THIS is a cry. This is a cry for help, answers, understanding, hope, and change. Please forgive my ignorance. I am young, inexperienced and simply don’t know everything.
I have no idea what the consequences of my actions will be. I have no idea what good it will bring. I have no idea what exactly I am trying to do or how to go about it productively. I have concerns though, and I feel that time is the only enemy and have to act now.
There is a need for a people to be able to question the powers that rule them and be able to voice their concerns to open ears, minds, and hearts without fear and uncertainty. For without questions, there are no discussions. Without discussions, there is no exchange of knowledge. Without knowledge, there are no decisions made. When no decisions are made, progress and change are nothing but sweet, sweet words. In the end, the people will cease to exist.
To the past generations who have come and gone, I pay my respects, give honor, and vow always to remember. I ask for strength and guidance for all. For my generation and the next I rise and question our elders today. Please look at us and see the very sad state we are in. We are disappearing commercial after commercial. We are losing what’s left of our identity as the proud people of the Pacific. The traditions, knowledge, and values that make us who we are, are no longer being taught, enforced in the home, seen as important, practiced therefore taken for granted and lost. Our home, our beautiful land and ocean, soon it will no longer be ours. We are self-destructive, selling our family lands to outside interests, spoiling sacred areas, poisoning and raping our land and water. We are being poisoned. We are addicted to poison. We have forgotten how to live off the land and many are content with buying what we are capable of growing and raising ourselves. What’s rightfully ours is being taken away by people who claim to know how to take care of it better than we do. Some of us don’t even speak our own language. When you lose the language, you lose the soul of the culture. We are hurt, lost, and don’t know it. Our memory is lousy, we seem to forget the lessons learned from the past. Unity, peace, and love are being substituted by greed, vanity, and the word “I” when it should be “We.” We are selling our souls for money. Our long history with struggle has made it so. We waste time licking our wounds. To our elders, you are important to us and we are important to you. We are all you have and you are all we have to show for this life we live. Take care of us. We need your help. Please don’t leave us to drown. Teach us how to survive. Show us your fears, hopes, dreams, love and wisdom so that we may learn to cherish what is really important in life and pass it on.
This is barely scratching the surface when I think of all that is not right. The future hangs in the balance. Our lives are on the line. We look to our elders for answers, hope and courage. Why is this happening to our home? Why are our people so corrupt, selfish, and blind? Why are we a minority in our own birth land? What about our land and ocean? We are only as strong as it is. Why am I writing this editorial in English? How is it that some of my generation say “Fuck the island,” “I’m glad I’m leaving,” “No opportunity”? Why is it that majority of the youth feel that the only option after high school is joining the armed forces? Do you want that for us? Do you want to see us leave to fight another man’s war? Why is everything slowly getting privatized? How does one person own that which belongs to everyone? To our elders in office, whose interests are you serving? Will the people suffer for your indifference? Do you not see that we are all connected? If you fail, we fail. Do some of you even care anymore about this place we call home? Or just don’t care because you’re getting paid and your kids are either in private school or in the states? Why is the education of our people not top priority? Is there something you don’t want us to know? Are we being kept ignorant for a purpose? Where are our wise and honorable leaders? For the future of “us” and “we,” I ask these questions and boldly demand answers. I’m tired of being the sheep.
In no way is this an attempt to point fingers or anger anyone. Please don’t misunderstand me. These are my fears on paper. What will become of the people of da Pasifik? Please don’t let us become a memory. A past civilization drowned out of existence by the widespread lack of man caring for his fellow man.
This was a cry. This was a cry for help, answers, understanding, hope, and change. Please forgive my ignorance. I am young, inexperienced, and full of love for everything we think of when we say home.

One child of many,
CLARA RABAULIMAN
Portland, Oregon