Thursday, May 13, 2010

My Latest Letter to the Editor

It's May. The termites are swarming. ugh.
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My latest letter appeared in both the Variety and Tribune today. I like the Tribune's formatting better, but the Variety allows comments.



ADDENDUM:

What: “Yes to Improved Status” Unity Movement Motorcade & Assembly
When: Sunday, May 16, 2010 starting at 2:00pm
Where: From Kilili Beach to American Memorial Park
Who: All members of the community are invited
How: Wear White. Show up early (in your car, or ready to ride with someone else). No littering.
Why: To show support for the U.S. Secretary of Interior’s recommendations of long-term status for legal aliens who have resided in the CNMI for five years or more, and to urge U.S. Congress to act quickly on the recommendations.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jane,
Thanks you for your inspiring views on this matter. I pray that our indigenous brothers & sisters will have an open mind and find a place in their hearts to understand that we are not taking anything from them. Infact, we want to have status to be permanently live with them in this island that all of us considered our HOME.

Anonymous said...

Speaking truth to power will always make you enemies, but someone needs to do it. Society needs its gadflies, but never seems to appreciate them at the time. Socrates drinking the hemlock and all that. Please keep it up.

Angelo Villagomez said...

When I was a kid I was specifically taught by my father that I needed to make sure that guest workers never gained the right to vote. This is engrained in the brains of locals as strongly as the Catholic faith. It has and continues to be an uphill battle.

Saipan Writer said...

Angelo,
Just recently I went to a funeral. I chatted with one of the men there whom I've know since I arrived, who is like family to me. He's Chamorro. I mentioned that I hadn't yet met his new wife, whose name I'd seen in the newspaper obit. His first response was "She's Filippina." He said it apologetically, as if it was something to be ashamed of. But he pointed her out and he's happy and looks much better (healthier, happier) than anytime in the past decade.

I'm hoping that experience is something of a counter-weight to the learned dogma. People here have friends and family who are aliens. It does change the rhetoric when you talk about individuals they know rather than "foreign workers" as an entity.

Saipan Writer said...

Anon 4:35--I've never thought of myself as a gadfly! hmmm.

Anonymous said...

"When I was a kid I was specifically taught by my father that I needed to make sure that guest workers never gained the right to vote"

I have lived here much longer than Angelo and I have never been taught to guard and ensure that guest workers never have a chance to vote. I have never heard of any of my friends being taught this practice either.

How exactly did your father teach you this?

What did he say?

What was your response?

How did he rationalize it?

Unbelievable!

Angelo Villagomez said...

Your father obviously wasn't a politician

Angelo Villagomez said...

and wouldn't you say the actions of nearly every elected official are non-explicitly teaching everyone that allowing foreigners to become US citizens and vote is a bad thing? They are opposing it because they have been taught it.

Angelo Villagomez said...

I answered your question in a blog post.

Anonymous said...

Angelo, face it.

I dealt with him from 1991 until he passed away.

Your father was one of the most "nationalistic" individuals on Saipan.