Equal rights and God: An MLK Day message

By AMBROSE M. BENNETT
Special to the Saipan Tribune

The battle for equal rights is heating up in the CNMI, fueled by Article 12. The quality of life in the CNMI is at an all-time-low since the conception of the Commonwealth and a big part of our solution to economic prosperity is Article 12-it is really that simple. The decision on who votes on Article 12 has proven to be the first volley and the opposition to the discrimination in voting rights has already returned fire in court. For those who don’t know, the only Americans with special rights are the Native Americans because the country literally belonged to them first and was taken by force. But in the rest of America you will find that “a right for one citizen is a right for every citizen”-anything that violates this right is discrimination.

The people who are promoting and holding up the wall of social imperialism that is segregating the indigenous people from everyone else need to know that equality, like freedom, doesn’t come without a price-it is now time to pay by sharing land but it is a price the social imperialist don’t want to pay. Somebody told me the indigenous people joined the American family for the benefit of freedom and equal rights in the American family and they got them. But I know many of the indigenous people see it as wrong to deny equality in the CNMI. The problem is, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the entire barrel and the CNMI has much more than one bad apple and they are placed strategically from the top down to effectuate the molding and decaying process throughout the CNMI. You only need to look objectively!

It doesn’t matter who these people are. What is more important is that they don’t succeed in continuing this decaying process as we have seen our economy and quality of life continue to nosedive for the past decade. The CNMI set itself up for failure by making laws in our federal system that clearly segregate citizens in their rights, which by the way is a blatant violation of the supreme law and a clear indicator that we have a real problem in the CNMI.

Is the CNMI living up to the standards of equality when it asks mainland citizens to come to the CNMI and work for their entire career but tell them they can’t ever own their house and go back when we finish using you, like we have done to the alien workforce? Is the CNMI living up to equality when there are full-page racist advertisements in the newspaper saying “vote for locals ONLY”? Is the CNMI living up to the standard of equality by black-balling non-locals from leadership in major institutions, organizations, and government? Outsiders only get top jobs when there are no locals that are qualified-and that is a fact! Is the CNMI living up to the standard of equal rights when the mainland citizens that have lived and worked in the CNMI for decades can’t exercise their right to vote? But indigenous people in the U.S. mainland who are not contributing to the CNMI, with no intention of ever coming back, are allowed to vote! Equality dictates that a vote for one is a vote for all registered voters as they are the ones with a vested interest in the CNMI.

I know some will try to come up with the rationale that the CNMI does not vote in the presidential election. But they won’t stop to think about the fact that the CNMI hasn’t sent one dime to contribute to the U.S. government but has taken over a billion since becoming part of America-money that belonged to the very same citizens in the mainland that Article 12 discriminates against. The CNMI owes them over a billion dollars in gratitude and not one official thank you to date.

There are still a large number of people in the CNMI at the top of the pecking order who are still holding on to the frayed and decaying cloth made from the threads of racism, segregation, and discrimination in a fruitless attempt to clothed themselves in the past, as we witnessed in the Civil Rights Movement. But America was founded on the two primary pillars of freedom and equality and it took several centuries to get to where we are today. The CNMI is still an adolescent in its political age, which is why there have been so many political mistakes but it also means there will be big improvements with age. People must push the CNMI to grow up and become an adult that is fully accountable and held responsible by the people! Today in the CNMI, the people do not rule and proof can be found in the casino issue that has been constantly pushed in front of our faces for almost a decade. People said no too many times for this to still be an issue-a clear indicator of contempt for the people’s decision.

The mainland citizens and indigenous citizens are all in this together and we will either find prosperity together the American way or we won’t find it all! Dr. King once said, “If we don’t learn to live together as brothers and sisters, then we will be doomed to die as fools.” Dr. King also said that ”the greatest right in America is the right to protest for right.” Well I’m protesting the wrongs of the CNMI today, as it is still A Day On, not a Day Off because the civil rights struggle is still very much alive and well in the CNMI.

The power structure of the CNMI is led solely by locals-is it right or even wise to harbor all the power in the hands of the minority in the CNMI when our system is designed to help the majority? I’m here to tell you today that God ain’t sleeping, the people asked to be part of America but many don’t want to live up to the expectations of America and we wonder why we are suffering in the CNMI. The people said they would follow the American way of freedom and equality but the treatment of fellow citizens and the alien force tells us the CNMI has failed miserably to live up to the American expectations. The people wanted the same level of prosperity found in the mainland but didn’t live up to American expectation of equal rights and now we are all suffering together mainly from that single failure in equal rights in all aspects of CNMI life. I was taught at a very early age that God expects you to take the first step and then he will make two for you. Well, the CNMI still hasn’t completed that first step at setting the conditions for genuine freedom and equality for every American citizen in the CNMI’s social, economic and political structure.

I will end by sharing the wisdom I got as a young man: “Love the life you live and live the life you want to live but make sure you live it for God, family and country or community.” You can’t live for God promoting segregation and discrimination-God doesn’t discriminate. You can’t work for family while promoting racism and social superiority-most families today have a diverse ethnic history, and you can’t be working for your country or community when you want ethnicity to define leadership instead of a person’s character and ability to lead!