ONE of the MOST important legacies of Dr. King has been the “GIFT of a Dream” that he had for ALL Americans and especially for the People of Color which includes Chamorros & Carolinians, as they would have gone to school with me during Segregation. I’ve been in the CNMI for over thirty years and I never remember any Governor during my time saying “he had a Dream or even a Long-term Goal FOR the CNMI and her People.” We’ve even had one Republican Controlled Government after another that only pushed a Casino and Gambling until they were finally FORCED down our throats. But gambling actually goes against the teachings of the Catholic Faith, yet it seems gambling is the “bed-rock of our economy” and WE wonder WHY things continue to go south and even horrifically bad for the CNMI and her People. I believe WE did it to ourselves following the wrong leadership that never even bothered to DREAM for the CNMI & the People.
Too many times WE the People have heard the request from these Republican Leaders to “offer ideas to help our economy” which tells me, as an Economist, that there is NOT a real Economist on Board, just Political Hacks, who don’t know “an Apple from a Bull-frog” figuratively. They keep coming up with what I call “Picnic Table Beer Ideas” like the Deer Hunting Plan — LOL! I’m sure readers know that I have offered a plethora of ideas over the past two decades and virtually none of them were taken seriously and implemented. I have been DREAMING FOR the People of the CNMI EVER-SINCE my first Op eds and Letters to the Editor.
But it’s truly time for Voters to start DREAMING of a BETTER CNMI with BETTER Leaders and to do something about it when they vote. We the People can’t make the CNMI a better place by electing the SAME-OLD Politicians. Heck, Arnold & Dave have been around for almost FOURTY-YEARS with nothing of real substance they can lay claim to doing FOR ALL the People of the CNMI — they need to be somewhere playing with their grand-kids and not getting in the way of PROGRESS. Look at how bad things are on Tinian and Luta as their economy and populations have literally been going BACKWARDS for two decades because they keep electing the SAME-OLD Republicans who only manage to do enough of something during election season to FOOL their voters into keeping them in office.
How many chances must WE the People give these Republicans, as they are ALL about Getting Elected but TAYA on getting our Economy and Quality of Life Corrected headed in the RIGHT Direction. Tinian actually holds one of the KEYS to the doors of progress with the two Senate Seats that are OPEN for NEW & BETTER Senators. It’s common knowledge now that the Tinian’s Senators are an embarrassment to the entire CNMI and they are the ones “HOLDING-UP and even TRASHING the NMD’s Bill by Senator Edith” that would surely help almost EVERYONE on Tinian and Luta. But these Republican Senators are trying to stop almost everything the Democrats are trying to do to HELP the People, especially the People on Tinian and Luta. The People on Tinian and Luta can only dream about “moving to the mainland” and their ONLY hope for improving their Economy and Quality of Life is to elect NEW & BETTER Senators. So dare to DREAM on ALL the Islands of the CNMI for things to be better after the election and do your part to make YOUR DREAM come TRUE. These Republicans don’t have a Plan nor a Dream for our Commonwealth and her People. “You can’t fix a problem with the SAME (Republican) mentality that caused it in the first place,” Albert Einstein.
One people One Direction must be our “Motto” because We-as-a-People will ALL find prosperity TOGETHER or continue to flounder in Republican Conservatism that’s taking us NOWHERE. Just look around and you will see that things are pretty much the same as they were 20 years ago and even WORSE in some cases — DARE to Dream, as Dreams do come TRUE, especially if you do your part to make it happen — VOTE Democrat, it’s really that simple to FIX-IT and be Happy and full of Hope after the Election!
The writer is an Economist who minored in Sociology, Political Scientist, 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.
Ambrose M. Bennett
