I wonder if they miss the Marianas

I wonder if NettyCee misses the chirps of the birds throughout San Antonio. Or if my niece misses the drive by East Hagatna Bay at sunset.

As I visit Saipan and feel a spirit that once was, and as I live on Guam and feel the emptying of the land of her people, I wonder often how our brothers and sisters who have been forced out of paradise miss these homes of ours.

They are not perfect. They are struggling to survive. They are fighting to find a way forward. But our homelands are hurting, yearning for their peoples to come home.

At first, I thought Netty (whose government-issued name I know, but I dare not to publish for fear she will deck me) was on a stateside summer vacation as I watched her cooking reels on Instagram. Last week I noticed she still was there and messaged her, “My dear friend, did you move to the states?”

“Hi friend!! Yes I did.”

My heart fell. I didn’t see Netty often as we lived in different islands, but there was comfort in knowing she was just a hop and a skip away in Saipan. Her home. She did so much through her offer of talent to bring us Mariana Islanders closer to each other. And now she’s no longer in this part of the world she helped to make a better place.

I don’t have her permission to publish why she left, but it doesn’t take rocket science to figure it out.

Netty was a special education teacher, lifting up some of Saipan’s most vulnerable. I wonder how many more professionals, caregivers, providers, non-profit volunteers, church goers, and people who had a dream in the Marianas have left.

These are the consequences of two territorial governments that were given nearly $5 billion in combined federal charity, and squandered it on cronyism and through leadership without vision, rather than creating opportunity after the pandemic.

The least the Guam government and the (now former) Ralph Torres administration could have done were to turn on the lights at the end of the tunnel. Because we all have despaired, as individuals, as families, and as societies. But it is the lack of hope that drove our people away.

There is a candle burning in the CNMI, at least. Arnold Palacios and the new government appear aggressive on a path of recovery. But recovery is not what the total vision can and should be. Reawakening must be the order. A reawakening of a spirit in people I see in the CNMI; a light and a desire to build up from the wreckage of corruption. A reawakening against the corporate cronies who, for too long, have conspired with the corrupt politicians to set agendas for their benefit.

I see that in this new governor and legislature that is fearless in its contempt for corruption and the corrupt. A governor who is willing to stand up against an aggressive infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party, and their powerful and rich proxies in the CNMI. A legislature coming to terms with its responsibility over a fiscal purse so tattered by the recklessness of republicans for two decades. They have a duty to legislate the sacrifices needed so that brighter days may shine ahead. Let’s hope they view this duty sacredly, because those will not be popular decisions.

Back at home my family is missing my niece, my dad’s oldest grandchild, and her daughter. They left last week to live stateside.

“Why are you moving?” I asked her a month ago.

“It sucks here.”

I am heartbroken for my brother. I’m sure thousands of Guamanians share his pain about their relatives and friends who have left Guam the past five years.

And we know thousands have left because a data comparison between 2018 and 2023 workforce and school enrollment statistics show 7,000 fewer Guamanian workers corroborated by 6,000 fewer public school students.

Those workers didn’t leave on their own. They took their families with them. My best guess is that 12,000 Guamanians left Guam the past five years. That’s inching up to 10 percent of the population. The 7,000 represented 15 percent of the private sector workforce.

Yes, Guam is wonderful. But people left because of the other side of that truth: Guam is in seemingly endless decline, with no smoke signal of change.

We know we need to build a new hospital, but boy do we like to find things to fight about so that something we need done never happens. Either the legislature needs to give up and let Lou Leon Guerrero build the hospital on back road, or they need to muster the 10 votes needed to force construction at Ypao Point. But for crying out loud, do something and do something now!

Because the hospital isn’t the only thing that sucks. We can’t provide kids with safe schools, much less an education that will propel them into a life of possibilities, and we have hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic education funds just waiting to be spent.

We can’t build one Simon Sanchez High School, much less the 20 other campuses that need to be rebuilt.

We’re just one more viral video of police brutality from street protests, not to mention the already-drained sense of respect and trust in law enforcement because leadership can’t get a handle on police corruption and the justice component in criminal justice.

The roads suck. Ugly homes are on the market for $2,450 and are available only to the military while 11,000 Chamorro Land Trust lots just sit untouched like a ringing telephone in a GovGuam office. Grocery and gas prices are through the roof.

We can’t even fill up a dang swimming pool in Agana!

How are we going to convince our people who have left to come back home, and the people left behind to stay, if the government can’t even wipe its ass? Where’s the argument for paradise, when all we do is piss on ourselves?

Meanwhile, the cronies get richer. They see a different Guam. One of wine tastings and hotel ballroom galas. Fine dining and posed pictures of charity-giving. Vacations and new cars.

The birds are chirping in Saipan, and the sun is setting on East Hagatna Bay. But our people aren’t around to hear and see it all.

Bring our people home, Commonwealth. Support Mr. Palacios’ reforms. Bring our people home, Guam. Convince Ms. Leon Guerrero to commit to reforms, too.

It is time for us all to wake up, and see that a light from above is shining and calling us to work with purpose toward something greater than ourselves.