WE have ALL fallen short and done foolish things at one time or another in our lives and the real challenge in all the exploits of our foolishness was the need to “learn our lesson(s) from the foolish behavior.” Just like in my classroom with our youths and in real life with adults there will ALWAYS be those who are prone to foolishness. The question that will continue to loom over the CNMI is when will the majority of voters learn their lesson(s) about this group of Republicans.
Unlike what we see on the mainland where there are Republicans holding Republicans accountable, there is yet to be “ONE” who will step-up or should I say “man-up” to hold our Governor accountable but instead they just “play blind, deaf and dumb” in regards to what the Governor is really doing that is WRONG and even illegal! This reminds me of “Sodom and Gomorrah” when there wasn’t a single one willing to try and live “up-right and righteous” in their obedience to the 10 Commandments. Now WE don’t have a single Republican who will be obedient to their fiduciary duty and our Constitution they swore to up-hold and defend but instead have displayed an utter contempt FOR our Constitution and the People.
Retirees & NMDs who continue to follow these Republicans are acting like they didn’t learn anything when the Republicans continued to rob and eventually kill the Retirement fund and now they are robbing the NMDs with no mentioning of “paying back the money.” Retirees and NMDs can’t AFFORD to continue the “blind, deaf and dumb” foolishness of voting Republicans, as you are now part of the problem when WE the People need solutions that the Republicans can’t deliver.
POWER
The real source of the problems in the CNMI is the PEOPLE who refuse to exert THEIR Power to CHANGE our course by continuing to vote Republican and we have been on the same course to NOWHERE for over two decades. If you think I’m wrong just look around as WE the People and our economy is right back where WE started over two decades ago before the Casino, as nothing else has really changed — for TRUE! Voters gave the Republicans “absolute power” and WE the People don’t have anything to show for it now and don’t fall for the “Pandemic Gaslighting” that the Republicans will try to blame like they blame everything on Typhoons when the Federal Government has been continuously picking up the tab. How can the Governor declare an Emergency just to get control of the half-billion from the Feds, when there is really no emergency given these funds triple our budget! The Governor uses his “Emergency Power” to keep the Legislature from budgeting the Federal Funds and created HIS OWN new entity of Government to manipulate the money. WE must take this POWER back from the Governor & all Republicans.
I know some don’t like me speaking out on NMD issued because I’m not an NMD however, I care about the NMDs and like my mother once told me, “I’m going to make something out of you like it or not”. So I continue to “think about the NMD situation” as I was educated to actually work in a “Think Tank” but that wasn’t happening for a Black man when I graduated college in the early 70s. If the NMDs are truly the ones who are supposed to benefit from the NMD funds then WHY has these Republicans even bothered to create a “NMD Data Base Listing” of all NMDs — which is a multimillion-dollar question that needs and deserves answering. The answer is these Republicans don’t want to know who are the NMDs so they can keep them in the dark and keep the NMD money at the disposal of the Government. I haven’t seen a single program where the NMD money is going to help NMDs in a “DIRECT” manner, just using the money to help the Republican run Government.
If a listing of NMDs is created the next step or effect will automatically be the “ORGANIZING of NMDs under a single form of leadership” which would virtually bring an END to all the politics that influence what or how the NMD money is used. Unification and Organization creates real POWER and that is something the Republicans have been fighting against EVER-SINCE as we say Locally. The Governor and this group of Republicans are all about POWER and could care less about the rest of us in the cheap seats. Heck he even stooped to trying to influence people just so HIS pick (Angel) could be Speaker and it was also alleged that he tried to get HIS pick to be the NMC President. WE the People are just fortunate that he wasn’t successful for a lot of reason and I am sooooo darn glad Mr. Galvin DL Guerrero got the NMC post as he will surely be a great President for NMC given what he has done for Mt. Carmel School that has proven time & time again to possibly be the best “academically driven school” in the CNMI.
But the two NMD groups really need to “unite” and establish a single leadership because these Republicans are not going to do it for the NMDs and you can be assured they will also stop any efforts by the Democrats which is all the more reason the decisions for “Decision Day 2022” needs to be “get rid of this group of Republicans and give ALL the Democrats a REAL chance” to help YOU and the CNMI. Even with control of the House Representatives the Democrats hands are still tied from a lack of POWER in the Senate and most assuredly in the Executive Office. If WE the People are to find real systemic (system-wide) change and improvements then WE must change the entire system from Republican to Democrat using OUR POWER to VOTE them out!
Fixing the CNMI can’t be accomplished by a few voters who have finally seen enough it is going to take the majority of voters, especially those misguided LOYAL Republican voters who keep getting all of us screwed. The only votes they deserve are from their family as far as I’m concerned. But I’m not calling anyone a fool but I am saying that to many voters have been foolish and that it would indeed be FOOLISH and even insane of voters to continue electing Republicans expecting a different or better result. One definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result” and we have been electing the same old Republicans for over two decades now look at us. The CNMI is virtually where we were two decades ago before the casino only its WORSE because the Republicans literally ran-away our Japanese Tourist Market that built our Tourism Industry — how is that for a history lesson because we don’t have a single tourist market we can fully depend upon now that the Chinese Government is against off-shore gambling — for REAL! It’s time to stop letting these Republicans take us for fools and we need to teach them the real lesson on “the Power OF the People” giving them a spanking that they will never forget come Decision Day 2022!
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), a Fulbright-Hays & Humanities Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
The head-rest of George Washington’s “Rising Sun” chair.
File photo
