HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Curiosity and controversies surrounding Guam’s upcoming construction of missile defense systems will be answered and considered at an upcoming public forum, “Guarding Guam Horizon’s: Understanding the Missile Defense Systems on Guam,” to be held Thursday at the University of Guam College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Lecture Hall.
The forum, presented by the Social Work Student Alliance, is scheduled from 5:30 – 7 p.m. The public may participate and share their questions and concerns with a panel of speakers, featuring:
Sen. Sabina Perez, 37th Guam Legislature
Nolan Flores, Guam Commission on Decolonization
Maria Hernandez, Coalition Hita Litekyan
Danielle Lujan, co-chair of the event, shared with The Guam Daily Post how the public forum came to be.
“It started off as a class project for Dr. Lisa Natividad, and she was very passionate about this topic,” said Lujan.
She said that Natividad wanted the team to facilitate the forum to encourage the community to have the conversations about missile defense systems on the island.
Insights on the status of the missile defense plans, potential impacts on Guam’s environment and concerns raised by residents will be provided by the panelists. According to Lujan, they aim to facilitate discussions between the community and leaders about missile defense systems in Guam.
“Yes, we do realize that this is very touchy. Some people don’t even want to engage with this topic, just because of the nuances between our relationship with the military and the Department of Defense systems as a whole,” Lujan added.
“Why would we avoid that relationship when we can have these conversations? It’s better to work together (and) get the community involved in making decisions for our island.”
She also mentioned that there is a possibility that the event will mark the start of multiple public forums in the near future.
The “Guarding Guam Horizon’s: Understanding the Missile Defense Systems on Guam” public forum is scheduled for Thursday at the University of Guam College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Lecture Hall.
