Choose Your Own Adventure

By Mabel Doge Luhan, Kandit News & Views

Hello MAGA! Now that prices are way up and employment and the stock market are way down, how does winning feel?

Are you looking forward to the absolute lack of foreign tourism to the US (including the CNMI and Guam) in the coming years? How about cuts to your Medicaid? Or are you still convinced that Elon will only cut entitlements for white people who can vote for President and in Congress, and will spare brown people who can’t vote for President and in Congress? Well I, for one, have been speccing out a HIMARS battery ( https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/himars.html ) for my Kagman compound, so that when President Musk gives the go-ahead for Russia and China to invade us, I will GO DOWN FIGHTING.

Because in my dark heart, I have PRINCIPLES. (And in my heavily fortified bedroom, PRINCIPALS.)

Just like, for example, the people of Haddon, New Jersey — who stood up and protested when ICE rounded up and took away the Emanet family, beloved members of their community. ( https://www.newsweek.com/new-jersey-kebab-shop-owners-detained-ice-raid-2037513 ) In fact, they raised over $300,000 for the Emanets, and pressured ICE into releasing both of them back into the community.

I am afraid to ask, because I am afraid to answer: how would we in the CNMI handle such a situation? What is our track record of being principled and standing up when something in the government is not right? I’m embarrassed to think about it too much.

On the other hand, in Massachusetts, thousands of people protested when Rumeysa Ozturk — who had been studying at Tufts University on a valid student visa — was grabbed off the street and incarcerated by ICE agents ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFeYhaZPW0 ). The community came and protested even though it was raining, and gas was expensive, and the electricity bill was due, and all the other excuses we use here in the CNMI to dodge our obligations.

In the CNMI, of course, our highly paid but morally bankrupt “leaders” Arnold Palacios and Kimberlyn King-Hinds are blissfully devoid of principles. They are in the Party of Trump for the same reason they were rocking to the Rafet beat for so many years — it’s the dominant trend, it’s the easiest thing to do, and it’s the clearest path to an easy life of free meals. They could have been principled and stood up for our people and against what Musk and Trump plan to do to destroy our islands. But nah. They dare not criticize them. That would be too difficult.

It’s always like this, isn’t it? Whenever some great injustice starts — the Nazis’ rise to power is the always-quoted historical example, but there are so many more — there’s a great mass of people who will stand by, nodding and shrugging, just going along with things. There will be some, of course, who stand up and speak out, just as those thousands of people protesting ICE’s defacto abductions in New Jersey and Massachusetts. But for many people, and certainly for our “leaders” in the CNMI, that’s way too difficult. Going with the flow is much easier.

The funny thing is, attempting to chase the trend and go with whatever the flow is isn’t just morally bankrupt. It’s also bad politics.

Just as Palacios and KKH hitched their wagons to MAGA, President Musk lost the Wisconsin special election, and won the two Florida special elections by much slimmer margins than expected. His and Secretary Trump’s approval ratings are absolutely in the shitter. They withdrew Elise Stefanik’s nomination because they knew they’d lose a special election. Their political brand is toxic now. Just as our absolutely venal and spineless leaders pledged their fealty to it. The laugh’s on them, isn’t it?

So how about you? What will you do? Standing up for what’s right, or chasing the mess of pottage (Genesis 25:29-34)?

Oh sure, you’ll be able to tell any tall tale you want. After all, Secretary Trump goes around saying he was rescuing people at the Towers after 9/11, and President Musk claims he never supported Apartheid (and it’s pure coincidence that he ran away from South Africa immediately when Apartheid ended). Si Rafet tells stories of doing typhoon cleanups and delivering food during covid and whatever else. But in their heart of hearts, they either know they’re lying, or they’re such complete psychopaths that they’re beyond redemption. And those of us on the side of truth know the real story.

So when you are tested — when ICE takes away your neighbors, or when a local politician threatens your friend, or when an “investor” desecrates your ancestors’ graves — how will you respond? With principles, or cowering subservience?

We know how Governor Palacios and Delegate King-Hinds responded. How about you?

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Mabel Doge Luhan is a woman of loose morals. She resides in Kagman V, where she pursues her passions of crocheting, beatboxing, and falconry.