Pope: Social ills the result of politics

I know there are haters out there who will say anything to try and kill anything I say, even if it is right. Well I beg for the indulgence of our civil citizens and dare the retiree gang to try and counter what the pope has said about the entire worlds’ politics, CNMI included. The pope’s assertion that many of our social and even our economic ills are the result of politics comes at a prophetic time in CNMI history. To quote the pope in Sunday’s North Star: “Many of today’s social ills (and even our economic ills) are driven by a lack of adequate social policies (or laws), not just selfishness and moral degradation.” The CNMI is suffering from all three factors as seen in our inability to create law(s) that will make all men equal in the CNMI, the promotion of selfishness in Article 12, and making laws for only retirees to get their vote, and there is the moral and ethical degradation of our democracy and laws as we just saw with the Legislature and the governor trashing the people’s referendum with a dirty and even tyrannical political play. I just pray the true Christians who are the majority and not retirees will get rid of you know who in November. It’s our best hope for social, economic, and political harmony to find real prosperity.

The pope also stated that “the biggest problem with politics around the world today is that it is undervalued (no respect and not working for all the people), ruined by corruption (a Fitial and now an Inos administration full of criminals and circumventing the referendum law to kill the voice of the people) and the phenomenon of bribery,” which is what most of us believe based on the facts is what happened when the governor and his crew went to Hong Kong.

Clyde Norita, Inos’ organizer, seems to think it is OK for retirees to act like angry bears and even boast about it. But retirees are humans and expected to be some of the most respectful and most revered citizens so I wonder if Clyde will tell the pope their angry, selfish, and racist behavior is OK. He actually tried to justify retirees acting like thugs and disrespecting fellow retirees and the thousands of citizens who signed the referendum. There are only 3,800 retirees and all of them do not agree with the casino band-aid solution. If we are truly living in a democracy the 4,000 signatures represent the majority on this issue. Retirees didn’t even have the numbers as only 50 or 60 showed up!

Now that our governor and his crew have forced the casino in our mouth, they want us to swallow it by claiming they have solutions. They couldn’t wait to run their solutions commercial on TV after passing the law but what a joke when they can’t even get their law, the regulations and guardians over the casino right and they have had 10 years to prepare! I’m not stupid enough to go for this mess and I’m sure there are at least 4,000-plus on my side. See you in November!

As for my critics who will complain about me invoking the pope and what is right, try turning the pope into a lie. You can never make this casino issue the right thing without the full support of the majority. If we can pray for our politicians and our government on Sunday we can certainly talk about their evils in the news on Monday! Casino supporters should never feel comfortable in Mass, knowing the church is against the casino—who obviously have more faith in Inos and a casino than God. Pray for them.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman, Saipan