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Better go to Hawaii
So Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero is on his way eastward to the nation’s capital. He will pass and fly over the islands of Hawaii and the U.S. military Pacific Command. The objective of his trip to Washington D.C. includes military matters and bombing range use of Pagan Island.
If the Speaker really needs empirical lessons about how our military operate their bombing practices on an island, he should go to the island of Kahoolawe near the island of Maui in Hawaii. Prior to 1939 this island was used as a major bombing practice place by the military. In addition, what better place to talk about military matters than in the U.S. military Pacific Command on Oahu Island?
While visiting Kahoolawe Island, the Speaker could make a courtesy visit to the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission to talk about the Hawaiian Islands National Marine Sanctuary Act (Public Law 104-283). All this has prima facie purpose to the issues concerning the CNMI on military policies and bombing practices on an island. He can learn a lot about the aftermath of the military’s destruction of the island of Kahoolawe. This island today is only good as a preserve sanctuary for the protected flora and fauna under the Marine Sanctuary Act. Clearing and cleaning the unexploded arsenals are still on going even to this day.
Taking a trip to Hawaii instead would make a better sense and our Speaker could witness first-hand how an island evidently turned out a waste after the military is done with it. If Delegate Gregorio C. Sablan is urging this idea, he should have recommended that the Speaker go to Hawaii where he would appreciate the issue more than a talk over coffee on a conference table—feeling and internalizing the untold effects and scores of environmental degradations and aftermath that emptied an island of its purpose for human enjoyment in future years. We will trust the Speaker could see that he can get more bang for the dollar making a trip to Hawaii than to visit Washington D.C., plus it is too cold on winter days there and he may catch a bad virus or the flu.
Francisco R. Agulto
Kannat Tabla, Saipan
