Here is what I don't get about this federalization discussion. People like my buddy Bruce Bateman are talking about the U.S. being "our colonial masters" and the dialogue out here is as if this isn't the U.S. Is this place the U.S. or is it not? I think it is. We have American law. American style schools. An American post office. An American military presence. When the tsunami comes and people here need money to rebuild, it sure is. When kids have nowhere to go and want to join the military, it sure is. When this economy implodes and the people here want somewhere else to go, it sure is. When the government is broke and wants a bailout, they didn't ask Germany. So why are we acting like federalization is Pearl Harbor, some sneak attack by a foreign power. We are one country and it's time to stop acting like the U.S. is them -- they is us. Yeah, I realize we are far away from the mainland and there are some renegade differences we've been allowed to enjoy like minimal accountability, low taxes, a bloated third world labor supply where contract workers on 1980's U.S. minimum wage outnumber residents two to one, but this is still American soil. Do you really like low taxes and minimal accountability when you have an accident and the hospital doesn't have blood or doctors, or your 15 year old is not exactly on grade level, or when the power is out every day because the power plant sucks?
Middle Road is also the hub of the anonymous comment, not mention being an anonymous blog. I find anonymity pretty awful. People are out there anonymously feeding into the hysteria about speaking up. One time when PSS was screwing over about 30 of us on our salaries on a raise we were due as per PSS' guidelines, I was at PSS professional development, and one of my colleagues asked me about it. We were in a hallway about three feet from the commissioner, so I said there is the man, go ask him. She recoiled in fear as if she woke up in the middle of the night next to Brad or something. I'd have asked in about three seconds. I did. What are people so afraid of around here?
Some anonymous guy on Middle Road is talking about being a parent, so his concern is feeding his kids, so he can't speak up. He views the world differently because he has kids. What kind of sorry ass, middle age bullshit is that. Imagine if Martin Luther King said, "You know, I have kids, I think I'll just sell insurance. My kids have to eat. That civil rights thing isn't so important." I find that kind of selfish stance awful. Imagine all of these real examples following that model. They're rounding up Jews, I have kids. I'll shut up. They are putting Japanese in internment camps. I have kids, so what for them. They won't let that black guy use the water fountain, my kids get thirsty, screw em. How revolting!
This place is American soil -- voluntarily. Incidentally, Guam and Saipan are more prosperous than the non-American islands out here. If the government thousands of miles away can send these people here off to war, which they have and are, they can tell this government you can't bloat the labor supply with contract workers at meager wages and it isn't exactly tyranny. The federal government tells the individual states to do all kinds of things. By the way, I have kids and it hasn't stopped me from criticizing this lousy government.
7 comments:
Agreed wholeheartedly Jeff and I don't read the Middle Road blog because everything is anonymous, which in some small towns in Tennessee, translates into "chicken-shit."
Nice work on exposing the over-crowded classrooms/Korean student issue.
RS
Well, Jeff, technically it is not US soil you are standing on. Guam is a bona fide US Territory and when you land at the airport in Hagatna you are entering the United States at a Point of Entry.
Not so here in the CNMI. When a foreign national lands here he is entering a Commonwealth in voluntary political alliance with the US, but has not set foot on American soil.
The US would like to usurp this territory and negate that fine line of difference but to do so they will have to abrogate the Covenant unilaterally.
He is greeted by a US paid TSA clerk/security guard x-ray wielder on his way back out of town but he did not enter the United States.
I disagree that all the other Micronesian Nations are worse off than the CNMI. Palau is making great strides in bettering their relationships and is being courted by a variety of Nations, each of which bid and vie for opportunities to get their support and UN vote swinging their way. 20 years from now they will be flying high.
We could do the same and have an even better chance at that golden "foreign aid" ring in the diplomatic sky because we have a much more advanced infrastructure...(financed mostly by the Japanese and Koreans, not by the US by the way).
Additionally, the welfare handout system currently in place generates degenerates, just like it has in the States. A handout is not the answer. But it may be all that is left once the business community is destroyed by the 'federalization' (read colonial takeover).
We should not roll over for these puppets of the Pelosi/Miller/Stayman Cabal. We should stand our ground and fight it.
Bruce: And fight for what???
A cheap maid.
Self Governance. Such as:
A maid, cheap or otherwise, brought from where ever one is willing to come from, not when or where or if some dink in an office thousands of miles from here says its okay, but when and from where local, independant government says its okay. (Frankly the local labor system is convoluted and needs an overhaul, but it is better than what would, and just has been forced on us from afar).
Technicians, professionals and grunts, all needed to fuel the labor market here to keep business running so it can pay for things Jeff likes, like schools.
Tourists from where ever the CNMI thinks it is best to bring them from so they can further fuel the economy and help pay for things Jeff and I like, like roads to get to the marina, and air compressors to fill our tanks and cheeseburgers and damnit, Mojitos.
and lots more.
I support schools, mojitos and air compressors.
I support Jeff in his support of schools, compressors and Mojitos.
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