Let freedom ring with harmony

As this day is celebrated throughout the country with fireworks that light up the evening skies, an excited crowd in parade and carnival grounds exchanging felicitations, or patriotic cheering as the various military band blare out their individual theme songs; I’d quietly review history, specifically, the sacrifice that my grandfather and aunt had to endure which gave me greater understanding and appreciation of the price of freedom.

My saintly grandfather and aunt would recant being jailed by the Japanese Imperial Army because he knew how to speak and read English through books brought here by his uncle, a whaler who sailed to the East and West Coasts before WWII. Self-study enabled him to read and speak English. The Japanese intelligence unit thought he was an American spy. So he was jailed for wrongful suspicion of being an informant to the invading US forces.

Grandpa also bought a small organ before the outbreak of WWII for my aunt who had taken piano lessons in school. The Japanese Imperial Army suspected that the key board instrument could very well be a device to send messages (Morse code) to the enemy. Thus, the family residence in Kanat Tabla was fully guarded by Japanese soldiers. Eventually, grandpa was released from his Garapan cell to join his family when the invading American forces increased aerial bombardment of the island.

While they spoke gracefully of their near-death experience, I could see watery eyes of gratitude ever thankful to Divine Providence that they were never beheaded by the Japanese Imperial Army. After the war, grandpa’s uncle (late Gregorio Sablan) known in this community as Tun Goru` Kilili`, was appointed the first civilian mayor by the Naval administration. Tun Kilili` died shortly after his appointment. Grandpa replaced him in that post. He was a natural and gifted leader. He and the late Tun Ignacion Nando established the first civilian government in these islands.

I kept revisiting his stint in his jail cell and all the troubling thoughts about his fate and the family that prays daily for his safe return home. I was also reduced to tears and humility for what he and my aunt had to endure to ensure that the generation of indigenous families behind them also relish the freedom that we enjoy today as US Citizens. Thanks grandpa and aunt for your sacrifice. You’ve passed the torch of leadership to our generation ever thankful that the bell of freedom will forever ring in these isles. Happy Fourth of July to one and all and may there be greater harmony with our mother country as we sort out commonalities. Si Yuus Maase` yan ghilisow!

On Ruth Tighe’s ramblings

I was handed a copy of an assessment of reporting inaccuracies found in the local media premised on the assertion that English is the second language of non-indigenous reporters. Therefore, the inaccuracies. Ms. Tighe asserted that they can’t do an accurate job of news reporting because they have no sense of history of local events. Nice try though a bit too shallow.

Your off the cuff analysis missed the target completely: 1). It is laden with condescension of people of color or racial overtone. 2). Your call for analysis requires an analysis unto itself for it is mind boggling that you had the gall to dish out such half-cocked analysis in the first instance. Essentially, you’ve shot yourself in the foot by defeating the very purpose of the issue you’ve opted to discuss in the sea of shallowness.

In more ways than one, you’ve equally demonstrated your lack of depth on an issue you thought was solely the domain of white male or female supremacists. As a publisher, I’ve worked with stateside reporters who are convinced that English being their first language, therefore, they’d do better than those of us you’ve relegated with ineptitude in this business because English is our second language. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet old lady.

Ms. Tighe, English is English and I recall being in an English class at the University of Guam where two Micronesians passed the exam at the end of the semester while all others had to retake the course, including students whose first language is, believe it or not, English! I do not understand the fallacy of your condescending and shallow analysis, an issue that perhaps is best left unsaid.