Good Morning, America! How are you?

Mr. Kimo Mafnas Rosario of As Gonno, Koblerville’s rejoinder (Nov. 11) to my letter to the editor, “My chill factor in Good Morning, America” (Nov. 10), proves his point: one knee-jerk response has a tendency to invite another knee-jerk response, ad infinitum. In the Sicilian tradition, that could get vicious! Yet, here comes one more, but with the hope that we could keep it civil!

Kimo writes: “As a PSS educator, it is Mr. Vergara’s responsibility to teach this particular local student the right way of…” Current pedagogical style today is more akin to the saying, “One can take a horse to the river, but one cannot force a horse to drink.” Teachers can only take students to the fount of knowledge; they cannot force their students to drink. With the formidable challenge of habits (knee-jerk responses) developed from home and culture, the 30-minute intentional Character Education period in public schools is hardly enough time to cause paradigm shifts of the issue in question (racism/racial prejudices). And we are talking “knowledge” here, which involves analysis and discernment, as opposed to just data that requires only factual verification. And hardly are we talking about wisdom, either!

Before I am further misunderstood, let me categorically disengage any notion that I am implying Kimo is a horse. I am not that bright of a donkey (though I am politically a Democrat), but I will consent to his request. By the way, Kimo is a Hawaiian equivalent to “James,” which is also “Jaime” en Español (and Hawaii is my second residence of record), so in Pinoy street parlance, Kimo and I would be “tukayo” (of or from the same stem or limb). Though Kimo claims to be a parent, the practice of adopting native Pacific names is recent, so I assume a wider age difference between the two of us.

Now, to teach, and gladly.

1) There is a difference between narrating what was said (objective data, expressed in the indicative), what was implied (subjective and/or reflective data, such as the subjunctive), what was inferred (interpretive data that trades in dialogue and is expressed often in the interrogative/inquisitive mood), and what was required (decisional data that is often clothed in the imperative/judgmental mood). The English language distinguishes between those grammatical and verb moods.

In this light, I never claimed “locals were racist.” In a previous article, when I was still a regular columnist for the Saipan Tribune, I wrote one with the title: “On Being Local.” The point of the article was to disassociate “local” from “ethnicity.” So, use of the word “local” did not have an ethnic reference.

Also, inadvertently, Saipan Tribune edited my “Good Morning, America” title with the capital letters, for it was an allusion to Willie Nelson’s “Good Morning America, how are you …” song, which reflects the subjunctive mood, and the “Good Morning, America” morning TV program, which implied a desire for dialogue and intelligent discourse. Hardly was anything in the letter intended to be judgmental or condemnatory. If it reads that way, mea culpa.

On the other hand, if a judgment was inferred and the shoe fits, wear it!

2) In the version of the article that I shared with the Web site of my fellow Philippine high school alumni, as well as that of the Filipino-American Methodists, I prefixed the observation that 7 out of 10 of my Filipino colleagues chose McCain in the presidential election, and that 5 out of the 7 did so out of more than just racial overtones. I reported the fact but refrained from moral and ethical judgment since I was pointing to the fact that the challenge is common to our time. I did not include this in the Saipan Tribune version for the sake of brevity, and as those who have followed my published musings know, being brief is not one of my better habits!

In this spirit, yes, I would consider “racism” (the cultural, and particularly, the legal practice of considering one race to be superior/inferior over another) as a contradiction in our time that we can no longer propagate nor sustain, though those who have developed colonial minds from European and American influences may understandably have appropriated the racial superiority of the “white race” themselves from their colonial masters. I am, therefore, congruent with the observations of Dwaine Blas Reyes of Sierra Vista, AZ, in his concurrent letter to the editor titled, The shackles of racism. Kimo might want to peruse Dwaine’s thoughts closely.

Enough teaching. If Kimo wants to follow up this discourse, or anyone else for that matter, I can be reached at SVESjaime@aol.com.

Now, as to wanting glory in 15 minutes of fame, I’m afraid I’m too late for that. Still, if Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska managed to get hers so swiftly and so dramatically in the last three months, is it so unreasonable to expect others to want the same, though perhaps, under more favorable circumstances? I must concede offhand that my legs are not that alluring, and my winks are hardly of any suasive value.

As to my engaging in repugnant activit(ies) as an educator, one might want to check the other things I do. Repugnance might just come as a mild term. In any case, PSS has a shortage of teachers, and Kimo and anyone else out there, if you have the credentials, or could get them, come join us. We can use more diversity, and definitely, could use the “local” touch.