MLK Day: Solution for the CNMI

It’s Dr. King’s birthday celebration today and I have been pushing the issue of making Martin Luther King’s birthday an official holiday in the CNMI for almost four years and there are other African-Americans in the CNMI that were trying before me and it is still not a holiday. Last Monday was an official holiday (Commonwealth Day) and in fact I spent part of Commonwealth day writing this letter because it dawned on me what the solution might be for Dr. King’s birthday to be recognized in the CNMI.

The problem has been which holiday to drop so we can add Dr. King’s birthday. The proposal to drop Columbus Day has conflicted with Rota’s Fiesta that uses Columbus Day and I totally understand Rota’s situation because their Fiesta is the biggest event of the year for Rota and we shouldn’t drop Columbus Day for that reason. The more recent bill to drop Presidents Day that actually got to the governor’s desk shows the Legislature is trying but at the same time we must all agree that Presidents Day is more relevant and important than Columbus Day—so we can’t drop Presidents Day either for fear of damaging our relationship with “our father who art in Washington (the feds).”

Our only solution is to find another day and that is what I would like to propose. I would like to offer a simple solution to what seems to be a complex problem. Commonwealth Day and Covenant Day are redundant celebrations for basically the same phenomenon—the creation of a political relationship with the United States. Neither of these two holidays are truly being exploited by the government or the community—they are just a day off because there is no official celebrations. At least we know Dr. King’s birthday will always be celebrated and recognized by the African-American Community and many others in the CNMI that truly appreciate and understand what Dr. King did for all of mankind.

The only official celebration on Covenant Day that I know of was just last year when the “founders” of the CNMI were assembled on Covenant Day. We have had over two decades of Covenant Days but only ONE was celebrated—I hope everyone is getting this. To my knowledge, there has never been a celebration on Commonwealth Day and the government has never applied the proper application of Commonwealth Day. Commonwealth Day is the day our first governor and Legislature took office but we never use Commonwealth Day anymore for inaugurations—why, only God knows for sure because it is a “collective failure.”

We should delete Commonwealth Day since we are not using it for inaugurations. Commonwealth Day is also not as important as Covenant Day because the Covenant is actually what created the Commonwealth. The inauguration date of our first officials is important but that “date and event (not a person)” we are celebrating on Commonwealth Day is also secondary to the date of the Covenant signing. Commonwealth Day and Dr. King’s birthday are in the same month of January making Commonwealth Day the most logical day to delete and replace with MLK Day if the people of the CNMI truly appreciate what Dr. King did for them. We must also consider the fact that everyone in the CNMI is fully aware of Dr. King and his birthday recognition but you can be assured there are far fewer people in the CNMI that even know when and what Commonwealth Day is even all about. If you ask every person on Capital Hill how they feel about MLK Day, they will tell you they are in support of it being a holiday.

Their previous efforts are truly appreciated but it is just taking too long. Sacrificing one of the local holidays would indeed be a very noble gesture and I believe it is the right thing to do. One people, one direction.

Ambrose M. Bennett
African-American Community

P.S.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rep. Arnold Palacios for his concern over the education funding issue and for his participation in the meeting with the governor. I also want to thank him for authoring the bill allowing the Department of Public Safety to close the beaches when it is not safe for people to be in the ocean. Parents and the community should also do their part by making sure their adventurous teenage children obey the new law because the law was created to save their life. I don’t want to lose any more of my students and I’m sure parents don’t want to lose their child.