Respect:EdPropst

Borrowed from Ed Propst and the MarianasVariety.
It might be deleted if they complain, but thought the article was dope and wanted to share…

Letter to the Editor: Respect
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 12:00AM
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RESPECT. It is a word deeply embedded in our culture.

Growing up in our islands, we were all taught to respect our elders. We were taught to amen our elders and to refrain from talking back or arguing with them. In a traditional sense, it is a beautiful and admirable cultural trait. In a progressive sense, it has been, in many instances, our Achilles’ heel.

It seems we have spent more time upholding the rules of respect than we have on upholding the laws of the land. Somewhere along the road, we might have forgotten the true meaning of respect. So, my question is, what does respect really mean?

Does respect mean that if a child gets abused by a family member, it should be dealt with behind closed doors, within the confines of the family, and that the police should not interfere? And if the police do get involved, should the victim be told to lie to save a relative’s skin?

Does respect mean that relatives are impervious to prosecution, and that there are really two sets of laws? Do we prosecute to the fullest extent of the law and impose tough sentencing when dealing with “outsiders”, but give a slap on the wrist when it comes to familia?

Does respect mean that we must ignore fairness and accountability because a family member is involved in a crime, and look the other way?

It seems inconceivable that people in our community can stage a rally against guest workers and accuse them of showing disrespect for wanting to improve their lives and the lives of their families, yet stage no rally or say nothing when a child in our community is severely beaten and raped. Where are the rallies against the criminals who are invading our once peaceful community? Why aren’t we waging war against the thugs who rob our homes and victimize our children? Who is a greater threat to the sanctity and safety of our community, criminals or guest workers?

As a community, it is time that we redefine respect. It is time that we tell our elders and teach our children that respect is reciprocal: if you don’t give respect, then you will not receive respect. It is time that we explain to our family that committing crime in our small community is tantamount to committing crime against the family, and that it will not be tolerated, because along with it being immoral and sinful, committing crime is shameful, because it disrespects and tarnishes the reputation of the family and the family name.

When it comes to our leaders, it seems that many of them replace respect with arrogance once they are elected.

When they needed our vote, they came around, knocked on our doors, and promised us honesty, integrity, fairness, and solutions to the problems affecting the CNMI. Some of our leaders went so far as to promise better times. But as soon as they got elected, our leaders forgot about us common folk, and went about conducting business the old fashioned way: taking junket trips, hiring relatives, repealing laws, conducting public business behind closed doors, failing to pass a budget, and spending their entire budget before you could say “payless payday.” Some of our leaders have forgotten that they work for us, and that they are public servants, not dictators.

As public servants, it is their duty to uphold the laws of the land and to respect the wishes of the people.

Cramming casinos down the throats of our community after our people overwhelmingly rejected it in a popular initiative recently is disrespectful, as well as insulting. Before our leaders can even talk about casinos in Saipan, they need to clean up the mess they created: poker parlors and poker addiction. Pot fabot, a poker palace on every corner in our villages does nothing but breed more crime. If our leaders want to know about poker addiction and how it has decimated family morals and values, all they need to do is meet with a Community Guidance Center counselor, so they can be filled in on how poker addiction has broken up families and is tied to criminal behavior. They can also stake out a poker joint at night. They are bound to see kids playing in a Laundromat at midnight or sleeping in a parked car in front of at least one of the hundreds of poker parlors cluttering our villages.

What is equally disrespectful is the total disdain some of our elected leaders have when it comes to laws of our land. A case in point would be HB 17-70, a poorly conceived bill that goes against Public Law 16-46, also known as the “The CNMI Smoke Free Air Act.” Among other reprehensible things, HB 17-70 will once again allow restaurants to designate smoking areas, without even putting up partitions! Have our leaders failed to read and comprehend that anti-smoking laws exist in every part of the world, including Japan? Can’t our leaders understand the research data given to them that shows anti-smoking laws across America and the rest of the modern world help businesses more than hurt them, and that it is a step in the right direction for the overall health of our community?

Let’s not kid ourselves anymore. Smoking kills. And smoking is tied to dozens of types of cancers, as well as heart disease. But we also need to realize that SECOND-HAND SMOKING inflicts the same damage. While some restaurant owners insist that consumers should have the freedom to choose whether or not to patronize restaurants that allow smoking, have those same restaurant owners forgotten about their own employees’ rights? Don’t employees working in smoke-filled restaurants have the right to breathe clean air, most especially employees that are pregnant, or suffer from asthma and other lung or heart ailments? Our leaders need to see the bigger picture. They need to spend considerable time researching and reading and listening to their constituents as well as field experts so that the CNMI can move forward, not backward. At a time when the CNMI must rob Peter to pay Paul just to get paychecks out to the masses, our leaders must respect and reinforce laws that promote and protect the health and well-being of our people, most especially our children.

And last but not least, since respect is highly valued in our islands, how is it possible that we have lost sight of what it means to respect our environment? Look at our beaches after a weekend of partying. How much trash is left behind? How many times do we see beer cans and paper plates and cigarette butts left on picnic tables, strewn across our white sandy beaches, and spread out all over the floors of our public palapalas? And come to think of it, when was the last time anyone was actually cited for littering?

While enjoying the July 4th parade, I saw a sweaty but smiling Kathy Yuknavage and several volunteers from Beautify CNMI, MINA, and other non-profit groups picking up trash along the sides of the road. Thank you and God bless you all! While these volunteers work at beautifying and protecting our environment by sponsoring clean-ups and putting up recycling bins all across our islands, we have hoodlums who deface the bins by spray-painting graffiti with hateful words, all the while partying and leaving their trash behind. Were these hoodlums not taught by their parents how to clean up after themselves? Were they not taught that graffiti and litter hurt tourism, which is our bread and butter? Apparently not. Perhaps the parents were too busy playing poker that they forgot to instill in their children basic values, such as cleaning up after their selves. Or maybe they just don’t have enough common sense to understand what respect really means.

Those who commit violent crimes, trash our beaches, spray graffiti and vandalize public property, deceive the general public, spit betelnut on sidewalks and storefronts, and believe that they and their family are above the law lack more than just respect. They lack self-respect. Ultimately, you can’t respect others if you can’t respect yourself. Self-respect is the foundation of respect and virtue. To define what self-respect means, I yield to Alfred Whitney Griswold, who wrote, “Self-respect cannot be hunted.? It cannot be purchased.? It is never for sale.? It cannot be fabricated out of public relations.? It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it.” ?

ED PROPST
Dandan, Saipan