Our leaders vs voters

It is getting very obvious the governor is on the ropes and likely out as a common saying is “Elect anyone but Inos.” But I’m also wondering when voters will say enough when it comes to our Legislature. The final straw for me was when the Lower House refused to let the people decide on Article 12 when it is their constitutional right. How dare they tell the people they can’t vote on something proposed by one of the people’s representatives! First they violate the no casino vote, now they are telling us all we can’t have a say in matters!

Everyone knows this law is trampling on the rights of people on both sides of the issue but the Legislature won’t even let the people decide. Locals can’t be the masters of their own fate under Article 12 and decide who they will sell to, forcing many locals to be victimized by local speculators. Then there are the mainland citizens who are being forced to be a renter class with no home to retire in or pass on to their children. I would like to believe the majority of locals are willing to change Article 12 to meet the expectations of the principles of equality among citizens and locals’ right to free enterprise (the right to sell their land to any U.S. citizen). Article XII doesn’t have to be destroyed, just fixed! Whatever happened to the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? With six referendums and two initiatives being circulated the people have said to hell with you guys in the Legislature and declared war to get it done ourselves!

As for the ferry feasibility cancellation, it is just another “I told you so” for me. I predicted the ferry would never become a reality and now it is dead! I also don’t believe the feds refused to fund the study when they already said they would and we even had the money. Something is not right again! This reminds me of the old tell one lie story and you have to keep telling more lies to try and cover up the first lie—if you were ever a child you know exactly what I’m talking about. The mayor of Tinian and everyone else trusted the governor’s lip-service on the ferry, instead of listening to and weighing the facts I was revealing and now the mayor and many voters on Saipan and Tinian are upset. If they had listened to me we could have gotten a ferry for free and run it two or even three years between Saipan and Tinian before having to spend a single dime on fuel. The governor told people half-truths that were really whole lies just to save his casinos!

It is truly sad that the people only find out and realized how they have been screwed again! But the saving grace is if we legalize marijuana, we will have the money to fix our economy and purchase as many ferries as we need because we know the tourists numbers are going to explode. A public ferry service will be a small and easy thing to accomplish if we legalize it and much more lucrative than casinos. We already have pot growing in almost every village and the only way to really control marijuana is through limited legalization measures by law.

P.S.: The representatives and senators who voted against the casino may be the only ones spared by the voters who are fed up with our leaders and their disrespectful tactics. The only ones we can trust: Senators Manglona, Jovita, Cruz, and Yumul. Representatives Joseph DL Guerrero, Ralph Yumul, Francisco Dela Cruz, George Camacho, Janet Maratita, Edumund Villagomez, and Trenton Conner.

Ambrose M Bennett
Kagman, Saipan