The persisting federal threat

Being a regular reader of this paper, I have noticed that the federalization issue is still alive and well. Federal takeover references are still routinely inserted into news articles and editorials.

Many of us are tired of the whole sordid issue. We wish the federal threat would just go away–would be permanently put to rest, so that it never disturbs us again.

Unfortunately, there is no hint of this ever happening in the near future; the alarming menace persists. We must continue to deal with it, mostly by constantly rehashing old charges and old arguments–charges and arguments dating back from 1992, when this whole controversy first seriously erupted as a direct result of the (U.S. textile labor union-instigated) federal animosity against our local garment industry.

Make no mistake: The federal threat first began when the garment labor unions in the states first started noticing unfriendly commercial competition from the Northern Mariana Islands. Prior to this discovery, most bureaucrats and politicians in Washington probably did not even know that the CNMI even existed. They just went about their daily business–until some clout-ridden labor union lobbyist brought us to their immediate attention, by brandishing votes and political contributions.

That’s when all hell broke lose. All of a sudden, virtually overnight, the CNMI became the most vile and despicable territory under the U.S. flag. Hordes of hungry left-leaning, labor union sympathizing reporters (many of them Democrat yellow journalists) converged uponSaipan to peddle their sensational “news” stories of slavery, misery and unprecedented labor abuses.

It was a curious spectacle indeed.

If an American woman was raped in the United States, that was marked down as ordinary, regular news, to be buried in the back pages of most major U.S. newspapers, if included at all.

But if the very same crime were perpetrated against even a single alien woman on CNMI soil, well, then, that was a very serious matter altogether: a crime against humanity–the most corrupt and depraved thing imaginable.

No, such news would have to go on the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. Our friend Bill Branigin would have to do another special report.

Ironically, in bashing the CNMI and advancing their labor union agenda, our critics have made it appear as if alien lives were much more important relative to American lives.

And the farce and folly continue . . .