AS we observe this 31st Covenant Day with our governor and his team of negotiators preparing for a crucial round of 902 talks, let me offer the following thoughts:
The CNMI may be David facing Goliath, but David had his sling, and we have our sling as well; our sling is our right of self-government guaranteed by the Covenant.  Never forget we have this sling.  Think what would have happened if David had forgotten about his sling, and attempted instead to negotiate with the Philistines empty-handed, saying, “Please don’t overrun the land of Israel.  I know you can if you want, but it would be really bad for our economy.”  We can be sure of the result — no one today would ever have heard of David, or of the land of Israel either.
Our sling may not look like much.  There is not even a rock in it, but wrapped up in it instead is centuries of history.  Wrapped up in that sling is the struggle of the Marianas people to regain their freedom after more than 250 years of colonial rule.  Wrapped up in it is the Spirit of 1776 and the promise of democracy that is America’s greatest legacy to the world.  Wrapped up in it is the historic struggle of all mankind to free itself from domination, from the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae to now.  Hurao and Aguarin are in there; so are Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Paine and Henry; Pontiac and Tecumseh; Wilson and Roosevelt; Gandhi and Mandela.  And wrapped up in that sling is the future as well as the past.  Wrapped up in it is the CNMI as the hope of the world; the hope of Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa; the harbinger of a new kind of future for small islands, indigenous enclaves, and distinctive regions throughout the world; hope against the onslaught of centralized power and globalized culture.  All that is in our sling.
So let us hold that sling up high, for it is a torch as well as a sling, like the red-hot slingstones of ancient times.  Let the whole world see it.  Do not hide it under a bushel.  And do not let it be said (as some have said) that we cannot have the rights and powers it gives us because no one else has them.  Others do, and more can and will.  And if we are unique, let us take pride in our uniqueness: it does not make us an aberration, but a pioneer.  “Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves” (Pericles). 
Without its sling — its right of self-government — the CNMI would be just another helpless, hopeless U.S. “territory,” forever at the mercy of whatever congressman or bureaucrat decides to make it his personal cause, with no realistic prospect of ever attaining a status better or freer than a kind of erratically-monitored probation.  (An illustration: The oldest man in the world died last month on Puerto Rico at age 115, still no closer to real self-government than the day he was born.)  But with its right of self-government, the CNMI is the New Athens, a turning point in the history of the world.  Let us remember it, appreciate it, and make the most of it.
A happy Covenant Day to all the people of the CNMI, and many more to come.

JED HOREY
As Matuis, Saipan