Thank you!

I want to spread around some gratitude, now that President Bush has designated parts of our ocean as a national marine monument. Thanks to Pew Charitable Trusts and its Ocean Legacy Project for introducing us to the idea of a national marine monument in our waters.

Thanks to everyone who supported the idea of a monument here in the CNMI from the beginning, including Jacinta Kaipat and Angelo Villagomez. Thanks to all of my fellow Friends of the Monument, including Ike Cabrera, Ken Kramer, Agnes McPhetres, Andrew Salas, Ruth Tighe and Chailang Palacios and the hundreds of others who contributed their talents to the project. Thanks to all those who wrote letters to the newspapers and to the White House to urge designation of a monument here. Thanks to the 6,000 people who signed our petitions in support. Thanks to the business community, and especially the Chamber of Commerce, for supporting the monument proposal.

Thanks to those who helped our community gain a better understanding of the proposal, especially William Aila of Hawaii. Thanks to the state of Hawaii, for having the first national marine monument and showing us what a successful marine monument looks like. Thanks to the CNMI students who debated about the proposal, and to their teacher, and those who watched and listened. Thanks to those who offered public venues for discussion and presentations, to those who came to the meetings and presentations, and to those who stopped by the Friends of the Monument office.

Thanks to those who eventually came to support the monument proposition after initially questioning it or opposing it. In this camp, most notable is Governor Fitial and our legislative leadership. Although their support has not been widely reported, President Bush would not have gone forward without it, and Governor Fitial’s presence at the announcement was a strong signal that our community has reached a consensus of sorts.

Thanks to James Connaughton, Lyle Laverty, and the other federal officials who made the trip to the CNMI to discuss the work-in-progress proposal, who listened and made adjustments in the proposal to satisfy concerns of government leaders. Thanks to Mrs. Laura Bush for her influence and support. Thanks to President George W. Bush for the willingness to care and for using his capacity to make a difference.

I would even say thanks to those, like John Gourley, who opposed the monument, some with scare tactics and misinformation. This forced those supporting the monument to be more careful in expressing what exactly was on the table, to dig deeper into the mounds of information available about our dwindling marine resources and the need to protect them, and to work together.

Last, but not least, thanks to the media—the newspapers, television, and Internet—where stories, photos, opinions, and information about the monument proposal and the effort to have a national marine monument designated here have been made available to the public, in the CNMI, in Guam, Hawaii, the United States, Australia, and the world.