NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Every year, at some point during at least one of my classes I'll mention the name "Janet Benshoof." It isn't a name commonly known on Guam, at least among the general population, but it was a name that was notorious for a short period in the early 1990s, and one that probably deserves more attention. Janet Benshoof was the ACLU attorney who came to Guam to lead the fight against the strictest and harshest anti-choice, anti-abortion law within the US and its empire as of 1990. She was the only person arrested under that harsh anti-abortion law that made national headlines. Reading her obituary though I saw that her work was truly international, joining causes for the betterment of women's lives across the globe. In her obit below from the New York Times there is even a section that deals with her time in Guam and a quote from Former Governor of Guam Joseph Ada. One day I'm gonna write an article about that time in Guam's History, because it represents

Trump is like a living, breathing orange spray-tanned embodiment of verbal diarrhea. There are just constant streams of words coming out of his mouth, which often times barely have any obvious or reasonable connection to whatever is being discussed. His speech varies so widely, you have to wonder about his mental capacity or competency. He speaks like a angry dictator one moment, a guilty child the next, and a student who has never done a page of homework in their life, trying to bullshit their way out of a presentation. Trump is an example of what it is like when someone's privilege is so potent and intoxicating that they cannot even properly assess simple things such as consequences. The sheer amount of privilege means he is not only used to simply blaming everything on others, but that people around him will actively enable such delusions. He is not used to be being held accountable for his words or his deeds, but so accustomed to just arranging spectacles. With his travel ban

Some of the Guam Mentions that can be found on the website Common Dreams .  They cover an interesting spectrum of political possibilities. The list of Guam Mentions is so oddly diverse, it was collections like this which made my dissertation such a strange trip to write. Guam is a military base, an independent country, a territory within just a few hundreds words of text. It is quintessentially American in one article, a foreign country in another, the edges of its empire in one and then the breakdown of its soul and its morality in the next. To see what I mean, check out the articles below: ********************* World Watches North Korea, But No Missiles Yet Deadline came and went, but US intel believes chances of test launch remain 'very high' by Jon Queally, staff writer Common Dreams April 10, 2013 Following weeks of growing tensions, Wednesday April 10 was the day officials in Pyongyang had threatened to test one or more of its Musudan

The issue of gay marriage is really being push right now in Guam. There seems to be a much broader support for it as opposed to a few years ago. There is still some resistance, especially on religious grounds. I haven't seen any reports yet on whether or not local bakeries are supporting or fighting this issue. This is intriguing because as you can see from the reports below, cakes, the making of, the selling of, the religious freedom involved in deciding who you do and do not make cakes for, has become a ground zero of sorts ******************* This Bakery Refused to Serve a Same-Sex Couple and It May Cost Them $135,000 Published: April 26, 2015 | Authors: Aviva Shen | Think Progress | News Report  A bakery that turned away a lesbian couple loo

When I was younger growing up on Guam I remember my mother being involved in two major issues of the time. Firstly, she was involved in one of the many research projects about the cause of Litiko Bodig on Guam. I didn't understand much at the time, just that my mother was spending time with old Chamorro people and sometimes even taking them on trips to the states to meet with scientists. The other issue was the "abortion muddle" surrounding what became infamous as the most draconian anti-choice anti-abortion law in the United States and its colonies. My mother was the President of the Guam Nurses Association at the time and although it was controversial, they took a stand against the abortion law, since it took away from women the right to choose what happens to their bodies. I remember marching with her at protests and even seeing her in a copy of the history book I used for World History 2 at UOG, from when she participated at a women's rights rally in Washingto