A parable for CNMI citizens

In the African-American culture the children are often spoken to in parables because it really makes you think about what you are doing and what to do in a number of situations and believe me when I say my mother ran me crazy trying to figure out her parables but it worked and I learned. Parables are also very much a part of the lessons in the Bible and they are meant to help us religiously and in our everyday life. The “Parable of the Sower” is the most noted parable of all and if we apply this parable to our situation today as a Commonwealth we will soon realize what has transpired and what needs to be done.

There are two kinds of “sowers”: one sows the good seeds and the other the bad seeds. I have witnessed many people sowing in the news and I have also played a part in the sowing of seeds about our Commonwealth. The most dominating factor about sowing seeds is to institute “growth” but not necessarily change. Many letters from seed sowers have been more about maintaining the past and the status quo than change. They have been using what are clearly dead seeds lost to yesterday and dead seeds don’t grow. If we know anything about history, we know that things will never be the same as nature and our very existence depends on change and adaptation. The evolutionary processes have not stopped simply because we can think and reason better—our society in the CNMI is still trying to catch up with our counterparts and we can’t do that standing still like we are now. So to the people who are fighting change need to check their seeds, they are not growing.

We have those who have been sowing bad seeds as we see in the fight with the feds. They are not seeds of unity and appreciation for what the federal government has done but weeds and plants like poison ivy that will grow anywhere including in the minds of people. Just think, we haven’t witnessed our government formally expressing appreciation for anything the federal government has done to help the CNMI and they have given us over $2 billion and not one genuine thank you. I may be wrong but I’ve lived here for 20 years and if they did say thanks, it wasn’t too much of a thank you. If you understand our relationship with the feds, you know that we are in a marriage with no divorce unless both parties agree—so we can complain and even want a divorce but we can’t by law. It is also clear to me as a student of government that the “head of this household or marriage” in this case is the federal government. So do we challenge the head of the household or try to figure out a way to co-exist and achieve what is in the best interest of both parties or do we fight like we see in real marriages? I’m sure people understand this parable and know the answer and they also know what we should do with the seeds for fighting the feds, which is to trash them.

Finally, we have those who are sowing the good seeds but their messages are falling on rocks and can’t sustain life, with no place for their roots because of the bad seed sowers who reap the messages of the good seed in the news and just totally discard the good seed hoping the dead seeds they have planted will somehow grow in place of the good seeds.

Then there are those who just “hate” and their seeds grow plants with thorns and they just poke, stab and try to suffocate the good seed and not give it room to grow. But luckily our society has a lot of fertile soil (people with common sense) that allows the good seeds to grow and for that I am most thankful about the CNMI—the many good people that are sowing the good seeds and the number of good seed sowers is growing everyday.

I’m sure people with common sense can understand this parable and how it applies to our situation. Everyone, even those who claim to not understand what common sense is, should now realize that if we declare an economic disaster it will surely bring immediate relief efforts from the feds but it will also be an open admission that we messed up ourselves, and the sowers of the bad seeds can’t let that happen—all this suffering the people have been forced to endure just to avoid the admission of guilt by playing politics! The sowers of bad seeds know they won’t be able to place the blame on the feds or anyone else but themselves with an admission of guilt, thus we suffer from the politics of dead seeds being sowed.

We must take note of the bad sowers of seeds that have become deeply rooted in our government and pluck them out by the root and it’s only a handful because we have many good representatives on Capital Hill. Weare now reaping the results of previous leaders who sowed bad seeds that were dead and didn’t grow anything, which is the main reason we are suffering. As for the representatives who are still preventing the seeds of relief and prosperity from growing, they need to be removed like we do a bad weed in the next election and it is simple common sense.