Ambrose M. Bennett
THE TRUTH of the matter is the CNMI is lagging far behind when it comes to monuments and truly recognizing those who have gone before paving the way for a BETTER America and a BETTER way-of-life in the CNMI. Starting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who may have had MORE to do with the “equal treatment of Chamorros & Carolinians than anyone else in America.” While the CNMI finally recognized Dr. King with a Holiday along with the rest of America but there has never been a single government sponsored event for MLK Day other than the actual signing of the Law when I was given the signing-pen that I truly treasure. But the CNMI must do MORE, as virtually every major city and town has a “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive or Street” and yet that simple revelation has yet to reach OUR shores. Let’s get REAL CNMI “being slow and lackadaisical island time/style” is not working!
One of the biggest challenges for the CNMI is “keeping-up with the times,” as WE are still far behind on toooo many things that are everyday normality phenomenon on the mainland. Don’t forget, one of the driving factors for the CNMI to become part of America was for the CNMI to “LOOK Like & BE Like America and FEEL Like the rest of America” but I don’t have to tell readers WE are falling short of that expectation in a very big way. Our failure to MODERNIZE the CNMI is WHY businesses and so many of our youth and even adults can’t wait to leave for the mainland. There has been a never-ending migration to the mainland that I’ve warned about since the turn of the century, but no one is paying attention, as we continue to lose our MOST valuable resource – OUR People!
Also, in Gualo Rai, there is a MacArthur Dr. and Earhart Dr. that recognizes these great people but there are still no monuments for either of them in the CNMI nor for anyone ELSE, not even a former Governor nor even the group of Founders of the CNMI, as only a Park that no one uses and the Legislature Building is name for a former officials. In fact, the only “bust statue of a leader that I know of is on Capital Hill at the Center for Living Independently for People with Disabilities where there is a bust of former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I have even written about how “greedy the CNMI can be with the Feds asking for and getting in the Billions but to this very-day, our appreciation has NEVER been expressed like it should be given the tens of billions spent on the CNMI since its conception. Showing genuine appreciation is something REAL that we lack when it’s such an important factor, as we even teach our children to always say THANK YOU, so WE can learn from our own lessons to our children!
But heck, Citizens have been trying for YEARS to get a simple statue of Amelia Earhart installed for FREE to the CNMI and yet there has been virtually NO Help from MVA, the Government/Politicians who at the same time are crying/saying we need more tourists. But instead, our leaders have let unfounded & ridiculous opposition from within the community to rule over our future with the Earhart Project when they should be lining-up to help. Even CPA who is also crying for tourists “in their MOA which is a nightmare of legalese and gobbledygook, full of tortured clauses that in every way enable the CPA to put the screws to Marie and the AESMMI and forever ruin their dream of seeing an Earhart Memorial on Saipan,” says Mike Cambell of Jacksonville, Florida. WE can’t even get FREE-Stuff done for our economy, which is PATHETIC!!! But this is just one example of many that prove I’m right about the need for “one people one direction” so WE can get some things DONE to BETTER ourselves and our economic situation! A statue of Amelia Earhart is NOT going to hurt, and it can certainly HELP to some degree, especially when its FREE — duh & HELLER! WE (the entire CNMI) should be doing all we can to help Ms. Castro and the AESMMI who are willing to sponsor the monument for FREE — looking a gift horse but doing nothing!
The CNMI can get a guaranteed tourist attraction for FREE if our leaders can STOP playing political games and really do some work, which is WHY the CNMI is in such a destitute position losing major investors in our Tourism Industry. Tourism is OUR Business (the Governor, Legislature & the People) so let’s much try harder to be “One People One Direction” in building & promoting OUR Tourism Industry and learn to say THANK YOU to the Feds and those who have paved the way before us.
One People, One Direction.
Ambrose M. Bennett is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist, a retired teacher & former CNMI Board of Education Member, a James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays & lifetime Humanities Scholar who resides in Kagman III in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
