Find a weapon and fight!

Believe it or not, much of how we are perceived in Washington is centered on the title of this letter—a people led by a government who looks for a weapon to fight the federal government. The discovery of potential Compact funds to help restructure our economy is very interesting and seems to have the potential of being the real McCoy at a time when we need it most. My mother used to tell me that people are always looking for a gold mine, only to discover they were standing on it. Well, it seems we have been doing just that if the legalities over the Compact funds discovery hold true. But my concern is the political approach to certifying the discovery and claiming a right to the funds, which is fighting. True and great politicians have all mastered the art of diplomacy but it seems to be very hard to get that point across to our chief executive. The better diplomats we become, the better our chances of influencing legislation and being successful in Washington D.C.

The idea of filing another lawsuit in the present political atmosphere is absolutely ludicrous because it still presents the same attitude of fighting the federal government and we don’t even have the means to fight. The job of our government is to hold the federal government accountable for their actions through collaboration and not to fight over the implementation of federal laws. Our Commonwealth government by design is and has always been in a position to have diplomacy work to our advantage through the United Nations. The unique status that our politicians have provoked was first recognized by the United Nations, not the United States, and I submit that the UN is still the best governing entity to fight for our Constitutional rights. The feds will have to listen to the UN because our Delegate can only create background noise, which is easily muffled in Washington. Taking our case for the Compact funds to UN will put us on front street with the feds. However, we must also own up to our mistakes, since the basis of the federal government’s arguments will be “it’s our own fault” and to a large degree the feds will be right! If we want to fight for the Compact funds, take our concerns to the UN as we don’t have a vote in Congress nor a Senate seat. Don’t try to fight the feds alone on their own turf and especially when we haven’t capitulated for our own mistakes. The power plays we are trying to make are examples of horrible politics.

Our new delegate is now going off to Washington without a unified stance on federalization, just as I predicted. The feds just requested the court to dismiss the governor’s lawsuit because it is clearly not representative of the people’s desire and it is also speculative and hypothetical, which is the same reasons I stated when the lawsuit was first brought up—I said we can’t file a lawsuit for something that hasn’t taken place and now my argument is also supported by the federal government! We are experiencing the backlash of our own failure now and not the feds’ implementation of federalization. Now another idea for a lawsuit has surfaced. We keep sending the signal to Washington that we are looking for a weapon to fight the feds with and the pattern of our fighting is clearly documented dating back to the Froilan administration. I can also guarantee this administration will not appoint the necessary and proper people for the economic summit, which I originally proposed. Our leaders should take note of our new president’s decisions to appoint people based more on merit than politics. If the economic summit is composed of the same old people and mentality that contributed to create this economic mess, then we know that the outcome will be the same old s*&#.

When will our leaders become real politicians with diplomatic skills and use the tools of principles and values for which there is no defense. Given the name calling and some of the outrageous statements coming from the Executive Branch about the feds and some of those in the Legislature, I don’t think many of our leaders really understand the importance and magnitude of remaining professional and using the tools of diplomacy given to us by our founders to govern over our democracy. Our representation in Congress has always been an insult to the core democratic values and the principle of republicanism. But we used the lack of equal representation for an excuse to fight against the feds and have never approached the challenge of changing our status from an intellectual approach. We never really fought for representation in Congress and used it for an excuse to create more enmity by giving the impression of using representation for a weapon (reason) to fight with, instead of addressing the true source of the problem.

We only have representation in Congress now because of a brokered deal over federalization, which I see as nothing more than “tokenism” without a vote. The only legitimate fight we have is the right to vote in Congress and for the President but we created an oxymoron of our own politics for equal rights and representation when we cry unfair equal representation and voting rights, yet hide behind a flag of uniqueness and Covenant specialties. It is clear our relationship with the feds is not getting better but worse and we must take the first steps to change these conditions as a united people and a united government.