1. Call to Organize

For years, I have felt the need to organize a group to work to make the CNMI a better place, to overcome the old politics and contruct the new. But I never got to it, never felt able to overcome daily demands and the law of scarcity. Tina Sablan is a pathbreaker where I for years was only a dreamer. As Tina has said, we all need to put our shoulders to the grindstone. So here I am now, trying to lay out my ground rules and call for a citizen action Committee for the Public Interest.

All are welcome who are committed to certain principles and positions. Anyone is free to recommend principles or positions, but for now at least, I will be the final arbiter of governing principles and policy positions.

Here are the binding positions and principles to which members of the Committee for the Public Interest must be committed:

1. Elimination of poker machines.
2. Federalization of CNMI immigration (but absolutely not without #3)
3. Improved status for long-term alien residents of the CNMI
4. Economic revitalization
5. Environmental cleanup (no more overflowing sewers)
6. Island beautification for improved tourism (no more overflowing sewers)
7. Community based services and policy development