The CNMI is not a joking matter

Good riddance to Gary DuBrall! Even though he really exposed some good things for readers, he was more of a problem than a solution because the future of the CNMI is not a facetious or joking matter like Gary may think. It is also obvious to me that we even want some of the same things (the application of the principles and values of America) for the CNMI but we couldn’t get past his interpretation of the Democrats. The Democratic Party is a party for all people in the CNMI and not a party just for the NMDs as I’m a member and I’m not an NMD!

You assert that racism is alive and well but your eight grandchildren don’t need any help, which is really an oxymoron. So who is going to stop the alleged racism for your grandkids? Certainly not your letters and not your grandchildren so they need help. I am living proof that racism does not exist within the Democratic Party. I have also rolled up my sleeves to get dirty and do the work to stamp out all forms of racism in the CNMI, only to be splattered with dirt and mud by people like you, Gary.

Too many cultures have lived and died and the local culture is now slowly dying at a rate of one person at a time but you claim your NMD grandchildren don’t need any help. Again, how are they going to pass culture on if they don’t get the help needed? You even put the responsibility on the home when it’s a group effort as no parent has the ability to pass on the entire culture, so even parents need help.

As for the manifesto you are in possession of, those are personal beliefs that still resonate for conversation purposes among many locals but not our platform. Your job as a citizen is to do something to change their beliefs if they are racist to you. But talking in the papers in a facetious approach is not going to address your concerns for racism, it just exacerbates the problem. So you can either be part of the solution or part of the problem.

Yes, we wouldn’t need a CW Transition Plan if PSS was doing what it should but we all know it is not and neither is NMC. PSS and NMC have been working on solving our teacher shortage for over a decade and we still need teachers every year. So they can’t do it without the right leadership and help. But what are you going to do about it? Just write, complain and joke about it or are you going to do something about it? You are complaining about the Democrat’s solution by complaining about PSS’ failure which is really an oxymoron of your own doing that doesn’t help or solve the problem.

FYI, the Democrats are the only team with a complete CW Transition Plan that will repatriate locals from the mainland and put most of our youth graduating from high school into jobs and this includes the children of the CW workers who are in our schools for free, so stop the racist talk about Democrats! The Democrats know we will still need some CWs but we are also obligated to get jobs for all our youth first and obligated to federal law to eliminate as many CWs as possible, so let’s get real about this, Gary. Finally, no other team has offered a complete transition plan and most people know that a failure to plan is a plan for failure, so what’s your plan?

It took the help of the federal government and affirmative action to help blacks be on a level playing field in the job market and it will take similar help offered by the Democrats for locals who must compete with CWs especially when there is an obvious disparity in the experience and qualifications. So your grandchildren do need help with a level playing field to enter the job market, which is what the Democrats plan does.

You say that any just person that doesn’t support a pathway to citizenship for CWs, after what the CNMI put most of them through, is an immoral person, devoid of empathy. If the majority of CWs had been abused like the Jews were, this assertion would be true but that is not even close to being the case as we are talking 13,000-plus CWs and the abuse cases only numbered in the hundred(s). You make it seem like all locals mistreated all of the CWs—not true. You and Kilili are also promoting citizenship like it is some kind of war reparation. Voters know citizenship for all CWs will threaten and even end the local political sovereignty over our government with the signing of a law. By all means compensate the CW victims but this overnight citizenship for all is a bit ridiculous—a point the Democrats will make known in Washington if elected!

You also don’t speak for the CWs as all of them I talk to have no desire to become a U.S. citizen—they just want to stay here and work. So why are you and Kilili fighting for something that the majority don’t even want? It is people like you and Kilili who want to play politics, judge, jury, executioner, and god that are making this difficult and voters were never asked by Kilili who made sure only the business community had a voice. If the CWs would have come forward and formally declared as a whole they only want to stay here and work, it would have been an easy sell in Congress for them to remain. But no, some CWs got greedy and wanted to manipulate our system for citizenship. I even warned the CWs to be careful what they ask for and now they are regretting their quest for federal intervention. But the real problem is people like you and Kilili who have them thinking the CNMI owes all of them citizenship when that was never the deal. There are people throughout the entire world who can claim the U.S. owes them citizenship for one reason or another just to get out of their country but they must all get in line and earn citizenship—it’s not free! This is also about changing and creating new nationalities for CWs and race is not part of the equation, so stop the racism talk, Gary and Kilili, because most voters know the difference between nationality and ethnicity (race) issues.

I think the brain-dead stereotyping of all PSS students is ugly, horrific, insulting and dead wrong especially when it’s not factual! You are taking your dissatisfaction with PSS out on our children and going too far, judging and degrading two entire races of students by name (Chamorros and Carolinians) when other ethnic groups also attend PSS, which means you are promoting an ugly form of racism inferiority you claim shouldn’t exist. You don’t have any proof of your ugly, brain-dead claim so slow down and make up your mind if you are for or against racism. We should be promoting self-esteem among students and locals as they have more invested in the CNMI than those who are not from the CNMI like you and me! But you are damming the Democrats when they are the only one in the election who really wants to promote and help PSS and the very students you are putting down.

Unlike your race, I understand as an African-American that the CNMI still needs its first Chamorro and Carolinian scientists, astronauts, Nobel Prize winner, Supreme Court justice, Olympian, Miss USA and the list goes on and the only way we can get them is to promote locals, not degrade locals and cheer for CWs’ citizenship to make it harder for locals like you are doing. FYI, I agree with Dr. Sablan about you even though we differ on other issues and how she is handling PSS and especially the CW transition issue! You did apologize to students but you really need to apologize to your race, Mr. DuBrall, because you have to be a real insult and embarrassment to your race as your twisted idealism and your racist stereotyping of locals, students, and things in the CNMI is ridiculous!

Finally, I pray for you that you will one day realize that complaining and injecting your racist superiority thought process is not going to solve anything. FYI, the Democrats will take PSS and NMC, our students and our entire society to the next level and I won’t be yelling “hey” from the sidelines; I’ll be helping them if voters are willing to elect them. So think about trying to stop being a facetious and racist fault-finder and become a real solution doer by getting active in the community as you seem to have the potential to truly be of benefit to society. Think about it, locals have feelings of self-esteem like you and they are far more invested in the CNMI than you or I will ever be. Respect these facts and you might even be appreciated instead of being scorned. Adios!

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman, Saipan