PDN’s ‘Project Unity’ should be commended. A project designed to foster better racial ties across ethnic lines and more harmonious relations between the various ethic groups. Its editorial on Easter Sunday did point out, however, that it is not going to be simple to accomplish, or something that can be done in a short period of time.
Do we teach history, geography and cultural education of our region? (Newstalk K-57 Ray Gibson’s a caller if UOG students on a class trip to Bali could have avoided the trip during these times when UOG students pay their own way!) How can kids grow up to be tolerant of one another when adults only pretend to do so and show their true colors come election time with race-baiting ads, for example? And remain cocooned in ignorance and apathy.
There are 2 issues here that the native language has not been publicized enough and therefore we should start at the grassroots and implement them at GPSS. Well and good. But how many actually practice speaking Chamorro at home when parents are conversing in English at their work place (especially the “new” generation)?
Moreover, we are living in a global marketplace and the medium of instructions is English with a preference for a Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Hokkien, etc.) and Japanese since we are closer to these economic powerhouses. There is an economic incentive to master English and a foreign language while there is a social incentive to master Chamorro and we need to achieve the balance for us to succeed economically and live in a harmoniously multilingual and multicultural society.
For this to occur, non-Chamorros might want to learn Chamorro in night classes adult education programs while Chamorros might want to learn more while learning other languages as well. If we do not, we risk becoming like the United States under Mr. Bush. In the “Origin of Languages,” author Jean Jacques Rouseau explains the apparent contradictions seen in the “fathers of nations: so natural and so inhuman; such ferocious behavior and such tender hearts; so much love for their families and such antipathy to their species. All their feelings being concentrated on those near them would be more intense. Everyone they knew would be dear to them enemies the rest of the world. Whom they did not see at all of whom they were ignorant. They hated only those with whom they could not be acquainted.”

MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam