<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>thank you, Jaime for widening the picture.</DIV>
<DIV>mary h<BR></DIV>
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<B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Jaime R Vergara <svesjaime@aol.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> oe@wedgeblade.net<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Tue, April 16, 2013 8:17:40 AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd Thursday<BR></FONT><BR><FONT color=black size=3 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><FONT size=3>If curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend!</FONT><BR><BR>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 16px">j'aime la vie
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<DIV><I style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: white"><FONT color=#000080><B>Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!</B></FONT></I></DIV></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: helvetica, arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031@aol.com><BR>To: jayvee_vallejera <jayvee_vallejera@saipantribune.com>; mark_rabago <mark_rabago@saipantribune.com>; editor <editor@saipantribune.com><BR>Sent: Tue, Apr 16, 2013 9:06 pm<BR>Subject: OpEd Thursday<BR><BR>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN>The blasts heard around the world</SPAN></B></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>It was a commemorative Monday in one of the world’s famous city marathons. Held on Patriots’ Day, a Massachusetts’ holiday, it remembers events of 1775 in Concord and Lexington when the American Revolution broke out. The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest marathon event, first ran in 1897 with 18 entries. It registered 27,000 runners this year.</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>It also remembered the 26 victims in the Newtown, Connecticut Sandy Hook School shooting massacre as the run measures 26.2 miles and a set marker on the 26<SUP>th</SUP> mile was made to remind the participants of the tragedy not too long ago in a neighboring State. </SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px">Most participants are recreational runners, in the race for the challenge of making it to the end of the line while friends and love ones cheer on, and basking on personal accomplishment</SPAN><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">s</FONT><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px">. While athleticism is on display, and the Boston marathon requires qualifying times along with experience in another run within a year-and-a-half, the sheer fun of participation is also wildly evident. Recalling previous Aloha runs in Oahu, the levity of such run fests is contagious!</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Two hours into the first crossing at the finish line, when many of the participants were finally making it, was when two blasts occurred 10 seconds apart. Three were pronounced dead including an eight-year old child who was cheering on Daddy to the finish line. </SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Barricades and yellow tapes sprouted quickly as security officials reacted in the manner they were trained. The knowledgeable grabbed tourniquets as amputations suddenly became the medical order of the day!</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>The soul of a nation is laid bare, and already, the accusation of the hideous act of terrorism, domestic or foreign, is echoed in legislative chambers even without solid evidence of any kind. AP reached the Taliban in Pakistan and the group immediately disowned any association with the incident. </SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Another incident that may or may not be related was a blast at the JFK library. Two other bombs at the marathon were found and diffused. No group so fare has laid claim to the perpetuation of the deadly assault on an erstwhile peaceful and fun-filled celebration.</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>We write from outside the sovereign territories of the United States, and though we have access to the wire services of western media, we also scour the response of local news sources.</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>China Daily reports a female student at Boston U in a coma at a hospital as one of the 140 casualties. Seventeen females out of eighty-seven Chinese runners between 20 to 65-yr old were registered according to organizers. There are no pro marathoners. The paper’s reporting focused on the objective facts, in the same vein as it informed its reading audience the recent devastating tremors in Iran and Iraq at more than 7 points in the Richter scale; another of lesser intensity was around New Delhi in India.</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Other colleagues, while lamenting the seeming senselessness of the Boston blasts, point out also without heavy-handed weight of judgment and condemnation, the numerous effects on innocent lives of our unending use of drones in our military engagements in South Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. </SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px">The recent incessant demonization of the DPRK and a possible nuclear strike on US forces, including those in the Marianas, based on regular Pyongyang bellicosity</SPAN><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</FONT><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px"> now makes sense as SoKor recently announced a financial stimulus package to help boost the Won against the weakening ¥en and the indeterminate ¥uan. I bet on increased defense spending. </SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>To the Obama administration’s credit, when the news media carried the allegation from a defense intelligence agency’s accusation that DPRK “possibly” has nuclear capabilities, the Pentagon quickly disowned the report and claimed that any such judgment, on the basis of evidence, is “inaccurate”.</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Which brings us back to Boston. Obama has not been a favorite of patriotic elements in the country, often accused of being a foreigner and Moslem out to sell the nation’s security down the drain. The nation’s debate on gun control legislation after the gut-wrenching effect of Sandy Hook and other tragedies was very revealing of the level of vitriol leveled against the White House.</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Knowing of the critical impact of symbolic gestures, the patriotic focus of Patriots’ Day is not lost on those of us who have distance enough to see how something like September 11, and the 911 as an emergency call signal, was laid on a nation taking advantage of the exploitation of other people’s resources. Dick Cheney’s drool on Iraqi oil is now confirmed by one of his own former aides. </SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px">We might say that the Boston blasts is a cruel demonstration of certain elements in our society out to show that Boston and Massachusetts cannot prevail as the dominant ethos of </SPAN><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">a </FONT><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px">country attempting to leave its </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px">signature as a </SPAN><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">liberal and progressive </FONT><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 18px">“beacon on a hill” to the rest of the world.</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Over photos sent on the Net of two men assisting each other to save a sheep in a raging river only to be followed by lamb chops being barbecued on the grill, we said, “it is a character of our times to mistake skepticism and cynicism as witty.” </SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN>There is nothing witty about the Boston blasts, and if attempts are made to symbolize it as patriotic, we have turned into cruel folks, indeed.</SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 18px"><A style="FONT: lighter 10px Verdana, Arial; COLOR: #000000" rel=nofollow><IMG border=0 align=absMiddle src="http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031"></A> <FONT color=black size=2 face=arial>j'aime la vie
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<DIV><I><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#ff0000><B>Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, </B></FONT></I></DIV>
<DIV><I><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#ff0000><B>Celebrate!</B></FONT></I></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></div></body></html>