[Oe List ...] Good Greetings to All!

[SVESjaime at aol.com]

Thanks John and Lynda.

My local political situation was the occasion for my New Years musing.   Am 
sending it to the fellowship/communion because JWM is mentioned at the end, and 
some of you had asked that I plug in my thoughts on occasion.

Jaime
Saipan

Tina is my district legislator.   She is in her late 20s.

Saturday, January 03, 2009
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Saturday, January 03, 2009

Yo! Tina4President!

Now, that sounds like yelling to the U.S. President, “Howdy, George!” while 
he and Laura shop at the Neiman-Marcus corner Northwest Highway and Central 
Expressway north Dallas. The sound of familiarity may sound disrespectful to 
some but this kind of informality in the Lone Star State would bother none. And 
Tina has brought refreshing and delightful informality to our staid political 
theatre, so what better way to greet her and her following but with a spirited 
push for the White House 2016!

Executive Tina is, of course, the subject of this musing, though thinking 
about the presidency of the United States in the afterglow of Obama’s end run 
touchdown (we are still thinking football country here) is not too far off 
center. Hillary’s breakthrough and the frenzy that followed the catapulting of 
heretofore unknown Palin to political center stage, certainly make every little 
Susie’s prospect to occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. no longer a question of 
whether-or-not, but simply a question of when.

Tina is young (will have to wait two terms before meeting the 35-year-old 
qualifying provision), a woman, a member of a minority group and a cerebral head 
way above many current holders of public office in the Commonwealth and around 
the nation. Just from the foregoing, she’s already a quatro-fer for the 
oddsmakers and betting aficionados! But I am ahead of myself.

No less than the venerable doyen of the literate social commentators on 
island Ruth Tighe suggested in a recent posting that Tina, in her estimation, is 
not only eminently qualified to be the next Governor of the CNMI, but that she 
stands way ahead of anyone among declared and whispered aspirants in 
intelligence and integrity.

In Ms. Tighe’s words: “Looking at the potential slate of candidates-as well 
as non-candidates-I’d have to say that I don’t see anyone even close to the 
model set by Obama except Tina Sablan. She has fought custom, tradition, habit, 
whatever you want to call it, from the very beginning of her campaign for a 
seat in the House, and she made it. She continues to fight the status quo and, 
moreover, has initiated some admirable new practices, particularly the sharing 
of legislative calendars, agendas, memos, documents, etc., with the media and 
the general public. She is frugal to the extreme with her budget. She is 
unafraid, and relentless, in pursuing what she believes is necessary and important.
”

SVES has a special niche for her alumni Tina, who also graced the Farewell 
and Recognition ceremony for the 6th graders a couple of years back, remarkable 
in that she was in a car accident on her way to the affair, and endeavored to 
make it to the event in time to share her reflections when it would have been 
perfectly understandable and excusable had she attended to the accident and 
its aftermath.

In our school’s last assembly where students performed dance and musical 
numbers from the cultures of residents in the Marianas since European contact, the 
assembly grounds stood bare in the sun, devoid of the former shade of 
towering but aged flame trees that had become a danger to the students’ safety and 
had to be cut down. A couple of teachers were tasked to approach island 
politicians for the use of their tents, and when told that Tina was one of two 
politicians who do not use their office budgets to further the practice of “donating”
 the use of tables, chairs and tents for community functions, one of the more 
politically active teachers asked: “I wonder what she uses her office budget 
for?” Without hesitation, I replied: “Expenses in aid of legislation!”

Tina early on took the effort to attend a San Antonio ES PTA meeting to 
explain to parents why she did not have tables and chairs to loan, such practical 
as well as symbolic transformation of her official role and function has 
endeared her to many, and vilification from a few.

Legislator Tina has shown her mettle and it is sparklingly refreshing. Some 
of her colleagues would not shake off the transcendent hurling of thunderbolts 
from Mt. Olympus, projecting power from the status of their offices. Others 
meekly retreated to the immanent interest of their clawing constituency and left 
themselves at the mercy of their supporters. Tina worked diligently and 
transparently, communicated clearly and without apology. This radical shift to 
honesty and transparency in governance is commendable; adding gracious proletarian 
style with refined cognitive faculties is a plus. Perhaps, that’s what makes 
Tina so attractive to be the Commonwealth’s next executive officer.

Gentle Uncle Ben’s health screams of retirement. My friend in Tinian adds: “
I am sure Charles is tired playing little Governor, anyway.” But opportunism 
or even relevance aside, we greet the New Year with a sense of lucidity about 
the limits of the electoral process, but with enthusiasm for the process of 
governance that involves broad participation of the consent of the governed. Yo, 
Tina4Governor!

Obama was both facetiously and lovingly referred to as The One. He in turn 
gave a new twist to the “messianic” role. He ended his Grant Park acceptance 
speech after the election with: “This is our moment. This is our time, to put 
our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore 
prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and 
reaffirm that fundamental truth, that out of many, we are one; that while we 
breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who 
tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the 
spirit of a people: Yes, we can.” Hillary added: “Yes, we will!”

Joseph W. Matthews, a 20th century theologian coined the phrase “No-Messiah 
Messiah” in reference to Jesus. It is as if the Nazarene walked into Jerusalem 
a couple of millennium ago and proclaimed in its solemn assembly: “You are 
waiting for the Son of David to come and free you from the Romans. Well, I bring 
you good tidings. No one is coming, and I who bring you that good news, am He 
who you’ve been waiting for. You want to be free! Pick up your bed and walk.” 
Not exactly the kind of message the local covenant party and chamber of 
commerce was waiting for; it earned him a trip to Golgotha!

Amazingly, some did hear the message, picked up their lives, and walked into 
the annals of human history. In over a fortnight, Obama will assume the 
highest executive office of the land. How he plays his “messianic” role, or more 
precisely, how the electorate that sent him to the Oval Office will aid in his 
playing his role, will determine the nature of his administration.

As for the Governor’s seat up Capital Hill, just when I was revving up to 
finally foray into the political arena and echo what was shouted a year ago at 
the Unity March in Saipan when a portion of the crowd called out with “
Tina4Governor,” Ruth reminds us that the age qualification for Governor is the same as 
that of the U.S. President. I guess we’ll just have to go for the White House, 
then!


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