Rhetoric out of North Korea recently have focused attention
back on the Guam Military Buildup Program.
Yesterday North Korea's Supreme Command said that it was putting its long-range rocket units on
the highest possible combat-posture level.
The "Foal Eagle" Exercise between the U.S. military and the
South Korean military which is in full swing has once again re-ignited
Pyongyang's defiant voice against peace
in the region. Tensions are high. Nothing new. But something different has been
sparked locally.
With the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news channels,
Guam's residents had no problem being drawn to the North Korean State Run Media
and throwing out our island as a potential target for their weapons of mass
destruction. The passion from the
newsreader's voice and the translator's tone when pushing out the propaganda of
President Kim Jong Un is something this writer has never seen before.
The message sent a flurry of press releases from the WashingtonDelegate's Office, the Office of the Governor and the Guam Legislature
denouncing the threats to American security in the Asia-Pacific Region. Department of Defense briefings and COMNAVMAR
were steadfast in their words committing to our national defense and stability
in the region. The "spin" was
complicated by local media seeking the "man-on-the street" interviews
with some fearful and others completely oblivious to the growing tensions in
the Korean Peninsula.
The tirades also pushed out criticism of the recent omissions of substantive funding to move the III Marine Expeditionary Force to Guam from Okinawa, called for a speedy process to begin construction efforts for a new base in Northern Okinawa and renewed efforts to add a missile defense program to DOD Guam.
This barrage of words and passion reminded me of a
lesson from my high school days. Back in
1989, a high school civics teacher/football coach Bob Cole introduced a San
Leandro High School Senior and others to a discussion on a type of speech that
leads to violence. When life was a Rubix
Cube, Mountain Mike's Pizza, the next football game at Burrell Field or a
concert at the Oakland Coliseum, we learned that the use of violence and
intimidation in the pursuit of political aims through speech was something we
all should be concerned with and the significant impacts it can have on society
as a whole. Little did I know that 24
years later, I would recall that lesson as a means of further
understanding the "saber rattling"
occurring some 2,200 miles north of our Paradise Guam.
Why take time to write about this form of hateful
speech? It is to point out that saying
or writing one thing so far from our shores reverberates halfway around the
world with the power base of our great Nation.
There is no question that we should be concerned. But from experience, such reactions were
overkill. The quotes, hit the web like
wildfire. Talk around the village sports
fields to the shopping malls related to a potential military face-off either
elicited a joke or a very serious question of possible contingencies.
As a community we need to dampen down the impacts of words
of a crazy man and focus our attentions on more important matters of this
isolated American community. We should
focus on the impacts of Obamacare on the small businesses of Guam, growing more
jobs in a flattened economy and engage debate on laws that reduce-not
increase-local mandates.
Words need to be used to solve problems and not to create
more conflict.