When I was teaching at PSS a group of us teachers were sent to California to attend a week long “Character Counts Seminar” to be certified to teach other teachers and students about “character.” Strangely but not surprising was that PSS never allowed any of us to teach other teachers and there was never a Character Counts Program even after I made an inquiry and a request to start the Program — a virtual waste of PSS’s money and our time. But character is the very essence of being a good or great leader and it’s obvious that character is “missing-in-action” when it comes to the Governor and our Republicans. Heck, even #45’s (Trump) character was soooo darn bad it is the main reason he lost the election which is a national lesson that “character counts.”
But we just experienced in the not too distant past how Governor Fitial was literally caught and prosecuted by the Public Auditor and his Republican Legislature refused to impeach him and just stalled until the election hoping the Governor could somehow escape being convicted. Now Governor Torres was caught by the FBI and about to be prosecuted now that Trump is out of office which was some GOP skullduggery Politics that I will elaborate on in the next Epitaph. But more importantly Torres’s Legislature also refused to impeach him or even investigate the plethora of crimes allegedly committed by the Governor as I Told Readers So and they proved me right again. And just like Fitial was convicted, so will Governor Torres be convicted but he is facing Federal Time unlike Governor Fitial who was facing our State Level prosecution which is why he virtually got off without any jail-time due to his health. But you can bet Governor Torres won’t be so lucky with the Feds whom I’m sure have a solid case given the “high-profile character of the Governor’s prosecution.”
With Governor Fitial some Republicans even jumped ship creating the “Independent Republicans” and were even deemed as the “Magnificent Seven” for turning against Governor Fitial but they were still Republicans. Now WE the People are right back in the same place with a corrupt Governor who is even bolder because the Legislature was the Governor’s Legislature and not the People’s Legislature. However, this time the People had the Democrats as a real option to ending this long overdue Republican rule that continues to lack any form of Character with nothing and no-one being safe. We just saw the ugly and unwarranted character assassination on Ed Propst out of desperation and now he might be the next speaker — TRUE Redemption! History does repeat itself all the time in many ways but it is up to all of us to LEARN our lessons from history so we don’t repeat the same mistake and its obvious all or at least the majority of voters still didn’t learn their lesson about this group of Republicans. I’m sure the Republican Party will eventually have people with real character some day but this group who refused to place a check on the Governor and DISRESPECTED the People by refusing to tell us what they did with OUR money have lost ALL the respect me and many voters had for them.
There was no real Democrat opposition to the Republicans at that time when Fitial was Governor so WE the People really never got rid of the problem and WE are only now starting to address the need to teach ALL Republicans a Lesson about “CHARACTER” which we didn’t do. I respect everyone’s vote but I’m more concerned about ALL of us finding prosperity together and not just for Democrats or Republicans because WE will all find prosperity together or just continued to flounder in GOP Duck Soup figuratively. I know WE the People will never find real prosperity with this group of Republicans that are now in office — just look at their record or should I say the lack of a record in making life better in the CNMI.
Governor Fitial was responsible for the Retirement Fund and intentionally killing it saying the CNMI didn’t need it. He didn’t care about the People who were depending upon the Retirement Fund and he made a decision as if he would be Governor forever that put the livelihood of Retirees at risk and even killed the hopes of future potential Retirees who must now apply for Social Security which is peanuts compared to the Retirement Fund. Now Governor Torres has started putting our children in debt with the responsibility for paying the loan back on future leaders just like Governor Fitial did with the Retirement Fund and WE see what a mess that has turned out to be.
Whenever a society is continuing to experience the SAME problems it means that the People have yet to learn their lesson from history in how to avoid that very same problem. History is repeating itself in the CNMI and WE the People need to learn our LESSON! It should be common knowledge now as to the lack of character by our Governor who cheats and is soooo cheap that he charges us “Cheetos” and WE still have a legislature full of Republicans who haven’t shown an ounce of character. WE the People must help the Democrats in holding the Republicans’ feet-to-the-fire given their lack of character by writing opinions in the news and protesting if necessary because the battle to find prosperity for ALL is still ongoing and WE can’t let the Republicans control our destiny any longer. If there is one thing, we know about the Democrats is the fact that they DO have Character and Character does Count for something. To be continued: One People One Direction.
The writer is a retired teacher, former CNMI Board of Education Member, James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar) and a Fulbright-Hays Foreign Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
