Insights
I
was born and raised in the Midwest
United States. A far west suburb of
Chicago, to be exact. But since I
have lived most of my life here on this
beautiful emerald gem in the western
Pacific Ocean, I am a Guamanian.
And since my husband and children
are CHamoru, one of my mother-inlaw’s
late friends once told me I am
CHamoru by… Well, let’s just call me a
CHamaole.
Thank God. Because I have to say if
you are from the mainland United States
these days — especially if you are a
white person who is creating a ruckus
about not wanting to wear a mask
because it infringes on your “rights” or
your “choice,” or you say
you can’t breathe with a
mask on, whatever— how
embarrassing. I am literally
måmåhlao to tell people
from where I originated
these days.
I’ve seen way too many
news stories, articles, and
of course those ubiquitous
“Karen” videos on
Facebook about (mostly)
white people going ballistic
because they are tired of
being told to wear a mask
to protect themselves and
others from the spread of
Covid-19.
Forget about the fact that most health
experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci,
the director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the
National Institutes of Health and a career
civil servant, tell us that wearing a
mask is one of the most important things
you can do to protect yourself and others
from the spread of this virus. Forget
about the fact that most of them say
that because this particular viral strain
is brand new to humans, that we don’t
even know what we don’t know about it
yet. These scientists are literally writing
this pandemic playbook day by day.
So why would you not wear a mask?
The only answer I can think of is that
you are just not cool. My children think
6
The people of Guam are just cool
Forget about the fact that
most health experts tell us that
wearing a mask is one of the most
important things you can do to
protect yourself and others from
the spread of this virus.
my use of the word “cool”
is outdated. They say
“chill.” But I am a child of
the 70s, back when things
were cool. So, cool it is.
On Guam, everyone
wears a mask out in public,
or into a grocery store,
hardware store, clothing
store, wherever. We are
actually used to seeing
people masked up because
our friends and tourists
from Asian countries have
worn masks on planes and
out in public for decades.
That’s right. They got the memo a long
time ago that masks help stop the spread
of many illnesses: the common cold, flu,
upper respiratory infections, etc., and
now Covid-19. I haven’t come across
one person here who has refused to wear
a mask, or thrown a hissy fit in a store
because they are tired of wearing a mask
and think it infringes upon their (again
mostly white) privileged life.
Not. One.
So let’s face it: as a whole, the people
of Guam are way more “chill” (Are you
happy, girls?) than people in the mainland.
We are generally nicer to strangers.
Rudeness is not our first go-to behavior
when we encounter someone new. And
we have a built-in cultural respect for
our manam’ko - our elderly. We want
them around, because we love our nanas
and papas and aunties and uncles. Also,
they give good advice because they are
generally very wise, having lived longer
and seen more than the rest of us.
My favorite “wear the damn mask”
meme is the cartoon about the two
naked guys, where it shows one guy
urinating on the other because neither
is wearing any clothes. But if the one
man is wearing pants and the naked guy
urinates on the one wearing pants, only
some of the urine gets onto the skin of
the one wearing pants. If both guys wear
pants, the urine from the one urinating
will just run down the inside of his
pants, because he is wearing them. Thus,
protecting both men from the spread of
the urine. It’s definitely an attention-getting
analogy.
It’s also not rocket science. So those
of you in the mainland who are still, for
some unknown, warped, possibly bad
presidential example reason not wearing
masks, I have a message for you: Be like
us— the people of Guam. Wear your
mask. Help stop the spread of the virus.
Wear a mask even if you don’t think the
virus is real (it is).
We wear masks. Because we are cool.
Jayne Flores is the director of the
Bureau of Women’s Affairs and a longtime
journalist. Contact her at [email protected].
rom the
comment box
Back to the basics
Now, Covid is getting everyone into
gardening. I hope this will get
everyone eventually into a bigger scale
of farming. I will help anyone with
machinery , should you decide to be a
farmer. Just call me for more information.
—Gil Borja
Combatting
prejudices and
intolerance
It’s good to bring this issue to light but
I find this article to be too simplistic
and wrongly based on the assumption
that on Guam racism exists and has to
do with a belief that one’s own race
is superior. This belief may be true in
the United States but I believe that the
majority of CHamorus here consider
themselves as members of a larger
group of people called Micronesians. It
may be more persuasive to look at the
theory of cultural racism. Underlying
all is the racism exhibited by the United
States toward its U.S. territories and the
freely associated states.
—Chris Allen Perez Howard
More ancient
human remains
found at Ritidian
project site
The sad part about this whole thing
is that a range does not need to be
built. This site could have been left
alone or preserved properly. The range
may be gone in 10 years anyway. Sad
situation.
—Tim Rock
wonder, what kind of chemicals does
I a live-firing range produce? How
much if any? Will be seeping into the
aquifer?
—Berni Penaflor