The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

It seems that one day while Chicken Little was walking under a tree, an acorn fell on his head. Immediately he thought to himself: “The sky is falling down. I must hurry and tell the king.” Along the way he met some friends named Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, and Turkey Lurkey.

They became as excited as he when he told them that the sky was falling down. As they proceeded to the king’s palace, they met a villain named Foxy Loxy. As Foxy heard the story from the excited group, he suggested a short cut to the king’s palace. Being gullible little farm animals, they followed the fox to his cave and were never heard of again.

Another version has it that they did finally get to see the king. After examining the acorn that fell on Chicken Little’s head, the king told them that the sky was not falling. It was just an acorn. With these words of assurance, they returned home happy. Which version do you prefer?

All of us have read this story perhaps in pre-school and have enjoyed it. But what we have forgotten is that the story about Chicken Little is a story for teaching “courage.” Don’t be a “chicken little.” Don’t be afraid! The sky is not falling. The chicken jumped to a conclusion and whipped up the populace into mass hysteria which the unscrupulous fox used to manipulate them for his own benefit, perhaps as supper.

This story has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical or mistaken belief—that disaster is imminent. It could also be interpreted as a cautionary political tale.

Everyone is talking about the Malcolm D. McPhee & Associates and Dick Conway report. Basically it states that we are about to sink deeper into the lagoon come June, 2009, and perhaps totally sink by December 31, 2014. The only hope it offers is a lifejacket handed to us from the United States government by maintaining the status quo and requesting millions of dollars more.

Read the report. It is 96 pages long. It sounds so depressing and hopeless. The only salvation is for the United States to do exactly what we want them to do. We must beg them to keep feeding and pampering us as though we are a bunch of helpless idiots that cannot do anything for ourselves. What a defeatist conclusion!

If what the report says is true, why don’t we take action to change the events? We still have time. If we don’t want to happen what the report predicts, don’t we have the will and courage to improve? The question is: “Where is our will and courage?” Where is our pride and determination in all of this?

I don’t think I know better than the writers of the report. I don’t. What the report explains is basically factual. But after reading it, I felt so helpless. It is so negative. It never discusses what we can to help ourselves. It keeps suggesting that we need more outside help. Haven’t we always thought and acted that way? The report simply keeps saying that we need more time-more money. It doesn’t suggest that we begin making plans and create opportunities to begin improving ourselves. Instead we are acting as Chicken Little when he thought the sky was falling.

We are neither helpless nor hopeless. We can and must help ourselves! If we get off our buts (excuses) and start creating our own salvation, we can better the situation or at least show the powers that be that we have changed for the better. By developing our skills and our resources, we can create industries on our own instead of pleading for more outside investments from which we receive only tax money to feed government employees. Those profits rarely flow down to you and me.

Is the U.S. supposed to give in to the same people who created the situation we find ourselves in? When are we going to change and realize that today’s CNMI has not adapted to the modern era? The CNMI is so interdependent on the rest of the world. We are not in isolation any more. We are no longer a cute Pacific island as was shown in the movies when I was growing up. We are a modern state and must act as one. Our thinking must change accordingly.

We seem to have forgotten two of the three immutable laws of motion as stated by Sir Isaac Newton: Every object set in motion moves in a straight line and continues in motion unless acted upon it by an outside Force; For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. These two principals have been our line of direction. Or simply put: “As you sow, so shall you reap!” And now the reaction is setting in and the harvest is coming in.

We don’t want to raise the minimum wages. We don’t want to educate our people to work. It is much easier to bring in cheap guest workers. Let’s seek outside investors. They will bring in money. We don’t want to take responsibility for our own development. We want to continue the way we have been doing for a long time regardless of its consequences. We want to maintain the status quo. More handouts! More false pride!

We are dismayed that investors are not flocking to our islands. But we fail to realize how shabbily we have treated the ones that have left and how we continue to treat the ones that are enduring here.

The investors still here cannot earn a decent return on their investment, yet we want more new ones. For what reason?

Currently we have enough hotel rooms to accommodate about 700,000 plus tourists annually. Yet how many of the rooms are filled? What is the daily occupancy rate? Why are we begging for more hotels when we cannot fill the ones we have now? Talk to any hotel operator and ask his room occupancy. Seek the real reasons why airlines don’t want to fly here.

Most of our small businesses are owned and operated by outsiders. Why is that? True that most of us have never been trained or motivated to be business owners in the past. But that has to change or we will continue to be overpowered by outside forces. When are we going to become the small business owners we should be?

I am not saying that we are not headed for big problems. But what plans are we making to soften the blows? We still have time. Are we truly that weak and dependent on outsiders for our daily bread? If so, I feel sad that we have become emasculated and a nation of whiners.

I am reminded of the words of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States:

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in
order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater
vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are
here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you
forget that errand.”

Remember our record in life will always match our service!

My fellow citizens and Americans, let us rise up to meet any challenge. Let us screw up our courage and work hard to resolve this situation. Seek the new opportunities Federalization offers us. We have diamonds under our feet. Pick them up and build a new life. The time has come for us to become truly independent and free after so many years of dependency. The sky is not falling.

The new changes will be opening new horizons. Parade forth our courage. What seems scary and uncertain now is simply a transitional stage. Don’t look down. Don’t be a Chicken Little! Don’t turn your back on it. Don’t run away from it.

Look up and stretch out for our dreams! They can be ours when we reach out hard. I am! Let’s stretch together! Let’s have faith in ourselves. We are a blessed nation with bountiful fruits. Tomorrow is a new bright future. Bless it! Embrace it!