into the communities and find
out what they think.  We have to find out who is "our community" and what
are their needs.

Lesson two: nothing can replace face-to-face communications.  I believe that
all situations have a solution, as long as people are willing to sit down
together and discuss the issues.  Sometimes it's easy to forget that
communities are made up of individuals, just as some communities lump us all
into "the military" when we're people, too.  We need to come together so
that we have a better understanding of each other's needs.  And we need to
be good listeners, too.  It's easy to forget the simple art of dialogue, yet
it's one of the most important ways of resolving problems.  In this area, I
want to emphasize that we are not content to rest on our public outreach
efforts to date.  We are committed to find better ways to reach out to the
public and involve them in any way we can.

Lesson three: public involvement starts early and should be done often.  The
sooner you involve the public into your program, the sooner you'll deal
head-on with the issues that are important to the communities.  We want to
be a good neighbor and strengthen the bonds between the Army and the public.
We are not adversaries in this program-we're like-minded in trying to find
solutions to a common problem of stockpile disposal.  Let's find a way to
work together.   
I think that these lessons we have learned from our past can pave the way
for our future programs and help others avoid the 'pitfalls' of poor
communications and lack of public involvement. 

PMCD- Making Chemical  Weapons History

Miguel "Mickey" Morales
Public Outreach and Information Office
U.S. Army Program Manager 
for Chemical Demilitarization
ATTN:  SFAE-CD-P, Bldg. E4585, Edgewood Area
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD  21010-4005
Miguel.Morales@pmcd.apgea.army.mil
Voice:  (410) 436-4555/2583; Fax:  (410) 436-5122