Torres: We are in this together

Lt. Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres mixed promises to improve the lives of the people of the Commonwealth with high praise and thank you galore to family, friends, and supporters during his inauguration speech Monday afternoon.

“The road ahead will be difficult. Our successes will be tempered with the understanding that there is still more work to accomplish and our failures will be even more painful knowing that you deserve more from your government. We are standing at the foot of a mountain of government obligations—a mountain that cannot be climbed without the pursuit and realization of economic growth. This task is indeed daunting. But we should remember that our economy is nothing more than the combined actions and will of each and every one of us,” he said while reading his speech from the makeshift stage at the parking lot of the Governor’s Office on Capital Hill.

Torres added that if the great history of the CNMI is any testament to the will of the people, there is no doubt in his mind that the Commonwealth will persevere.

“It was not so long ago that a group of young men and women banded together with an ambitious goal of achieving self-government here in the NMI. They saw the road ahead of them as uncertain, their youth and experience brought into question, and their idealism ridiculed. The truth is, in creating our Covenant and our Constitution, they could not have envisioned the NMI as it is today, but they rose to the call of public service, and crafted a strong democratic society of which we celebrate here.”

He said in many ways the CNMI is still beginning its story as a Commonwealth and if it were a person, it would be less than 40 years old.

“As I look around and see all of you who are younger than 40, I see the product of our founders: we are a plethora of race, culture, and creed. And I am proud of how far we have come in the short time that we have been a democracy. In the span of 40 years, we have built thousands of homes, we have paved roads that span one end of our island to the next, we have proudly shared the beauty of our islands with tourists, and we have multiplied the number of schools throughout all our islands,” he said.

Torres also realizes that the past 40 years have not always been pretty.

“We have homes that have been vandalized, roads that need repair, tourism has dropped, and our schools are overcrowded. But with every success and disappointment that our government has had to endure, one factor has always remained constant. This one factor is what makes our people and our islands unique. This one factor is what heals us after an election, and what feeds us through the next four years. It is the factor that we are all truly related in one way or another. We are one family and we are in this together.”

Torres said this sense of community is what makes the islands unique and what makes living in the Commonwealth worth all the trouble.

“We must hold strong to the belief that the child who refuses to go to school because his parents cannot afford shoes or decent clothing is our child; that the mother who works two jobs to make enough to feed her children is our mother; and the father who struggles against the demons of alcoholism and substance abuse is our father. It is when bonds that tie us together as one family are stronger than those that wish to tear us apart that we have the strength to press forward against the challenges that we face.”

To this end, Torres said he and Gov. Eloy S. Inos would strive to make the CNMI a better place to live.

“We will work honestly and tirelessly to provide our family with exceptional health care services, reasonable utility rates, dependable and consistent retirement, and whatever else it takes to protect our family. We must believe that the success of our people does not lie in how well we are doing individually, but in how well we are all doing, especially those in the greatest need. And in that, we must not govern with the interests of the few in mind, but with the good of entire Commonwealth—Rota, Tinian, the Northern Islands, and Saipan—at heart.

“So I ask each and every one of you to continue to believe in our family and that we are all in this together.”

In between reading his speech, Torres thanked his three older brothers—Vince, Victorino, and Joaquin—for guiding him. He also gave kudos to his mother, probably saying, “I love you” to the family matriarch half a dozen times, mostly in Chamorro.
But the newly minted lieutenant governor reserved the last and most important praises to his wife, Lady Diane, and their five children. He thanked his wife for allowing him to seek public office and all the sacrifices they have to endure, especially during the past election.

Torres also thanked his five children for understanding that their father’s time is divided between them and the people he serves. He admitted that it’s hard to be away from his family but it’s the sacrifice he must make to help the CNMI become a better place for his children and the islands’ future generation.