Ruth, Tina, and Greg

I wholeheartedly agree with the fair-headed lass, Ruth Tighe, in her response to my recent letter to the editor concerning Congresswoman Sablan’s “giving up” the fight against the evil-doers on the hill.

Here’s why.

As we’ve all witnessed, “the unrealistically high standards” as Ruth professes in Tina’s defense, is of freshman legislator Tina Sablan’s own choosing and her personal cudgel to bear. Can she handle it? Certainly, we can ask for no less, along with the rule of law. Since being elected she has, however, been “chastised” especially after her push for an Open Government Act—to reveal the corruption and misappropriation of government funds on the hill—was shot down by the graybeards and deadwoods. And indeed, her demand for “fiscal accountability…” from the governor and the legislative body is also a just quest and should never be relinquished. Yet in all reality, time and energy can never be recovered if engaged in battle with the graybeards and deadwoods whose numbers are greater than twenty, or “beat her head against the wall,” as Ruth protectively wrote, is seppuku at its finest and should be avoided at all cost.

Having said that, I would personally like to see Tina, with her vast reservoir of energy—along with Ruth’s succinct support and insider information she can reveal about those good-ol’boys on the hill and their dastardly deeds (since she’s been on the island and on that same hill since day one)—strike out with renewed vigor in a frontal attack on “crimes” that have already been committed by those legislators I’ve mention in my letter to the editor, to bring them to task, get them to pay us back or slam them in jail. And from her seat in congress by which can be seen those and other perpetrators of corruption, rescue us from their blatant acts of malfeasance and save our community millions of dollars before it happens. And for “wins her battles one by one” as Ruth has protectively issued? If that course of “least resistance” is the safest way for Tina to duck from the bombardment by the good ol’ boys, then it’s understandable why she attacks the lesser of two evils, Governor Fitial.

As I’ve written before, what we need is to rid ourselves of the crop of graybeards who hang on election after election fan-dancing. Let’s elect others like Tina to the hill, in a coalition to battle those wastrels, instead of the other first-time electees who, too, have been chastised and being so, have fallen instep with the graybeards or fallen by the wayside to the detriment of us all. Specifically, let’s help shepherd, in the upcoming legislative race, those half-dozen aspirants who lost in the recent race for the Washington delegation seat and let them walk the talk. Specifically, one undaunted warrior comes to mind: he who needs no introduction, needs no one to cry buckets over and who has set the tone to emulate: love him or hate him, TaoTao Tano Greg Cruz’s slamfest of everything and anything that is wrong with the local government, the local leaders and everybody else in his crosshairs, come what may, striking fear (and loathing) or adulation from whatever and whomever. Emphatically, we do need more Gregs and Tinas. As for the TaoTao Tano spokesman, keep spooking the looking-over-their-shoulders wrongdoers wherever they might lurk by doing what you’re now doing into 2009.

And if the durable Greg Cruz should choose to run for a legislative seat inside of a year, to be surrounded by those pirates who are committing crimes against us and to then unleash his fury—imagine the possibilities. It comes with this caveat: you just might get elected.
[B] Lee Andersen [/B] [I]Chalan Kanoa, Saipan[/I]