Down with the offensive language

Dear Representatives: I want to state for the record that I am extremely disappointed by the conduct of one of your colleagues, who blasted Rep. Tina Sablan two days ago during a House session, and said that Tina is just “bitching, bitching, bitching.” These types of words are derogatory, inappropriate, unprofessional, and downright rude! Add to the fact that this is a female colleague? It also has sexist connotations!

I cannot believe that none of you scolded your colleague for using such offensive language. The thing is, Tina brushed it off, as she has thicker skin than anyone I know. Of course, your colleague said that by bitching, he meant complaining. Call it what you want. It is still extremely offensive. What’s next? Will it be acceptable to use four-letter expletives during your House sessions?

Tina can handle her own battles, and she certainly doesn’t need me or anyone else defending her. That is not my point here. My point here is that all of you must remember that debate is a part of your job. You must fight for us and use reason and logic, and reason and logic does not include offensive language.

Let me remind you that it was only a handful of you that voted against the Aggreko contract. I was up there, and I testified against it. While we are enjoying 24-hour power once again, my question to you is, at whose expense are we enjoying this 24-hour power? As we are now finding out, Aggreko may not be compliant with EPA’s clean air standards. So why wasn’t this looked into before Aggreko was declared the only viable solution to solve our power crisis? Did you not hear us when we said that we must explore other options on the table? Where is your due diligence? Why was Telesource Tinian completely ignored? The fact is, did any of you even talk to Telesource? Did you not know that they were prepared to ship down 10 megawatts of power that is sitting idle on Tinian, which would have saved us millions of dollars? Did you not hear Dr. Tom Arkle when he stated that the CNMI could have purchased 20 megawatts of Caterpillar engines at the mere cost of $40,000 per month? Instead, we are paying $504,000 per month, just for renting Aggreko’s engines that we cannot own. And now, Dr. Arkle recently found out that we could have purchased the same type of Aggreko engines for less than half of what we are paying to rent them. And they would have been brand new, and compliant with EPA standards!

In light of this and other matters, it is obvious that Tina is thinking, not just complaining. She wanted all of you to look at other options. The fact that all of you did not do your homework has resulted in millions of dollars that we have basically thrown away. Are we any closer to fixing CUC’s engines? No. So what does that mean? Most likely, the one-year agreement with Aggreko will easily turn in to a year and a half or two…or even three! We are throwing money away like it is nobody’s business. In the meantime, Tina has preached for an honest and open government, better governance, less spending, etc. Is this what her colleague means by complaining?

Again, Tina can fight her own battles, and she doesn’t need anyone coming to her defense. But I want it to be known that this type of offensive language must end. It is disgusting. I have been called a rabble-rouser by one of your colleagues. I laughed when I read it. But using the word “bitch” is not a laughing matter. Whether your colleague wants to dress it up and he really meant “complain” is not the point. An inappropriate word was used, and if he had any sense of dignity, he would issue to Tina Sablan an apology. Anything less shows his arrogance and his complete lack of humility.

By the way, how much of our taxpayers’ money was wasted when you discussed Harry Blalock’s conduct for a whole hour? Don’t you have better things to do? Why can’t that same energy be put into solving CUC? It is this type of madness that has upset your constituents. Please tell your colleagues that if they are so offended by what Harry has to say, turn the dial. It is quite simple. In the meantime, I will continue to listen to KZMI and Harry’s food for thought, and I don’t care if I agree or disagree with him. That is not the point. Harry gets people talking about the issues, and if anything, you should be commending him. What is better? A person who speaks out on issues, or a person who remains silent and pretends everything is just fine and dandy?

We have a lot of problems on our hands, and I am glad that Tina has been speaking out on the issues affecting all of us. You do not have to agree with her, but you should certainly listen to her and debate with her. That is a part of due diligence. Mr. Speaker, I sincerely hope that Tina is offered an apology, and I sincerely hope that no one uses such foul and offensive language from this day forward.

Thank you for hearing me out.
[B] Ed Propst[/B] [I]Dandan, Saipan[/I]