By Ambrose M. Bennett – Activist
THE Truth is Dr. Galvin Deleon Guerrero offers the perfect Social Studies Lesson in his statement that “the Covenant sets a Promise NOT Conditions” which is a very REAL & POWERFUL statement for voters and future Social Studies Lessons. But I continue to see how the “Achillies Heel of Uniqueness” in the Covenant Beliefs, not facts, that keeps coming back to “haunt the CNMI.” I even discussed at length with a Founder of the CNMI, my Friend the late Edward Pangelinan. The discussion was about trying to make the CNMI “unique & different in the relationship with America” with culture being in the forefront of the NMI’s argument. Well, Edward didn’t totally disagree with me and even admitted that “time may prove me to be right” as he recognized that Locals are actually “Native People as NMI Americans.” I even predicted Time has been on My Side and given the CNMI’s present situation Locals are officially in the same pot with all the other Native Americans & People of Color proving the “uniqueness status” was fallible. If America started operating on “culture” WE must think about how crazy it would be with the many cultures in America who would want to claim, “uniqueness for special treatment”, as the CNMI must learn to “follow the program” as we say in my culture. Had the founders wanted & gotten Locals formally recognized as Native Chamorro/Carolinian Americans, like they are viewed in U.S. Social Studies lessons, the CNMI could have taken an easier route to “special conditions with the Feds” like the other Native Americans with the same “special rights,” especially with “INHERENT POWERS” embedded in the CNMI’s Covenant.
The CNMI continues to struggle to be recognized because WE can’t even teach “Locals are unique & different from other ethnic groups in the American Family,” but WE can “invoke the inherent powers in the Covenant.” But our present Delegate can’t fight for anything because of Trump, so inquiring or asking is all she can do being a Republican. I Told readers So, that her Republican Party led by One Man is the real challenge. There are “enumerated, implied and inherent powers imbedded within the U.S. Constitution and Dr. Galvin is right that WE, the CNMI must FIGHT for the Inherent Powers granted in the Covenant. However, the real problem in the equation for the Covenant & the U.S. is “the CNMI is NOT doing its fair share of carrying the load and being responsible stewards under the U.S. Constitution. In fact, WE are so dependent on the Feds now that WE are quickly becoming more & more like a “welfare state” due to the impotency of our leaders to DELIVER a sound & broad-based economy while wasting Billions in Federal Funds. The Governor is finally creating an Economic Council to address our economy that Ambrodamus has been yelling for ever since “Covid” — HELLER!
Heck, the CNMI set up “Homesteads” which are really “Reservations” as even the homesteads are being turned over to the Bank instead of the “next relative in line” for a lot leading to massive vacant lots and still not a single Homestead without jungles everywhere. Heck, no Homestead is yet to have the basic “sidewalks for students to walk to school only three blocks away.” Yet Republicans are talking about MORE Homesteads when they have never finished filling-up the existing Homesteads — a clear Failure to Do their Homework to simply fill-up the Homesteads before opening another Homestead! The formal labeling of Homesteads as Native American Reservations would have allowed additional Federal Funding. Formality is everything in America, which is the lesson to be LEARNED when it comes to the POWERS in the Covenant!
I wrote nearly two decades ago about the “Importance and Power of Informed/Active Citizenry,” which are the two keys for a successful government, as prescribed by the Founders of America in the Federalist Papers. It was Mr. Myers’ who partly inspired this Op ed, as it’s clear the CNMI was never properly educated on becoming part of the American family, as the Feds only spent 286,000.00 when it should have been 2,860,000 to educate the indigenous people on becoming American citizens. The citizens of the CNMI needed to Learn/Understand that it will take “Informed/Active-Citizens” to hold OUR government accountable guaranteeing the “Best Outcomes.” The power of active citizenry was just PROVED when the Governor appointed his relative with a RAISE but forced to resend the raise. Mr. Frank Sablan also wrote a very informative Letter to the Editor on “the consequences of austerity” and he was so right to raise the question of “who to blame” for this Economic MESS! Well, for me, “our leaders, voters and the impotent Dems are to blame for this mess” for not being Good Stewards, which is WHY WE, leaders & citizens, must “Up-Our-Game” and do a BETTER job of being informed/active especially when voters choose whom to vote into office. When will WE “protest the WASTE at the Cannabis Commission, the WASTE with 3-Casino Commissions, the WASTE of 22 yrs in UNLIMITED Taxes for MACS for TAYA”!
The CNMI has now been going BACKWARDS for over a decade, and our Economy is officially in ICU AGAIN, yet there are those trying to keep the CNMI from changing FOR the Better! All the attempts to silence Ambrodamus by “haters & bigots” have only served to keep the CNMI from Reforming for the Better because it was an outsider leading the charge for Reforms.
Leaders/Voters can continue to ignore Ambrodamus who has Time on his Side, but History will PROVE the CNMI had a real Nostradamus, but Bad stewardship!
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 & Religious Scholar who resides in Kagman III in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.