Those Days Are Gone!
“When I was young and I needed anyone, when making love was just for fun, those days are gone”.
It’s lyrics to a song that seemingly speak of changes in modern day Marianas, changes that we don’t necessarily wish to embrace for it rubs against our grand insecurity from land to lasting investments. We only want to keep the “when making love was just for fun” for it greases our local double standards on the violation of a lifetime commitment –marriage. We equally refuse to part with the latter: “those days are gone!” because we want our cake and eat it too.
There’s a reason that I keep revisiting the issue of “American Values” that are universally accepted across the country and throughout democratic socieites: we must be prepared for the inevitable. The inevitable in this case pertains to an impending US Supreme Court decision that could render the “land alienation” or Article
XII unconstitutional altogehter. The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the denial of citizenship rights based on race.
Furthermore, land ownership is a right of every US Citizen. It is the very issue of the rights of US Citizens to own property that is at issue here. Such a right is turned into a mockery by the fact that we are convinced it should only be limited to Chamorros and Carolinians. No sir! Such value system is best self-serving for those of us who are convinced that the indigenous people of these isles are the only Children of the Savior.
If you will, it was in 1986 that we all became US Citizens. That was the single most important event in our political history that changed old paradigms into a road that leads to time honored American Values. That was the day (although some of us refuse to accept it) that these islands became a permanent part of the US political family. That was the day when the voice of the majority, expressed in a plebiscite in the early seventies, turned into fruition. That was the day when everything changed to Americana.
I am prepared for the inevitable and more than willing to embrace American Values given that even if we remove the term “American”, the principles and values of Amercana remains fully intact. It is for reason that I feel strongly about preparing for the inevitable. We must never (as US Citizens) promote discrimination against fellow US Citizens out of our well greased sense of insecurity nor must we think for a moment that Marianas land is the sole preserve of the indigenous people.
Finally, as the door of this year closes slowly behind us, we must also be ready to exercise the very principles or American Values that have made our mother country the greatest throughout the world. And this equation begins with you as a US Citizen. However you may disagree with my views on land ownership, friends, “Those
Days Are Gone!”
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Do you want to see the real multi-cultural Northern Marianas Community? Visit the American Memorial Park during 4th of July celebration or the various floats prepared by people who now live here. Or better yet, sit quietly at CHC’s AC-II for the strange sounding names of guest workers seeking medical attention.
It’s no longer simple indigenous names like Camacho, Manibusan, Sablan, Pangelinan, Guerrero. It also includes Tuatuamekafoa, Chen, Quang, Motomura, Amir, Mohammad, Fajardo, Mercado, Smith, Anderson, Miller, etc. Man, has this island shifted from Chamolinians to a mini-melting pot of Chamolinians, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese,
Micronesians, statesiders, Asians and Europeans. These isles will never be the same again.