NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Despite the social distancing lockdown and remote work for my office over the past month, it has been difficult to find the mental brain space needed to write regularly. I mean this in terms of creative writing, but also political writing. So much of my brain space has been taken up by worrying about so many different things, I've found it hard at times to focus or give myself the space to take on the many other writing projects I have waiting for me. Thankfully I have been able to work through some of the thoughts I have on the COVID-19 pandemic and Guam's political status in my weekly column for the  Pacific Daily News. This hasn't gotten me many new fans, in fact the columns that I published for three weeks at the start of the lockdown phase have been some of my most hated since I started writing for the newspaper a few years ago. I won't get into way people seem to take particularly gleeful hate in my columns lately, but I felt compelled to share them here. Afte

2000 was the last time that Guam had a significant and focused conversation around political status. There had been campaigns, big and small, around commonwealth or constitutions. Each time there were discussions, community events and also sometime of plebiscite. 2000 was the last time that there was a big community push around the issue, as that was the year a plebiscite was scheduled and some funds made available for public education. This came after commonwealth had died or stalled in the US Congress, and it was decided to start the process over by having a new plebiscite to help determine the direction of future political status negotiations. This new start to the process never really came. The 2000 plebiscite was delayed several times and never took place. I recently went through more than a year of the Pacific Daily News to get a sense of that time, and came across dozens of letters to the editor and articles dealing with the plebiscite and the three sta

For years nothing much happened in terms of decolonization advocacy at the governmental level. I wish I couldn't make this statement, but it is unfortunately true. The issue fizzled out towards the end of Governor Gutierrez's last term, and received close to no attention during Governor Camacho's time in office. Even, the island's current chief executive, Governor Calvo, who is currently pushing for a decolonization vote in the near future, did very little for the majority of his term. While it is good to see him coming around on the issue, it has to be acknowledged, that with so little coordinated efforts for so long, it would take a great deal of resources and focus to make up for lost time. It remains to be seen if Governor Calvo recognizes this fact and will do what is necessary to make his current goals a reality. During that time, those in civil society and in particular in academia in Guam did what we could to make up the difference. Every year, either myself

Decolonization is the most important issue on Guam, that few people want to really talk about. I mean this in terms of average people and their relationship to it, but also political and community leaders, who may mention it and take stands on it, but still don't show a real commitment to getting us to the point of formal decolonization, or an evolved political status change. The Commission on Decolonization is the part of the Government of Guam that is supposed to help educate the island community, both Chamorros and non-Chamorros about this formal process of decolonization, which involves a political status plebiscite, or vote. Unfortunately, a number of governors in recent years have either ignored this Commission or severely underfunded it and taken resources away from it to the point where it is keyao yan kana' taisetbe. The Legislature hasn't moved things very far forward either. Even though individual senators may so strong things in support of decolonizatio