Be part of the solution, not part of the problem!

My dear brothers and sisters of the Commonwealth: It is time to wake up and realize that we are destroying ourselves through the vast finger-pointing, irrelevant rhetoric, and twaddle that continues to plague our island society.

I hope you all understand that the future of our islands desperately needs this nonsense to come to an immediate halt. Instead of writing back and forth and trying to demonstrate whose position is right or wrong, acceptable or invalid, worthy or worthless, I propose that we get together and join hands to solve the scores of issues, crises, and emergencies that our islands to a great extent need consideration for.

Come forth and be a part of the solution, not part of the problem. As a native of the CNMI who is serving our country abroad, I try to catch up on the latest news from home. I have, for over 10 years now, yearn to come home and contribute to the community my ideas, effort, and labor to solve issues and areas of concern.

However, I am limited in my attempt to do so because I am serving militarily abroad, and so I contribute in a different manner. As a result, I would like to plead that we all get along as leaders, businessmen and women, professionals, teachers, and commoners, and therefore demonstrate a mutual commitment to improve our islands and move forward.

It saddens me to read each day how inconsiderate we have become of one another. The vast amounts of sarcasm and unnecessary personal criticisms of each other are foolish and unwise.

I challenge those who have been writing back and forth on these nonessential sarcasms and unkindness, to use such energy and writing talents to express ideas and solutions to the problematic distresses of our islands instead. I can easily tell the educated and talented writers who day in and day out read each others’ letters and seek flaws in the text in order to attack or counter attack the other.

I can only pray that all those negative sentiments diminish through time and as a replacement for it, a more subtle positivity evolves and develops for the best.

Remember, it is our turn to solve today’s issues in order to shape the future outlook of our islands. Our hatred or lack of pride and common commitment for one another is a route for failure.

Tomorrow’s destiny lies in our hands. Take ownership of this responsibility and lead the way. Yes, call on the leaders to be held accountable. But in my humble opinion, I think our leaders need our support and aid as well. Leadership also means being a good follower and supplying ideas and commonsense.

I call this: top-fed, and bottom-refined. In essence, we must respect one another and professionally acknowledge strengths and weaknesses. There are many ways to execute this in a more tactful and professional way, rather than the attacking and aggressive childish manner we have been behaving.

The horns of dilemma: fix or fight, is the lesson here. Let us not separate the two contexts, and instead combine them to fight jointly in order to fix. We are all adult leaders who are capable enough to respect each others’ points of view to become willing to productively debate the matters; and yet, manage to mutually conclude on what is best for our islands and the future of our Commonwealth.

Everyone has right to express his/her opinions. What I must caution, however, is that to take advantage of this right to personally attack one another, is only useless and will not get us anywhere.

I urge you all to pause for a minute and instead build a different momentum. One that is geared toward positively addressing issues that is for the best interest of everyone. Exert that energy together as a unified group of leaders who work as a team to solve issues and you will be surprised at how much radiance can be achieved.

The long road to providence depends on our actions today. Use the occasion and make it work! We must work together to achieve a common purpose an improved moment for a brighter future.

May God bless our Commonwealth.