[B]By JOHN S. DELROSARIO JR.[\/B]
\n[I]Special to the Saipan Tribune[\/I]<\/p>\n
U.S. Virgin Island Congresswoman Donna Christensen\u2019s assertion of ruination of federal\/CNMI relations because of the lawsuit is but hogwash. We\u2019re already in a very chaotic relationship destined to witness the destruction of what\u2019s left of the local economy beginning June of next year as a result of her ill-conceived federal dictates.<\/p>\n
If she\u2019s hinting retaliation against us for exercising our rights as citizens via a normal process under a democratic system of government, then she ought to know best that such threat is illegal under American jurisprudence! If you will, one need not be a legal eagle or scholar to discern citizens\u2019 rights to seek redress through the judicial process. It\u2019s as American as apple pie!<\/p>\n
I surmise that Christensen\u2019s view is purely a defense of her pride of authorship of federal dictates that came out of her committee. It further fanned ruination of an already unworkable relationship. In fact, we wish to find out through the lawsuit if the federal government hasn\u2019t gone overboard in its authority to violate basic fundamental policy of self-government under the Covenant agreement. The option we\u2019ve exercised would clear the air on this matter in hopes of defining and, yes, refining federal\/CNMI relationship.<\/p>\n
Congresswoman Christensen, isn\u2019t it true that the federal government is obligated under the Covenant agreement to provide \u201cfor a progressively higher standard of living\u201d for our people? Your ill-conceived legislation, now law, would do the exact opposite and this doesn\u2019t merit any defending at all. Not when you will be subjecting these isles to economic annihilation and a prolonged period of joblessness and below abject poverty for our people. We\u2019re not about to acquiesce failure and arrogance on your part and staff that hardly took our sentiments to full view on the two new federal dictates.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it is best that you revisit your view of the CNMI\u2019s relationship as penned under the Covenant agreement so you and your disoriented staff can understand, once and for all, that we\u2019re not just another territory like where you or Antonio Babauta hail from. Sorry, but we\u2019re not ready to be your perpetually smiling innocent, ever so humble subjects or islanders ready and willing to submit or bow to every whims originating from the federal government.<\/p>\n
Respect is the strength of our cultural traditions, not, and may I reiterate Ms. Christensen, not intimidation in any form or fashion. Like a little giant, we\u2019ve awakened and ready to defend our rights to which we ask for nothing less.<\/p>\n
[I]John S. DelRosario is the Department of Public Lands Secretary.[\/I]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Virgin Island Congresswoman Donna Christensen\u2019s assertion of ruination of federal\/CNMI relations because of the lawsuit is but hogwash. We\u2019re already in a very chaotic relationship destined to witness the destruction of what\u2019s left of the local economy beginning June of next year as a result of her ill-conceived federal dictates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}