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<\/p>\nThe only thing I find difficult in my ongoing campaign for the seat of CNMI delegate to U.S. Congress is talking about me personally. I have an almost visceral reaction to hearing myself even attempting to articulate what a good, competent person I am and some of the good I\u2019ve been able to do for the community (in so many words). No doubt it all stems from a childhood of being taught that humility is important and that talking about one\u2019s self runs contrary to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShemenei pwe osapw kai namiki,\u201d (Translation: \u201cRemember not to be namaike,\u201d a word which I believe comes from the Japanese and is used to mean arrogant, or show-off or essentially putting yourself above others) are literally the last words my late Mortlockese grandmother said to me the last time I saw her when she came to see me off at the airport on my way to school in the states. Her goodbyes to me came with these parting words of wisdom. Admittedly, it took me years to fully grasp what she meant which was, in part, not to think so highly of myself and much less \u201ctoot my own horn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question now becomes how (or maybe rather if) I can win an election without talking more about myself as I am consistently being told that I should? My thought and response to that is\u2026 I hope so\u2014I hope there is still a place in the heart of our electorate for leadership that isn\u2019t over-occupied with self-aggrandizing.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a little over three months since, with the blessings of those who know me best, we declared my candidacy for CNMI\u2019s delegate to U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n
Against tremendous odds, we\u2019ve mounted a simple campaign to give our voters a different choice, a choice we feel is more befitting the spirit of our islands. A choice that isn\u2019t beholden to big money, party politics, but rather only to the collective interests of all who call the CNMI home\u2014we very simply can\u2019t have it both ways.<\/p>\n
We felt then, as we do now, that the other candidates are not representative of us and much less the islanders-of-old on whose shoulders we stand. We are who we are because of the courage, wisdom and I dare say humility of those who came before us. The question for us now is what kinds of shoulders will we leave for those who come after us to stand on?<\/p>\n
We believe that our strength and unity depend on leadership that is committed to safeguarding and preserving our Commonwealth as a whole, not on individual, self-preservation through political gamesmanship\u2014some would do well to be reminded accordingly.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in this race because I know what it takes and I have the proven experience to lead others in service to our community\u2014it all starts with a dignified, even-keeled approach to every issue, with all people, all the time. There is not room for personal egos in this job.<\/p>\n
Our next delegate in U.S. Congress needs to be someone with a proven, unblemished record of placing a high value on dignity and respect for all. We think that choice is clear and look forward to seeing what the rest of our community thinks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jim Rayphand is a former director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and Northern Marianas Protection and Advocacy Systems Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The only thing I find difficult in my ongoing campaign for the seat of CNMI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414733","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=414733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}