By Ambrose M. Bennett – Activist
THE Truth is it’s a New Year when WE are all supposed to be making NEW COMMITMENTS to CHANGE for the BETTER! So, Happy New Year Everyone and maybe this will be the year our leaders will finally listen to Ambrodamus, as this is the last year of my Op eds. FOR over two decades I, Ambrodamus, have written in the THOUSANDS of Letters & Op eds sharing & offering ideas to improve the outcomes of OUR Government for society in methodologies for dealing with our economy & social life. I’ve done everything from offering economic & social improvements, political vocabulary, accountability, checks & balances, and oversight. Ambrodamus went from letters to the editor for accountability & economic improvements in the early 1990s that were attacked with slander & vulgar scorn to becoming a regular Columnist with Op eds that now go unchallenged. Ambrodamus has more than passed the “test-of-time,” as the TRUTH can’t be shouted-down with bigotry ambiguity inferences in the Comment Section and now no one literally DARES to go public in opposition to Ambrodamus. There were “NO Argument” offered capable of legitimately detracting from nor destroying the many TRUTHs about our politics, economy & social challenges shared by Ambrodamus who is going to get even tougher in 2026, as leaders will be held accountable & playing dumb won’t cut it anymore!
But sadly, I have to admit that most of the potential for progress & prosperity was ignored, which is so sad and even pathetic! I don’t feel bad for myself as I’ve come to realize in these latter years that my writing was really driven by “Divine Intervention” as I never planned to do all this writing and the PROOF is in the details. First & foremost, no one has ever been able to call me a lie nor even tried to prove Ambrodamus was a Lie, which confirms I’ve been sharing what was may have been the BEST ideas or solutions and definitely telling the unchallenged TRUTH! My admonishments have been so “Dr. King, Ali & Jesse Jackson strong” the only way our leaders could oppose Ambrodamus was to play dumb like they don’t read the paper. For me, many if not most of our leaders & my critics are COWARDS playing ignorant with leaders playing “safe politics” and critics hiding behind their keyboards with FAKE names! It’s truly sad to see adults playing these DETRIMENTAL political games & trying to blackball me while ignoring sound & proven advice when the very livelihood of the CNMI’s future and her People is at stake — it’s PATHETIC! But as Jesse Jackson taught me, someone MUST “Keep-Hope-Alive”!!!
I knew over two decades ago the CNMI was not ready for a Black Activist Outsider, once it was realized the GOP couldn’t run me out of the paper, as the Same-O tactic of trying to make my name bad failed only serving to grow & fester Bigotry into a full-blown Political outbreak of leaders even infecting my Democrat Party in 2025. A party I was literally “born-into” and was a voting member before most of the Dems in the CNMI were even born and yet they had the NERVE to Blackball Ambrodamus, a member of SNCC under John Lewis and who marched with Dr. King! It was so darn sad & pathetic I had to laugh to keep from crying and now look at the Dems, as you can’t even see them, save one, in our Political Arena. Too this very day the Dems have remained like “church mice” after shooting themselves in the head aiming at me literally, as they now only comment publicly on national news about the Dems on the mainland but not a whisper of anything on the CNMI’s Politics and OUR Economy & declining quality of life, just watching — some People’s Party! But it’s mostly common knowledge now that Ambrodamus’ many ideas & admonishments were NOT ignored due to being bad or wrong but pure bigotry! Just THINK, “What leaders have Done Wrong & What they are Failing to Do Right” when you think about all the political, economic & social issues addressed by Ambrodamus that were ignored over decades from the death of the Garment industry to Social Issues and the Casino era while TIME continues to PROVE Ambrodamus was RIGHT, as I can PROVE the CNMI missed-out on 10s-of-millions playing “deaf to Ambrodamus”!
However, ever-since high school & college I have maintained a style & manner of thinking that was “ahead-of-the-times,” which made Economic studies a “natural” for me. But I am still hoping & praying FOR the People & OUR Political Leaders & Parties to “Come-of-Age & Overcome the archaic thinking of the past against outsiders & backwater politics of bigotry, poli-tricks, gaslighting & deflecting ” that has brought us to OUR economic-knees begging for Federal hand-outs after just being given Billions in the past decade and we’re still making loans just to make-ends-meet, it’s a PATHETIC failure to DO Economic Planning! WE deserve BETTER but at the same time WE (leaders & citizens) must DO Better if WE are to have a BETTER Economy & Quality of Life — it’s really that simple! But I do want to thank the hundreds & even thousands who have silently supported me, but progress & prosperity won’t be attainable with silence, as citizens must evolve to hold leaders accountable and supporting the activists working FOR People regardless of their race, creed or origin. In fact, & just think, Ambrodamus may have done more than most of our leaders to promote improvements & changes that went publicly unsupported by citizens & scorned by critics & political operatives. But I’m praying WE Shall Overcome the silence with public support to end the political bigotry in the CNMI in 2026!
GARO: I want readers to know I decided to write this review & semi-goodbye Op ed, as no one knows when they are at the front-of-the-line. I was reminded of this fact in the sudden loss of my best friend “Garobet Mirisan,” who was an “electrical & structural engineer” in his country recruited here by then Telesource. Better known as “Garo,” he will be remembered as an honorable and very religious Orthodox Christian (the mother of Christianity) whom Bishop Camacho even demanded, telling the Santa Soledad Priest, that he must oversee Garo’s children’s Christenings. The late bishop knew that Garo was from Arminia, the land of the “Magi” (3-Kings), who had become a U.S. Citizen. Garo was an awesome father & friend who was willing to help anyone as he even died while trying to help someone — may you rest in peace my old friend!
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.
