NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Several years ago, there was a small but significant spike in Guam/Chamorro based activism around the announcement that rather than Pågat, the US military not intended to build their firing range complex for their military buildup near Litekyan or Ritidian as many know it on Guam. For those unfamiliar with the long, winding road for this the US military buildup to Guam, they created a DEIS around their intent to build the firing range complex in Pågat. After push-back from the community, lawsuits and also problems at the US federal level, this was withdrawn and a SEIS or supplementary environmental impact statement was conducted, identifying the area above Litekyan in Northern Guam as the new location. I attended the public comment meetings, participated in protests and demonstrations and also helped organize teach-ins and forums to educate the public about the military's intended use of this very important cultural and historic area for Chamorros. The level of public outrage nev

When the US Department of Defense released their Draft Environmental Impact Statement for their proposed military buildup to Guam, you could see both the potential danger involved and the community's reaction in simple numbers. The size of the DEIS in terms of page numbers was close to unbelievable. At 11,000 or so pages, you could not help but wonder about the potential impacts the plans would represent to Guam. If it took 11,000 pages to describe it and discuss it, how could it be good? Shouldn't the massive volume of pages required to articulate it be a sign of danger? The community responded with more than 10,000 comments, many of which were critical of the buildup. A significant response, close to one for each page of that infernal document. When I recall that a JGPO representative said to me that they were anticipating just "500 on the high side" I feel that through a variety of activists means, people began to question the buildup and how much it might bene

Representatives of the group Our Islands Are Sacred delivered the letter below to Governor of Guam Eddie Baza Calvo at 4 pm on September 11th, 2015. The letter expresses the disapproval of many of the military buildup proposals to Guam and the Marianas by the United State and also to Governor Calvo's rhetoric regarding the buildup. The group is inviting community member to also submit letters to Governor Calvo expressing your own thoughts on the military buildup and the recently signed Record of Decision, which is meant to move the buildup plans forward for Guam. ****************** Open Letter to Governor Eddie Baza Calvo September 11, 2015 Hafa Adai Governor Calvo, When we first heard about the military buildup, we were shocked to learn how massive it was. We couldn’t believe the Federal Government would even imagine proposing something so clearly harmful for our island and our people. So we fought and we fought hard. We even took the feds to court and WON! W

Mafitma i ROD gi i ma'pos na simana. I Maga'lahen Guahan ha silelebra este komo un gefpago na rigalu para i taotao Guahan. Lao anai hu hungok i sinangan-na sigi di hu faisen maisa yu', "hafa magahet na ha taitai ayu na ROD?" Kao ha tungo' hafa ilelek-na? Anggen magahet na ha taitai ayu, ti sina ha sangan ayu. Ti ha konfotme i sinangan-na i ROD, ha chanda gui'. Gi i dinesganao-hu, muna'hasso yu' put i sinangan-na i difunto na Senadot Ben Pangelinan. Matai gui' gi ma'pos na sakkan, lao hu record gui' gi Mayu, anai tumestigu gui' para i huntan publiko put i SEIS. Estague i video para i tinestigu-na, ya hu pega lokkue' gi papa' unu na tininge'-na ginen i ma'pos na sakkan lokkue'. ******************* Estague i Mañamoru! ben’s Pen Published in Marianas Variety March 13, 2014 THE month of March signals the start of our celebration of Mes Chamorro. School children around th

I have been writing about a "military buildup" to Guam for more than 10 years now. In 2004, there were hints of a buildup to Guam and in 2005 the first formal parts of a buildup to Guam were announced. There were constant discussions for years as numbers shifted and plans were released and later changed or scrapped. There was a period of intense debate for about two years when formal plans were released and public comment began. Despite quite a bit of resistance to the Department of Defense's plans, they went through with their Record of Decision. The rhetoric of the DOD was that these plans were set and things needed to be pushed forward at record pace. Things slowed down considerable however, due to funding restrictions, economic downturns, a change in administration and military priorities shifting elsewhere. But the funny thing about the "buildup" is that while we can focus it around certain particular projects or acts, the military importance of not just

--> Last week I helped organize an informational meeting at the University of Guam for those wanting to learn more about the potential negative impacts of planned military buildups to Guam. We had a pretty good turnout with around 150 people showing up to hear presentations from the groups We Are Guahan and Our Islands Are Sacred. Help and information was given to those who wanted to submit comments. Although some might criticize the event as being “biased,” in truth all details that were discussed and made available were all produced by the United States Department of Defense through their environmental impact assessments. For those who take issues with what these groups are saying, their critiques all come from things the military itself is stating and claiming. The DEIS, EIS, ROD SEIS are all dense books published by the Department of Defense outlining what their plans are for Guam and what negative or positive impacts are foreseen. If you don’t like the contents of

To be very honest I used to hate the comments on the Guam PDN website before. Every couple of weeks someone would tell me something someone was saying about me on in the threads. I wouldn't often check it out, but when I did it was never pleasant. It was like a no-reality zone there for most people. I would be called all sorts of names and people would make up some pretty insane things about me. The PDN comments were filled with so many people who had left Guam behind, but their disdain for the people of the island or disgust for the island burned brighter than ever. That disconnect was very intriguing for me. How the people who took that space the most seriously in terms of dominating it with their ideas were those who probably at the least to gain or least actual investment or connection to what they were arguing over. Since the PDN changed their comments over to Facebook and requiring that people be signed into Facebook in order to comment the dialogue has cleaned up quite a

I attended the SEIS Public Comment Hearings at both Okkodo High School and Father Duenas Memorial School. As someone who was there during the last DEIS Comment priod meetings and wrote about it quite a bit on my blog and later in this column, it was interesting to see the public debate over militarization in Guam be shaped this time in a war of words, ideas, fears and dreams emerging from the clashing comments. Most public debates happen through the dusting off of faded and often outdated pieces of information in peoples’ heads. Your perception of how some important issues of public substance is determined by random snippets of information you have heard, read, been told, want to believe, are afraid to admit to and so on. In each society there are always a list of things that everyone is expect to know something about, and be expected to take some position on, even if that position is that you don’t care about it or that everything sucks about it. The milita

I wrote in my Marianas Variety column today about the importance of attending the recent public comment meetings on the military buildup because of the way it can provide a more textured understanding of the issue and why people might support it or protest it. Media reports will generally simplify things so that there are two or at most three sides to an issue, and it is no different with the military buildup. This is not only problematic because of the reduction in ways of seeing an issue, but also the representatives of different stances are reduced to caricatures. You are not introduced to the contradictions, the investments, the slips of the tongue, the rambling, the things that might help you understand more clearly that person's position. For those that need some updates on the military buildup debate, I've pasted some articles here for you to read and get informed. ****************** Last DSEIS meeting held Wednesday, 21 May 2014 03:00am BY JASMINE STOLE | V