King-Hinds speaks of women’s capabilities

Former Commonwealth Ports Authority board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds joined the Rotary Club of Saipan yesterday at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan in their recognition of women during Women’s Month and to share some of her personal experiences.

As the club’s main guest speaker, King-Hinds highlighted not only her experience in opposing the Commonwealth Joint Military Training proposal of the U.S. Department of Defense to expand military trainings in the CNMI, but also about the other women whose advocacy help start a movement.

“Before I even came on to the scene, at the forefront of the movement were various community organizations led by women who had different views about the expanding footprint of militarization in the CNMI,” she said.

King Hinds cited PaganWatch led by the late Cynthia Kaipat; the Guardians of Gani led by Rosemund Santos; Keli Tenorio and Genieveve Cabrera, who were advocates for the preservation of Pagan; and the Tinian Women’s Association led by Deborah Fleming and Florine and Juanita Mendiola, who were advocating against harmful military training activities on Tinian.

“These women were fired up and ready for battle. They were at festivals and public spaces educating the community about these [military] plans. They got on the radio and were keeping the public informed. They hit the streets and circulated petitions. They were not only making noise, but they were also organizing the community to show up and speak out against these plans,” she said.

At first, she said, these women were dismissed as just another activist group that’s against the U.S. military.

“Military training activities is normal for the people of the CNMI and, because so many of our children are enlisted, there was hesitancy to reject the plans outright publicly. Then and now, we also still have a generation of people who outright fear opposing the federal government and so they encountered resistance and were labeled as ‘activists’” that weren’t aligned with what was best for the CNMI, especially when they formed an alliance called Alternative Zero who stood in solidarity in opposing any additional military training.

“But they persisted and they rallied our community and the CNMI government to publicly fight against the proposed plans,” she added.

King Hinds said she has never before seen the CNMI community come out in masses to any public hearing. “But because they hit the pavement, knocked on doors, stood by roadsides, and called on our leaders to take action, they empowered our community to take action. After the initial [Environmental Impact Statement] was rolled out for public input, there were over 27,000 comments that were submitted, which is actually unheard of and speaks volumes of the aggressive grassroots campaign that these women launched to help educate the public.

“These comments also help crystalized some of the CNM’s position with regards to the proposed plans. And it was also through their efforts and outcry that the assistance of Earth Justice, a nonprofit public environmental law organization, was secured, to sue the Navy and the Department of Defense.”

She shared that those 27,000 comments from the public were the baseline for any policy discussion on the subject.

“I credit our community’s participation to the efforts of these women who persisted and fought to be heard,” she said.

Today, the CJMT plans are being revised and have drastically changed, King-Hinds said, and the CNMI had established very clear red lines: no bombing of Pagan and Tinian, no ripping out of any coral reef, no special use airspace that will impact international flights and interisland commute, and no to restricted access to historical and cultural sites that Tinian relies on for its local economy.

“All these line items are off the table,” she said.

Also, the CNMI and DOD are taking a collaborative approach in the EIS revision, which is expected to be completed sometime later this year.

“In other words, instead of DOD dumping thousands of pages of documents to review, they are sharing the chapters of the revised EIS as they are completed. This is not required by NEPA [National Environment Protection Act] but an ask that we’ve made to ensure that the people of the CNMI through our local regulatory agencies have ample time to review the potential impact of the revised plans,” she said.

At the beginning of the fight against DOD, King-Hinds said there were many who told them to give up, likening the fight to one against Goliath. But because of so many women who spearheaded the fight against the U.S. military’s plans, a completed Revised CJMT EIS will be published in the coming months.

“In other words, we beat Goliath with many thanks to the women who led the charge at the community level,” she added.

King-Hinds will be running for the position of CNMI delegate to the U.S. Congress this November.