HOWARD Hemsing, an independent advocate not in the mold of the I Nasion Chamoru, and characterized as “loony,” has more backbone than many. He has also not flip-flopped nor will he hurt an ant. Plus, he is educated (take that, higher-ed “haters”).
The same cannot be said for Gov. Felix P. Camacho, Speaker Forbes and other politicians, current and former, who have collectively hurt, through their action and inaction, the poor, the elderly, the sick, the students (K-12) and the colleges, the teachers, the nurses and all the hardworking support staff over the years.
Sometimes I wish the best thing Guam could even do is to be financially independent from Uncle Fed as I get sick watching these politicians spend the U.S. Treasury’s money and act like they did something great. Even the investments that pour in to build high-end luxury homes, for example, do so because of the “backing” of the federal government, definitely not the local government.
Maybe we should go the way of East Timor and let’s “duck it out,” and see who’s standing, so to speak, at the end of the day. That will flesh out of the pretenders from the real leaders. The measure of a leader is defined and crystallized during troubled times, not when hiding behind the aprons of the parent if you will. Like a George Washington and Abe Lincoln. Another reason would be logic and sound judgment does not work on some folks. So you can continually try to appeal to their better sense but it is no use. It is like “throwing pearls at swine, gets trampled on.”
I also applaud Dave Davis and Thomas Sheldan for writing to the AG (Marianas Variety – Guam Edition, Thursday, Jan. 18, Page 3) to seek clarification on PL 25-106, which created the Commission of Decolonization and P.L. 12-226, which created the CLTA and CLTC. It is good that civic and razor sharp minded individuals like Dave and “Skippy” are putting on notice Guam’s elite political machines that they cannot use the old tricks to keep dividing the people, once and for all.

MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam