The US of A nation

I normally lead my 6thth grade class in singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” but the day before Citizenship Day, a mild upper respiratory infection bothered my throat enough that I asked a few students in my class to lead in singing the national anthem. A moment later, the class was singing the Commonwealth anthem.

Almost daily, we ritualistically begin the day with Francis Scott Key’s lines to the familiar tune performed during public functions, followed by the Chamorro and Carolinian Commonwealth songs. So I assumed that when I said, “national anthem,” that it would be understood. Well, it was, after a fashion. When I asked the class what their nationality was, the vocal response was overwhelmingly, “the CNMI.”

President Reagan on Nov. 4 1986 granted full U.S. citizenship to all those residing in the Northern Marianas who met the qualifications established in the Covenant signed by President Ford 10 years before. Most of my students are citizens by virtue of birth, and a good number are children of “alien” workers who have managed to be residents of the CNMI for quite a while but whose status remain that of foreigners. Parents’ emotional ties are connected to the countries or islands of their origins. Though technically U.S. citizens, these children are at heart, attached to their parents’ national identities.

The children of Chamorro and Carolinian families are displaced in another sense. Used to hearing “Federal” as those strangers from the U.S. mainland who are often thought of as plotting to take over the CNMI government, there is no love lost on the them Feds! Further, U.S. citizens in the Commonwealth have become a minority group, and the emerging Commonwealth cultural identity is taking the shape of a diverse ethnic tapestry where citizenship has become less an important functional concern. Active participation in islands’ civic activities has become one’s badge of ‘citizenship.’

Our class’ NPR 15-minute “listen-and-discuss-the news” period hardly generates any intellectual curiosity on matters American. Luckily, Social Studies on Ancient Civilization began with Mesopotamia, so there is a reference point when hearing news from the Middle East. Also, with the tourist and garment industries providing ethnic variety, news items from places like Vietnam and Bangladesh, Nepal and China, Philippines and Japan hold some marginal interest in the students’ minds. But on matters US of A, they are like the Israelites reluctantly singing their song by the rivers of Babylon. Things American are not existentially grounded in the local psyche. Perhaps, America is something to be longed for, like aspiring to go to school in the mainland at a later date. For now, America is a foreign land.

It is no wonder then that the class members hardly registered any interest in the U.S. presidential election. In a show of hands on who they would vote for if they were voting, only four students out of 26 raised their hands. The rest did not register an opinion, let alone, any interest. Which is perhaps, just as well, especially after this past election. The New York Times editorial “The day after E-day” had these words: “It was inspiring yesterday morning to see the lines of voters at the polls around the nation, but the mood was worrisome. Party loyalty was not the overarching emotion this year. Neither was enthusiasm for either of the candidates. The main emotion seemed to be contempt for the other side.”

Truly, this was an acrimonious campaign, the likes of which we had not seen before, and will most likely not miss ever again. The consequences of a decision-making process with adversity built in as a major ingredient like what we have in the election setup may require of us to consider other processes that still can get leadership installed without having 51 percent of us proposing measures while 49 percent craftily subverting its implementation. Unfortunately, the pattern of conflict is organic in our western system of governance. It is ancient, traceable to the Greeks, or even further to Sargon the Akkadian. It will remain with us for a long while.

So, OK, George and Dick are my fellow Methodists. I attended a Methodist University in Dallas, Texas where Mr. Bush makes his home. I know where he and Laura frequented a pew. But it is not from their religious affiliation that I hold them accountable. To be sure, the Bush/Cheney administration’s domestic and foreign policies measured against the social principles of the United Methodist Church are found wanting. But fellowship in the faith had been stretched rather thinly within that communion, and not unlike the nation, it is rent in half right down the middle.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta was politically astute when he kept referring to President Bush as “my president” during the mock debate at the Northern Marianas College. Staying loyal to the leader chosen by the political process of one’s government, even if that meant that the acclamation was coursed through the Supreme Court, is admirable. Now, after Sen. John Kerry conceded that he and the New England Patriots were a few yards short of the end zone, I will now get back to calling George W. “my president.” He was legitimately elected this time. My loyalty is a self-imposed requirement though, in the words of President Reagan, “trust but verify” remains a necessary operational principle. And it is from this point that I, as a citizen, hold my president accountable.

It is thereby imperative now that taking one’s citizenship seriously must come to mean more than voting on election day. Civic virtue now, more than ever, must mean civic participation in public discourse and community action. It matters who and what policies guide the national administration, but it matters more that the political process, from vision to mission, is brought down to the local level. It is here where relevant issues such as the environment, local education, human resource development, regional economic planning, and others, can be dealt with effectively. I need to impress these on my students. That, and ah, the national anthem.

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Vergara is a Social Studies 6th grade teacher at San Vicente Elementary School and writes a regular column for the Saipan Tribune.