Hand wringing in the dark no doubt, scared that they might alienate someone somewhere. In general, people are going to whine anyway, so go ahead and lead, you can’t make everyone happy. In fact, elected leaders have a tough time even making a few people happy. Even people they try to make happy don’t appreciate it or claim not enough was done.
So the U.N. in New York between their nibbles of caviar makes a bunch of mandates for nations to follow to help build the third world. As I have said before, it seems that every new country that has emerged from a major power has ended up in the third world. Singapore is an exception, and possibly one or two others.
Most status changes are simply paths to the third world. I know I criticize the U.N. and this might be a bit unfair. But the reality is that the U.N. doesn’t seem to really pay attention to any of this political status nonsense. There are no constraints from our national government, the U.S., holding Guam back from deciding on any of these concerns. We just have no will to really do something about them. But, this does mean we have to have leaders to lead the way. So my question is, leaders, what political status do you think would be best for Guam?
Here is the fuzzy wuzzy part. The three status types quoted all the time include independence, free association or statehood. But statehood is simply a category people use for the real term of incorporation. This is the unwritten book with unwritten rules I talk about all the time. Incorporation essentially is anything that the people of Guam and the U.S. federal government agree to. It doesn’t per se mean statehood. It could be any form using any real set of goals. So political status is not really a debate over which glasses are half full, half empty or broken. Political status for Guam can actually be the domain of visionary leaders for Guam. So this is a “design Guam’s future” category.
We did a poll a couple of weeks ago and we asked a tricky question: “If you could choose a political status for Guam, would you choose independence, free association or inclusion?” The last one, inclusion, was over 80 percent. The people of Guam have a preference for inclusion.
We know this because we have looked at this for a long time. There is a desire to be on U.S. maps and in U.S. history books. There is a desire to be on Internet menus when we order online. As we have learned the hard way, having no voice in the U.S. Senate really ties our hands. If Guam does go toward incorporation, this is a key point that needs correcting. So Guam’s political status may hinge on tricky Senate semantics.
RON MCNINCH
Mangilao, Guam
