THIS letter is in reply to Mike White’s childish rant regarding Rep. Pedro P. Castro’s legislative initiative to only allow indigenous people to run for public office. Mr. White has obviously been a lawyer too long and has lost his ability to treat people with decency and respect. His public degrading letter addressed to Representative Castro is unforgivable and disgraceful. I believe Mr. White has the right to an opinion on this issue, but I do not believe that he has the right to publicly degrade and humiliate anyone, much less an elected official of our islands.
Further, I assumed Mr. White was an intelligent attorney, but in this case, with his letter to the editor, he has lost my respect. Instead of arguing the merits of both sides, he chose to use weak arguments and personal attacks. Both of which would be easily disposed of in a court of law.
Mr. White has to understand where he lives and understand the people who have lived here for over 3,000 years. Only then will he understand where issues of “protectionism” come from.
For the record, I agree with Mr. White. I believe that we must allow all U.S. citizens to run for public office. But we must also address why there is a deep-rooted feeling of protectionism among most if not all Chamorro and Carolinian people.
Our islands and our people have been a conquered society for over 500 years. We have never been given the opportunity to rule ourselves until just 30 short years ago. As a result, there is a feeling that our culture, our language, our very existence are being washed away.
These feelings cause people to hastily act as shown by Representative Castro’s legislative initiative and Mr. White’s response.
What needs to be done is to discuss these issues openly. And by “openly” I mean without fear of what the United States Constitution says. To arbitrarily say an issue is dead because the United States Constitution says it is not possible is to spit in the face of the spirit of debate in the first place.
I believe debate is what is needed in order to finally put to rest how the Chamorro and Carolinian people feel about self-governance. And as a Chamorro American, I would love to be included in this debate!
But one last request. Let’s leave the personal attacks at home and use our intellectual skills to prove a point. PHILLIP MENDIOLA LONG
San Jose, Tinian
