I donut niid edukashun; I hab kommon cents

Editor’s Note: The following is being published as a series due to its length.

Don’t need an education?  My friend, Larry, didn’t think he needed to take the prescription that his doctor had ordered either. He died. To say you don’t need education, besides being a poor role model to our youth who do need a lifelong education, is like telling your doctor you don’t need dialysis, or chemo, or heart surgery when, in fact, you have diabetes, cancer, or a weak heart valve. Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple and deceased, had a life-threatening but curable disease. As with many wealthy, creative types, he thought he could overcome it by using “alternatives.” Just before he died, he was noted to have said, “I guess I waited too long; I should have acted sooner (followed his doctor’s recommendations).”

Common sense springs first from information.  An education accelerates the acquisition of this knowledge.  If you don’t “need” an education, you probably don’t have…

A large, varied, personal library at home. Or…

A record at the public library showing all the books you’ve checked out (and read). Or…

A library record or Internet provider record showing all the research you’ve done online over the years.

If your knowledge base is small, then so is your understanding and wisdom takes a distant third place. Here on Saipan, we have a “new” law that allows government cars to be fully tinted, heavily tinted (dark) in fact. Is it safe? No. Millions of dollars have been spent in research to show that it is unsafe for the driver and for those around him to have a tinted windshield, or a tinted rear window, or front-side windows tinted more that 70 percent. That’s right—it’s a law that is unsafe for the public. And this is easily found doing a Google search. “But it keeps out harmful UV rays.” There is clear tint available on the market including here on Saipan that blocks 98 percent of these UV rays. Nope, the law has nothing to do with UV. “But why this law?” Privacy. Why would an elected official want to hide from the public who elected him or her likely has to do with having sex with someone other that their spouse or/and the use of drugs in that publically-owned car? Think about it. Good common sense? Naw.

Over on Tinian my friend realized last September 2015 that the Dynasty was closed for good. The legs might twitch like those in the old black and white cartoons but it was dead. So he built 40 to 50 business concepts that 40 to 50 Tinian families could implement part-time or full-time, within a short period of time with little or no money. But his delight was the “Tinian Island Trading Company” that could generate $200,000 in three months (and as much as $1 million) or the people could create a new industry that would:

Put Tinian on everyone’s Pacific map.

Train and employ a dozen local people to start in high tech, respected jobs viewed as solid careers.

Generate income for the island year after year after year.

And put a smile on every Tinian local’s face.

But the mayor said he didn’t have the time. Common sense?

To be continued

Arnold J. Mesa
Chinatown, Saipan