IN the Marianas Variety – Guam Edition, Page 1, Jan 26, 2007, there is a big picture of street repairs ongoing with the caption which read, “Traffic along Marine Drive is slow due to ongoing road construction. Ypao Beach Road, which also has new pavement, is among the many areas currently under repair as part of the government’s island-wide road repair project.”
Maybe it should read “federal” government’s island-wide road repair project since those are federally-funded which we all get to enjoy, malcontents or not.
This might be semantics in some folks mind-eye, but we might as well start acknowledging the funding source even in the newspaper snapshots and articles, not just on election-year billboards. And everyday not just during election-year on the credit message gets “marking.”
However, there seems to be more sinister glow that emitted from that picture. If you look at the background, you will see the word “LUQUIDATIONS,” plastered over a building. That is the story in 2007. That things are not going as well as Gov. Camacho sold it during the last election cycle. More bad news: Mt. Carmel’s imminent closure at the end of Spring ’07, something the administrators there urged four years ago to the date.
The lesson for Guam after the party in 2006 if you can only dress up the news so much. You can only buy so many votes (even in a small island). And you can rack up the deficit only so much.
Please keep in mind dear governor that you are really not that popular. About 20,000 people voted out of about 170,000 (little like the electoral system.) Some tried to vote but could not and some are going through the naturalization process, thereby enabling them to vote in the future. Your legacy will be determined not by those who supported you but those that did not.

MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam