Culture and political discrimination

I must say thanks to Rep. Tina Sablan for her courageous stand against the reprogramming of funds. She may have been the Lone Ranger by voting against the bill but she is certainly not alone when it comes to fighting for what is right, fair and equal. Many of the world leaders and activist for what is right and fair have found themselves alone in their stance so that really puts her in very good company with some great people. You, Tina, are ahead of the times and some of your own people have frowned on you for wanting to treat everyone fairly and equally but I want to commend you for being “real people” as we say in my culture and that’s a big compliment for those of you who are not familiar with Ebonics.

But what really got my attention was the discriminatory allocation of funds to double the Little League funding. I don’t have anything against baseball or the Little League but we already have baseball fields everywhere! There is no justification for another baseball field when we have plenty of baseball fields and there are so many other needs associated with other sports and the thousands of other youth who don’t play baseball. We have entire school regions in the North, South and in Kagman that need sports facilities and the funny part is that the only sports facility they did build in these villages were baseball fields! Now they want another one on Navy Hill where the community is insufficient to support the need for a new field. I’m sure people with common sense can see it is not fair and it’s clearly wrong to the other kids.

I really think the Legislature is unaware of the phenomena they have played into because baseball was the first American sport to truly be assimilated into the indigenous culture. Baseball has become a part of the culture in the CNMI and now the Legislature is overcompensating for this phenomenon. Many of the people in the Legislature grew up playing baseball so what else do they know but more baseball? But balance is a very important factor in every aspect of human nature and our existence as a community. If you compare baseball to other sports, it is clear the Legislature has for years discriminated against other sports in favor of baseball.

The time has come for the CNMI to start shifting the focus to other sports and to pursue the model that so many other island countries and nations have pursued to get their athletes into the Olympics. When will the CNMI make a quest for the gold and I wonder if the thought of getting a CNMI athlete into the Olympics has ever crossed their minds? Sports update: Baseball in no longer an Olympic sport but we are building more fields instead of setting the conditions in the school regions to develop other athletes. I’ve said for years that diving may give us our first gold in the Olympics” if we can ever get our children off the dock and put up a diving board for them with a coach, but who cares in the Legislature? If the CNMI was turning out baseball stars like we see with Cuba, I wouldn’t be writing this but we aren’t. Now my own daughter is showing promise and I want to see an Olympian from the CNMI in any sport and I’m not alone, as my wife might say. We need to change our focus and it’s the Legislature’s job to set the conditions for all of our children to be successful in whatever sport they pursue beyond baseball.

But with baseball being so big in the CNMI, the most obvious adverse effect is the politics associated with baseball. Hundreds of families are now associated with baseball in the CNMI and that means votes—enough to sway an election. When we had money, they chose a baseball field on Capital Hill over the construction of a new Governor’s Office and a Legislative Building, which are outdated, insufficient and falling apart. I discovered over $30,000 from the lottery that was just sitting there and tried to have the Legislature give it to teachers but they took the money and dumped it into a consolidated fund, which ended up completing the baseball field on Capital Hill. So you can see, baseball is more important than our teachers and now baseball is being prioritized during these hard times and with no consideration for the other students that don’t play baseball. BASTA, ENOUGH BASEBALL FIELDS!

When it comes to sports in the CNMI the Legislature really needs to focus on setting the conditions for a variety of sports activities beyond baseball in the communities where there are schools and where the children live. I’ve mentioned before how difficult it is on parents in Kagman to have children participating in sports and now the price of gas had added an additional financial burden. The children and parents of Kagman, southern and northern end of Saipan need legislative prudence—not legislative discrimination.

On a special note: Congratulations are also due to Mr. Ed Propst for making the activist list for the CNMI. His letter of disappointment about the prejudice he has faced, all because he is trying to make a difference, is synonymous with the same challenges I have faced as an activist on social, economic and political issues facing the community. If you weren’t getting any negative feedback you probably wasn’t very effective. However, you are, and it simply means you are gaining social and political real estate that members of the “ruling social class” will always reject. It doesn’t matter that you are right; it’s the fact that you are not one of them. But just keep sowing the “good seeds” because time is your friend if you stay the course and is not discouraged by haters, your seeds will grow. Time will catch up with the haters and prove you right in the end.

Welcome to the club and I’m glad to see more people being vocal about the destruction of this social imperialist wall that is still being perpetuated by a few but powerful who want to separate and place the indigenous people above everyone else in the CNMI. The challenge is big because there is still enmity between the Chamorros of Guam and the CNMI so what does that say about an “outsider’s” chances? But just remember and stick to your guns, Ed, because it takes only two keys to open the doors for a transparent and responsible government to deliver prosperity and equality for everyone in the CNMI: “informed and active citizens,” (Federalist Papers by James Madison, John Jay & Alexander Hamilton).