{"id":200683,"date":"2015-05-04T10:27:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T00:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=200683"},"modified":"2015-05-04T10:27:47","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T00:27:47","slug":"leave-clifford-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/leave-clifford-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Leave Clifford alone!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_200684\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-200684\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3-reporters-pix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-200684\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3-reporters-pix-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Marine Corps Forces Pacific officials listen during an often heated and passionate public hearing on Tinian last Thursday night. (Dennis B. Chan)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-200684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marine Corps Forces Pacific officials listen during an often heated and passionate public hearing on Tinian last Thursday night. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Clifford Guzman, the moderator for all three public hearings of the U.S. military, was told off by CNMI residents several times when he had to remind them that their time to speak had run up. To be fair to Guzman, speakers were only allowed three minutes to speak and the CNMI did sure want to speak. One commenter, who was asked to end his time at the microphone, told Guzman, who is from Guam, that \u201cY\u2019know, you really are such a pest.\u201d Some commenters noticeably hurried their speaking as Guzman drew near.<br \/>\n\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<br \/>\nThe public hearing on Tinian was a crowded and humid affair. About 300 people packed the Tinian Jr. Sr. High School cafeteria last Thursday night. Nonessential military staff reportedly stepped out to give residents more space inside. MARFORPAC executive director Craig Whelden had to sit on the stairs as he listened to comments.<br \/>\n\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<br \/>\nStudents got involved in Tinian high school, sharing poems they had written.<br \/>\n\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<br \/>\nAt Friday\u2019s hearing, one Saipan resident said he had packed his bag and was ready to leave\u2026for Pagan. The man claimed he was recently made a permanent resident of the island. Military training would interfere with his food and living, he noted. But as part of his training with the Hopi Indians, he said, they smoked a \u201cpeace pipe.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s no conflict that cannot be solved around a shared joint,\u201d he said, directing this to the military.<br \/>\n\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<br \/>\nWhile most of the public comments were in support of a \u201cno action\u201d alternative to military training, a couple of speakers thought otherwise. One man essentially alleged that the CNMI was being hypocritical in balking at the military\u2019s proposed actions. \u201cWhat are you giving back? All states got some military apparatus. It\u2019s your turn, baby. It\u2019s your turn,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat are you afraid of? That Uncle Sam will look at your dirty deeds, pull out your dirty laundry? That they gonna\u2019 double check, triple check? They goina\u2019 look into your surveillance, they gonna look into how you sold this island to the Chinese.\u201d The last comment drew some heckling from a man filming the hearing. But that man continued, \u201cIt comes down to us versus them? Everybody here\u2019s spending green money. Everybody here\u2019s using cellphones, son. It\u2019s us versus them? It\u2019s a white man on those dollars. It\u2019s us versus them? Right.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<br \/>\nSome CNMI officials made it to all three public hearings. Biba for perfect attendance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clifford Guzman, the moderator for all three public hearings of the U.S. military, was told&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":200684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[26,3543,200,3592],"class_list":["post-200683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-craig-whelden","tag-military","tag-tinian-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200683","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}