It’s now or never!

This Friday, Nov. 21, you will be voting basically on two issues as you check mark whether it’s Heinz or Eulogio. They are: Natibu and the preservation of indigenous culture (Heinz) or Chinu where we wholesale our cultural traditions (Eulogio) for outsiders to destroy permanently. This is what it boils down to and it’s all in the palm of your hands.

Cultural genocide: The casino policy will forever destroy our cultural traditions. It’s our way of life being rolled out on the red carpet of permanent destruction. Like the rising tide, it drowns everything in its way. Obviously, Inos and cronies have no respect for indigenous cultural traditions. Nor does he and cabal respect letting our people work with organized growth per our capacity based on resources. It’s a reckless and rapacious agenda against the indigenous people!

Stagnant wages (no increase) for the last 10 years did nothing but force many of our people into persistent hardship in abject poverty. Solutions? Is this IT?

We owe our children a brighter future that begins at dawn, not under the destructive neon lights of casinos. With all humility, let’s stop this tyrant from compromising and destroying our cultural heritage. It’s our value system on the line.

Future of our children: There were kids playing and bursting into free-spirited laughter at a school playground nearby. I listened intently while quizzing: What’s in their future? That sent a strange sensation running through my veins, pondering what lies ahead.

I can’t ignore the smile of innocence seemingly lost in simple childhood ignorance of kids enjoying that moment in real freedom standing atop the scaffold of their cultural heritage. It’s a simple way of life. It’s our way of life!

Our culture is the very foundation upon which we improve our lives morally and intellectually. It’s a sturdy foundation that serves as a canoe to navigate through our dreams and aspirations as a people. It’s the only pathway to passing the torch of leadership to our children, holding onto our pride and dignity anchored in our rich cultural heritage.

If I may note, the strength of the indigenous people is founded in the family unit. Our family unit is the vehicle where we teach our children our way of life. It’s about the discipline of respect, sharing, helping, chores that teach responsibility, catechism that instills spiritual wellbeing, and earning your dues, among others. Instilling indigenous discipline successfully makes for a stronger and peaceful community.

Troubling new life: Now, step back for a moment and imagine standing under the flashing neon lights of a huge casino hotel up north. You’re done for the night and ready to go home. You have a job that pays the minimum wage. Yet it doesn’t pay for most of your family needs like basic food items, a decent house, books, clothing and family transportation.

So you head home to a substandard house that isn’t safe, secure, and sanitary. Your mind is often troubled thinking about the future of your children. Why educate them if they’re going to end up working as card dealers, waitresses, or janitors? You quietly dwell upon it. You struggle to understand the beastly life in the fast lanes. You look outside and you see the desert land of abject poverty where most of your people live. It need not be this way.

Public safety in shambles: You look around you and it’s easy to tell that the island isn’t safe, what with murders of four Chinese farmers and couple in SV, disappearance of two Japanese girls, the Luhk sisters and another girl in SA. This is too much and there’s an urgent need to change DPS for sleeping on the switchboard a bit too comfortably. This has got to change!

A gift that isn’t: The Inos administration and BS handed CUC customers one convenient gift of $635 each to ease utility bills. What happens after this gift is depleted? Obviously, we’d be back to square one paying for higher rates well into the next four years. After all, the election would have been over and there’s no need for more generous donations.

Failed restoration: The retirees were also lured into believing that their 25 percent cut by the Inos administration has been restored. Definitely, retirees are owed their money so it is immaterial where Inos gets his funds. Restoration is a failed promise but this isn’t surprising when coming from desperate politicians. Has Inos paid the $23 million owed CUC by the NMI?

Ignored civil servants: Around government departments and agencies you find civil service employees who have salivated (saliva dripping profusely) while watching new political hires signing huge contracts for being loyalists. Nobody cares about the fate of civil servants, though they’ve diligently earned their dues through training and seminars. Did they have to be punished for their hard work?

CHC in life support: Doctors and nurses at CHC are forced into a corner as a result of lack of medication and must-have hospital supplies. Furthermore, families with critically ill patients fundraise dangerously on road medians seeking help from the community. Is there a legitimate reason why the Inos administration and the Legislature refuse to fund CHC that critically needs some $38 million?

Indeed, I yearn painfully for the answer too. But this answer is in the palm of your hands; only you could exercise it on Friday, Nov. 21. Let’s join hands and protect the future of our children! Vote for Heinz and Ray so we tell the other side that IT Isn’t!

‘A heartbeat away…’
It is rumored that one of the Torres brothers said at a gathering in San Diego that his brother Ralph is just a “heartbeat away from becoming governor” of the NMI.

It’s a ruthless statement, alluding to the likelihood of the governor expiring before or immediately after the runoff. Would I recklessly push Inos to his last breath out of personal greed for power?