Fighting for freedom and education

SSG Fabian M. Indalecio who is now in Balad, Iraq is fighting to preserve my freedoms and I truly thank him for that. I pray all the time for the safe return of all American soldiers who have pledged to pay the ultimate cost if necessary for my freedoms and others. But freedom is just that—FREE and unsensored except by law—not by man, soldiers, boards, or governments. So if you truly RESPECT my freedoms SSG Fabian M. Indalecio, please, don’t complain about them and try to dictate to me how to use them—they are my freedoms to do with as I PLEASE—not to please you.

Although I’m not surprised, I find it very disappointing and disturbing to see a person in the military literally attack and dictate my free speech rights when he is fighting for my free speech, which is indeed an oxymoron. I can only pray that you will one day understand the obvious “malafunction” of your request. But it’s obvious you did the math and realized there is reason for serious concerns or the “drama” you experience and you had to blame someone.

You really need to understand SSG Fabian M. Indalecio that NCLB Act was implemented FIVE years ago and we have only seven months to go to meet the 100-percent requirement. But you want everyone to think everything is OK when a blind man can see it’s NOT! NCLB requires 100 percent and we “admittedly” don’t have a plan for 100 percent when we are preparing for a system that will have a minimum of 20 percent substitute teachers. How can we justify to the feds we have 100 percent when we only have 80 percent (if that much) is the question. SSG Fabian M. Indalecio should have been trying to answer, like I was trying to do. I hope you can understand that I’m just doing my job by reporting the facts and I’m not happy about the numbers either. But the facts are what we (the board, me included) must deal with and be accountable for our actions—not make misleading statements and pretend a problem doesn’t exist.

SSG Fabian M. Indalecio, your belief that our board is “perfect and infallible” is indeed the true source of the problem you have with me and reality. I beg to remind you to look at the finest example we have in government of this phenomenon of “me being right and the board being wrong” by counting the number of Supreme Court rulings that have been struck down because they were wrong. Most of these Supreme Court rulings that were overturned had at least “one” dissenting opinion that proved to be RIGHT over time—so I can be right and the board can be wrong. The board is made up of people that make mistakes and you need to know SSG Fabian M. Indalecio the board, which I’m apart of, are only the guardians of education—not gods of education. I believe that I’m right based on the facts that don’t lie and your displeasure of me being right and the board being wrong was more than you could take, which was very obvious in your letter.

As for your request for diplomacy, please note that diplomacy can ONLY be dictated by the “powers that be,” and I don’t have any real power on the board and it’s not about “what I want done but what we (the board) must do.” I suggest you make this plea for better diplomatic relations to the powers that be—not me because I’m doing my best to be diplomatic but I don’t have any power to dictate the style of the board’s working relationships. But if you have so much faith in the board, then you should rest assured things will be OK on the board and allow me to continue to “freely” speak up for teachers and for education improvements in the CNMI. So SSG Fabian M. Indalecio, please don’t worry about things here, keep focused and keep yourself safe in the fight for our freedoms and the people of Iraq. You can also be rest assured “my brother” that I will be praying for you and the rest of the troops’ safe return. May God bless you and your family.

Ambrose Bennett
Kagman