Honorable books

I’m not marketing these books per se. It’s just that I find the two very interesting. I was a contemporary of the events discussed in the book by Howard Willens and Deanne Siemer An Honorable Accord. I also find the other book, also by Howard Willens and Dirk Ballendorf, quite interesting for the subject discussed in The Secret Guam Story. I was one of the many newswriters there at the Royal Taga Hotel the whole negotiating time as a government radio broadcaster to cover the negotiation for later broadcast. The books are about the stories that reveal and directly explain the happenings behind the political status movements here between the Northern Marianas negotiators headed by attorney Eddie DLG. Pangelinan and that of the United States headed by Ambassador F. Haydn Williams for our future political status, out of the TTPI. One of the books, the An Honorable Accord, authored by then Northern Marianas political status negotiators attorneys Howard Willens and Deanne C. Siemer, discusses the crucial events leading up to the negotiation, the negotiation itself, the resulting Covenant, as well as the feeling of the U.S. Congress on our quest for a breakaway political status.

The second book is a real heartbreaker, especially for Guam. Guam had been clamoring for a political status other than the Organic Act of 1950. President Gerald Ford had signed the authorization to offer Guam a political status like the Commonwealth but government officials blocked the authorization from being passed in Guam. Guam has been asking for a political status since 1899 but was being stifled and shuffled back and forth by the U.S. administrators of the island in order to avoid Guam’s political aspiration. I think from 1899 to the Organic Act authorization in 1950, Guam was operating under martial law. A revealing story is discussed in depth in a great book by Penelope Bordallo Hofschneider A Campaign for Political Rights on the Islands of Guam 1899-1950. I think these three books by prolific, illuminating writers in their advanced studies are worth your money and time going through them and learning about the events they came across during their researches. Great writers, great researches, and resulting perspectives, and excellent books.

Rudolfo M. Sablan
Garapan, Saipan