<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>
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<div style="font-size: 16px; clear: both; ">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>
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<div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: helvetica, arial; color: black; ">-----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>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><b><span style="font-family:">The blasts heard around the world</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><b><span style="font-family:"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<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 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<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 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">,</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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<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 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">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 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">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>
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<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; clear: both; "><a style="font:lighter 10px Verdana, Arial;color:#000000;"><img align="absmiddle" border="0" 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>
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