Ambrose M. Bennett
FIRST, I failed to mention and thank KFC for their awesome one-day MLK Day sale and Bank Pacifica for the awesome adds over the internet for Dr. King, as they even remembered it was his birthday which doesn’t always fall on MLK Day which is the third Monday. But the TRUTH and REALITY is there are still some difficult days ahead on the mainland with voting rights and equity in the CNMI which is part of the “Promise-land” that Dr. King’s dreamed about for America. I say this because “equality” still does NOT exist in the CNMI for all, which is why the days ahead are going to be challenging, especially for those who are “self-centered” in our society. But I blame previous leaders for creating this environment of bigotry-racism laws and it’s going to take a local person to lead the change in the CNMI towards equality for all, as I’ve only been seen as the enemy by too many merely because I’m considered an outsider. But I have to laugh to keep from crying, as my MaDear would say, to see and know that a Chinese baby adopted by a local has more RIGHTS than I or any American from the mainland do as a fellow American citizen with all the local people in the AMERICAN Family. Even the very law that “segregates Americans in Rights” is flawed with a blood requirement for RIGHTS that won’t be sufficient in 20 years.
Something is extraordinarily WRONG with this scenario, which is why I will forever continue to fight for this to change in the non-violent manner taught to me by Dr. King. I’m not hating either, as I have nothing but unconditional love for all the people of the CNMI, even my critics which is why I have been able to continue this fight for equality for over two decades. The CNMI is flawed in how fellow Americans are treated when America and Americans are the CNMI’s BEST HOPE for finding read prosperity. Too many have only seen America as a means FOR financial help but don’t want to pay the price of equality (sharing the right to own land) for their fellow Americans. Even a soldier who fought to FREE the locals can’t own his home in the CNMI but a Chinese can, it’s ridiculous! I know that ONE-DAY, as MaDear would say, there will be a local who will pick up this Banner and unfurl it to be carried into the promise land of the CNMI — “if not you, then who and if not now, then when.”
I have done more than some locals and done MORE than most locals to try and preserve the local culture and convince our leaders to do the RIGHT-Thing on many issues. Yet, the ugly politics of the CNMI has denied not me but the people most of the fruits of my education, experiences and wisdom just because I’m not local and I have many readers as witnesses to the many TRUTHS I’ve written about that could have helped or made a big difference but fell on deaf ears. Everything from preparing for the Garment Industry departure five years in advance to NO to the Casino and many other things in-between but now look at our economy — if they had ONLY listened our economy and life would be much better off. But an outsider can’t get credit for doing anything in the CNMI, as a BOE member once said, “Ambrose can’t write a local textbook — he’s not a local” for TRUE. This is the ugly attitude of too many leaders who buried & pretended not to hear the many admonishments I’ve made in the newspaper — sad. But I’m sure no one can demonstrate how rejecting mainlanders the right to own their home is helping the CNMI in any way, shape, form or fashion and I will stop but that would indeed require magic, which doesn’t exist. Look at our non-existent housing industry that is the heart of most growing & prospering communities.
If you’re a person of color and have yet to see or know the “Historic Perspective of Dr. King” I would strongly advise you to see it for FREE on Prime TV or possibly on YouTube so that you can know YOUR History because you would have indeed been treated the same as I was regardless of your straight hair and light skin. Believe it or not, the CNMI will never be a First-Class American destination as long as there are Second-Class Americans residing in the CNMI — it’s just not American! I will close with the fact that “all it takes for the bigotry and racism to continue to exist among the people and the laws of the CNMI is for the GOOD People and Leaders to say and do NOTHING! Own the Declaration of Independence & the U.S. Constitution and the CNMI will surely be a much better place to work and live — it’s just that simple, as the REALITY is the CNMI still has a ways to go to find equality.
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.
