A previous editorial in this publication has stated that “the CNMI owes us nothing.” That statement was directed toward the guest worker population since they are appealing to the federal government to intervene and grant them a more permanent immigration status. But if you examine that statement more closely, it tells a different story.
The NMI was ruled and at the same time oppressed by Japan before the war, culminating into a horrific battle that cost the U.S. thousands of dead Marines. As a consequence, an invitation to join the U.S. was extended. The representatives of the NMI’s “indigenous peoples” convened, studied and agreed to join the U.S., gain the fruits of membership in both financial aid, and citizenship. Today, “indigenous children” of CNMI attend some of the best universities in the U.S. Over 30 years and billions of U.S. tax dollars have passed through the government of the “indigenous people” of CNMI through federal funding. Looking back on these gifts given to the “indigenous people” of the CNMI through the sacrifices by taxpayers in the U.S., isn’t it possible that the CNMI and her “indigenous people” “owe” the U.S. a measure of thanks for a gift that it was not owed to them, nor even deserved? So how can a people who owe their wonderful freedom, and globally envied U.S. citizenship, deny, and or at least try to hinder others who can honestly say they worked and sacrificed as much as, if not more than, any “indigenous person” on Saipan or the rest of CNMI?
All the while, thousands upon thousands of guest workers lived, loved, and worked side by side with these “indigenous people”; the only difference between them being their immigration status.
Some “indigenous people” say that they didn’t understand the U.S. Constitution, and the Covenant because it wasn’t translated into Chamorro; that the federal government tricked or misled them. Yet, those documents were suitable and never complained about as long as they fit into those “indigenous people’s” plans. They were expected to follow the rules concerning “fair play” and “human rights.” The same rules that protected the “indigenous people” were also expected to be applied by them in their treatment of their own “guest workers.” Sadly this did not happen. And so with the shame of the “indigenous people of CNMI” and the tarnished name “Made in the USA,” the U.S. stepped in to set matters straight. Oh sure! Some will say, things have changed, the “indigenous people” have learned from their past. Perhaps they have.
“But what about the poor hard working guest worker?” Many have lived on Saipan and the CNMI legally on worker visas for 15 to 20 years. They’ve born thousands of children who are U.S. citizens by birth. Shall these people many who’ve lived in CNMI for 15 to 20 years be deported? Shall they never gain equal rights and protection under U.S. law? “Indigenous people” can send their children to the mainland for college and they themselves seek employment opportunities in the states as well. Are these guest workers less deserving of the gift of U.S. citizenship than the very “indigenous people” who gained theirs in the same manner as a gift from the U.S.?
During the 1920’s and 30’s in the American South, white Americans feared that if the black Americans were allowed to go to the voting booth, a black American would be elected and things would change, power would shift from one group to another. Culture and way of life would change. But smart, far-seeing individuals realized that protecting the way of life for white Americans in the South was not worth the denial of basic human rights to black American’s guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. There are many people of many different races in local, state, and federal government today. People have learned to incorporate and accommodate other ways of thinking. That has made the U.S. the strongest nation on earth for its diversity. It will do the same for CNMI.
So when I read in these pages that “indigenous peoples” are being unfairly denied their rights, I think of the guest workers and what they’ve endured and suffered so that “indigenous people” could have a better life. I think about the years past that black American’s suffered so that white American’s could have a better life. I then I think that I am glad I live in a time and in a country with a government that sees this kind of injustice and says, “that is wrong and we are going to fix it.” When that notion “to fix it” was applied in the past in the American south, many people violently opposed it, but in the end they accepted the righteousness of it. America is a country of free people, so believe it that this injustice will not stand in Congress, and it will not stand with the American people. “Indigenous people” may not see that now, but in time you minds will change and you will look back on this time with awe and wonder how some much more enlightened you are now than “Indigenous people” were then.
MARCUS A. PERKINS
Talafofo, Guam
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