THE bullying situation in the schools had caused a teacher to say, in part, “It seems that kids run the school and not the administration.” In retrospect, it is “follow the leader.” Guam’s present socioeconomic and environmental conditions are the result of the upside down government where the people serve the bully government officials at both the federal and local levels.
Freedom and justice on Guam should not even be an issue after having been under the U.S. flag since 1898. After serving America all these years, we on Guam are not any freer or more productive. In fact, just the opposite; after WWII, restrictions were implemented. Economic freedoms and justice are still denied today. Americans on Guam are shackled with ball and chain perpetually fighting city hall to improve their lives against all odds.
The elected officials in the U.S. Government and the Government of Guam have indeed wronged the people of Guam and the taxpayers of America. People in Guam put up with economic suppression and injustices day in and day out. Not a single effort was ever put in motion to address and resolve once and for all the government created dilemmas. People are constantly being assaulted psychologically and financially, which is its own unthinkable kind of terrorist violence directed at children and what schools and health care they can afford. It adversely affects lives, which limits what they will become. Their future has been compromised for five generations.
This intolerable mistreatment of the people of Guam translates into politically correct policy to grow up expecting to be working for the government, and/or surviving on food stamps, living in subsidized housing, and on welfare. Like the corrupt and unaccountable officials, students practice hooliganism in the schools. Even teachers feel threatened.
The powers that be, without protecting the fundamental rights of the people, have made life tolerable with meager handouts. Guam has been a big part of America’s national deficit spending for no good reason. What’s worse, the American people in the mainland are kept ignorant, are not aware of, and cannot know what’s really going on in Guam. In fact, even some members of Washington, D.C. do not know where Guam is on the globe, which is to say, Guam is obviously America’s biggest dirty little in-house secret. The undesirable conditions in Guam are the result of the denial of economic freedoms and justice since after WWII. The conditions are setting the stage for vigilantes to take charge because the authorities have failed.

TONY ARTERO
Agana Heights, Guam