Rome is burning and Nero & Nera are playing their belembaotuyans

Legend tells that as Rome burned in 64 anno Domini, the emperor Nero played a fiddle from his palace. Poverty is growing in the private sector as Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero uses public funds to redecorate Government House with Kathy’s Furnishings and the governor’s office with ten-thousand-dollar doors, and as Congressman Jim Moylan introduced legislation to build a statue 99 percent of us will never see.

You read that right. Today, Mr. Moylan announced his introduction of the “Equality in the Halls of Congress Act,” which demands the ‘equality’ of Guam by the erection of a statue in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. Move over, Martin Luther King, Jr. Take a different seat on the bus, Rosa Parks. Jim Moylan is here to correct the grave injustice of the missing statue scandal of the Twenty-first Century.

And, oh the import of such an endeavor! We asked Mr. Moylan’s communications chief, Hannah D’Avanzo, how much time and how many resources (who and what are they) have and are being expended on this effort? With the finite federal resources available, why should Congress fund this, and from where will this funding be taken? Is there a concern the cost of this statue may be backed out of any of the existing appropriations we get?

What is so important about this statue that an entire statute is being proposed by Guam in the midst of our other funding issues, increasing poverty here, the war in Ukraine, the Chinese conflict at our front door, and the absence of a Compact agreement?

Compact Impact funds failure

That last point is about the absolute failure of both Mr. Moylan and Ms. Leon Guerrero to secure funding for the so-called impact the Compacts of Free Association (known colloquially as Compact impact funds) in the upcoming fiscal year’s federal budget. For the first time since Compact impact funding has been available to the territories, the federal government will not be paying a penny for the impact of its compacts with the freely associated states of Micronesia.

Mr. Moylan’s excuse is that there’s no funding proposed because the compacts have yet to be renewed. We don’t know if that’s a gaslighting attempt, or a statement borne from pure incompetence. Compact impact funding isn’t simply for future impact, but for the existing and continuing impact. The COFA citizens didn’t disappear with the agreement.

Neither Mr. Moylan nor Ms. Leon Guerrero said anything about the major loss of funds. We all had to hear about it from Sen. Frank Blas, Jr., who found the zeroing-out of the money in the proposed Biden budget.

Jim Moylan failed to do his job with Compact Impact funds. But he’s hot on the equality statue.

Looming loss of funds to repair public schools

We even raised the issue of the looming loss of more than $200 million in federal pandemic-era funding to the Guam Department of Education because of the administration’s impending failure to obligate these funds for the repair of public schools within statutory deadlines. We asked whether there has been any movement by our congressman to get those deadlines extended. 

The Guam Congressional Office’s reply to these and a similar question by Jolene Toves of The Guam Daily Post was alarming:

“While we recognize and fight for many pressing issues, our office is also working to increase public awareness and support for Guam in Congress. This is done by placing Guam on the map and is critical as we seek funding for various issues, including reimbursements for COFA.  Getting traction on issues like recognition on statuary hall is significant and as we build sponsors, which naturally pushes Guam’s issues. 

“As we have provided in previous updates, there is much movement with the COFA, but nothing moves until the state department submits the COFA treaties to the house natural resource committee.  Our office has been able to secure a preliminary HNR meeting on the 16th of this month and a CODEL to Guam scheduled tentatively for latter August to educate committee members on the impact of COFA on the island.  Our discussions on reimbursements also commence with DOI’s Assistant Secretary Carmen Cantor at the end of this month.  Once again, these discussions are to educate on the need of the reimbursements as they are coupled with safety net programs that the administration has briefly spoken about, but not released.  

“We have previously requested answers on the ARPA funds for GDOE, but did not get any responses. However please note that there is a strong push here from house leadership to pass a measure to have all unspent ARP funds returned, which they estimate is at $50 billion.  Just as many other jurisdictions we are awaiting to see where this discussion is heading as some feel that this would be an opportunity to redirect funds to other needs within their districts.”

My fear is that republican and democrat members of Congress may begin to believe Guam is so set on a course of prosperity, we can afford for our lone non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives to spend his time and the federal resources allocated to Guam to whip up the votes for a statue.

The Great Redecoration of 2023

But we are no where settled on that path, no matter how distracted our congressman and governor are from the windshield to reality. Perhaps they need to turn on their wipers to see the storm we’re all driving through.

And then there’s our very comfortable governor, perched upon San Ramon Hill, looking down upon the suffering masses while enthroned on her new multi-thousand-dollar chase the taxpayers bought her by purchase order. The new designer furniture is one small part of a $1 million renovation and redecoration of Government House and the governor’s office that came with bullet-proof windows at Adelup, and ornate wooden doors to replace doors that still worked.

The $1 million remodel now matches the $1 million pay raises and hiring spree of Adelup staffers, both expenditures concealed from the public.

And to placate the palace and the aristocracy, the empress pushed an across-the-board 22 percent pay raise for the local public sector’s general staff. That comes at a cost of $50 million annually.

To put that cost into perspective, Adelup now is saying there isn’t enough money for relief grants to small businesses and $100-a-month discounts to power bills. But, there sure is money to provide her SWAT-trained police protection at premium cost and to the detriment of a police force already below 300-uniformed officers weak. The Empress Nera took care of her palace city, while the peasants race to put out the fires of burning Rome.

Meanwhile, Mr. Moylan wants to build a statue in Never Neverland.

Biba Mediocrity & Make Believe!

Tens of thousands of adults are out of work. Businesses are closing down north to south. Our people are leaving. They are losing their mortgages, home leases, cars, and families. Guamanians can’t see the doctor or the dentist, because they don’t have adequate health coverage. The private sector is in a death spiral.

Do they even care that amid the anxieties of the economy we are wading through, we also have to worry about missiles to the west pointed at Guam?

None of us heard about the threats to Guam from Chinese aggression from our governor and congressman; at least not directly to the public. Our governor first made the revelation, ironically, to Congress during a hearing in Washington, D.C. Thank goodness it was televised. Our congressman only started talking to us about it after NBC and Al Jazeera told us. 

After years of criticizing Ms. Leon Guerrero’s shortcomings as a governor, Mr. Moylan now praises her efforts. It confused me at first. But, now, I can see why. They subscribe to the same outdated magazine of mediocrity, published by the Ministry of Make Believe & Removal from Reality.