Response

This is in response to uncle Francisco R. Agulto’s letter to the editor (“If it ain’t broken, break it,” Saipan Tribune, May 1, 2012) where he stated, “Many of us are overwhelmed by paradigm or mindset that oftentimes we are forced to see and think in a vacuum.” Yes I agree with you that majority of our people accept things how we do things in the CNMI for decades. But such thinking is an assumption, because I for one do not conform to how things are done in the CNMI. For in the case of our foreign workers in the CNMI, they contributed to our economic advancement in the past and at least the federal government should have the compassion to afford them the opportunity to become one of us.

In answer to his propositional argument-“if it ain’t broken, break it”-it is an old problematic common thinking. How that concept is old problematic common thinking in the case of Mr. Sablan? Honorable Sablan is in his second term representing us in Washington and he had acquired the knowledge of how to play the games in Congress to maximize the benefit for his constituents. Based on our observation, Mr. Sablan has the trait to work with both sides of the two political parties in Congress. Honorable Gregorio Camacho Kilili Sablan is not our shining armor, but he has shown that he can do the job for the people of the CNMI in Washington. Mr. Sablan does not discriminate when it comes to representing his constituents and that is the main reason people of the CNMI believe in him.

Why would we want to send an inexperience individual to Congress and take the chance how the individual will perform for the people of the CNMI? Sending elitists to Congress is a way of life in the United States and it is impossible to change such a practice. Mr. Sablan does not qualify as an elitist for he is a commoner and he goes out of the way to protect the interest of his constituents as a whole. Uncle Frank, according to my cousin, the late Honorable Jose Cruz (Pinchang, one of the founding fathers of the CNMI), the local population in the CNMI will be the minority in the future and there is nothing that can be done to reverse it. We need to come to an understanding that the indigenous population is not the only one who has a stake in the CNMI.

Segundo Castro
Stockton, Calif.