On Citizenship Responsibility

Education columnist Tony Pellegrino wrote an excellent piece on Citizenship Responsibility, specifically, the observance of various holidays, i.e., Covenant Day and others. He must have raised the issue as a good US Citizen and fellow countryman. And it isn’t late altogether teaching our children the significance of each holiday we observe every year.

But one would have to understand the history of where we are today in our relationship with our mother country in order to appreciate the apparent culture of indifference in the behavior of our people. Notice I didn’t use the term “federal government” because it’s bad news all around. I much prefer referring to it in different form, i.e., our mother country. Yes, it is heartbreaking for this US Citizen of 12 years to find ourselves at a juncture when nothing seems to work under the current relationship.

Historically, the NMI wanted reintegration with the Unincorporated Territory of Guam not that the intent of the merger is really genuine, but we were interested in $1 an hour. Never mind the responsibility that comes with US Citizenship. We wanted our share of $1 an hour so we could buy a case of coke and beer everyday and burn more meat while we relish the $1 an hour wage paid for by US mainland taxpayers.

The discussion on taxes was both interesting and virulent. Man, did the gathering at the old municipal building turn into a pandemonium in the 1960s. Saipan Chamber of Commerce guest speaker Mr. David M. Sablan came close to being gobbled up by local politicians who wanted only the $1 an hour wage saying screw the taxation end of the issue. It clearly illustrated that it was the $1 that we wanted not the responsibilities of citizenship, i.e., paying taxes to support our needs. Reintegration failed!

We hated anything that looks or smells like personal income tax. As an administrative district in the old Trust Territory Government, someone burned the former Congress of Micronesia building when the one percent tax was approved. When in 1978 the mirror image (IRS) tax went into effect, many people complained why the increase in tax deductions. This widespread complain took years to get used to under the new arrangement or relationship.

We were so used to receiving salary raises paid for through the nose of US mainland taxpayers with no clue that the source came from the pockets of productive fellow countrymen. And we wanted our unearned loot now! Thus, any mention of wages anywhere and you turn into an EF Hutton where every ear listens intently. Interesting too that even those earning about $8 an hour or more in the public sector find it fitting to join the chorus supporting another round of hourly wage increase. When I quiz if they’re willing to take a salary cut from $8 an hour to $3.05 an hour, they’d say “No!” What then is your beef?

After more than 30 years of statutory wage increase we convinced ourselves that it can be done without peeping into the source or the implications it may have on the local economy. Little did we know that since 1978, any salary increase must come from within–locally generated revenues. Uncle Tom has left the island and doesn’t even want to look back. It’s a policy that at best gave the local people the wrong impression that you can get anything (in wages) without having to consider the source of funds or work for it.

As I look back in history and how superficial reliance on US grant funds has done us more harm than good on wages and salaries, it must be a troubling reality that we now must fend for ourselves. Uncle Tom has left and now we must deal with this issue on our own forking out not what we think should be the hourly wage, but what the local treasury and economy can support. This is one of the realities in the exercise of self-government. Si Yuus Maase`!