Thanks for the FYI Mr. Palacios Jr.

Too often I have written letters and have gotten ugly and even threatening responses but it was indeed a pleasure and refreshing to see there are still some people who know how to respect other people and their opinion while engaging them in the newspaper. Thank you, Mr. Roman T. Palacios jr. for letting me and the rest of the CNMI know that primaries have been conducted in modern times. Maybe the parties and the people involved will take note and have more respect for your comments since you have the right last name.

I’m also glad you are a real student of politics and recognized and agreed with my suggestion to Heinz Hofschneider and Dave Apatang because I do respect them as being viable candidates but I see them as having the perfect opportunity to “unite” the party and begin to create their own groundswell for what I can see to be the strongest bid for governor and lieutenant governor in the next elections of 2009. I see we also agree on Sen. Luis Crisostimo’s position, especially when he is the only true Democrat that wants to run for governor. I don’t know what the Democratic Party was thinking because everyone in the CNMI knows his opponent just wants to be governor and I don’t think it matters to him which party he represents, from the way he has courted and switched parties. Crisostimo was a win-win scenario for the Democrats because a win by Crisostimo would leave a Democratic seat in the Senate and a loss by him would only set the stage for a stronger bid in 2009.

My letter on the parties was not personal and this letter is not personal. I hope you and others can tell that I write because I care in hopes that one day, the people of the CNMI won’t be so divided into so many political groups by our leaders. We are too small for such large divisions. The party politics is and will continue to be the source of all the major problems in government as a result of the infighting within the same parties.

I’m glad to see there are others that can discuss polities without taking it personally and turning it into a personal attack on me. Thanks for correcting my lack of knowledge about the recent primaries and your perspective on the politics of the CNMI. I hope we will meet one day. One people, one direction

Ambrose Bennett
Kagman