Craig Santos Perez wrote another beautiful letter to the editor about the “giant fish” eating Guahan / Guam. I like how he is reclaiming the letter to the editor as a powerful literary form:
WHEN the giant fish began eating the middle of Guåhan, our ancestors did not receive an environmental impact statement (EIS) from DOD (Department of Destruction). Our ancestors knew that the wealth (food, clothing, shelter) and security of Chamoru people depended on the health and integrity of our land and water. Thus, the sound of the hungry beast devouring our home must have been terrifying.
Perhaps the sound of its gnawing teeth resembles the drumbeat of typing 11,000 pages of the EIS for the military buildup on Guåhan.
Perhaps the sound of its lashing tongue resembles the loud tongues of those in the Legislature, media, business community, academia, and the We Are Colonizers social network who support the colonization of Guåhan.
Perhaps the sound of its swallowing resembles the sound of the doors at a military recruitment office opening and closing, opening and closing, opening and closing each time it swallows another Chamoru body.
Or perhaps it’s just noise.
The Final EIS (Volume 2, Section 6-1-1) defines “noise” as “unwanted or annoying sound and is not necessarily based on loudness. It comes from both natural and manmade sources. Noise can have adverse effects on physical and psychological health, affect workplace productivity, and degrade quality of life.”
According to the Guam Compatibility Sustainability Study, the military buildup will cause an increased amount of noise from construction, traffic, air and sea operations, ground training and artillery. The land, the air and the water will become targets. Our eardrums will become targets. Violent noise will echo from every corner of the island.
Within all this noise, can we hear our own voices?
[…] Perez, Craig Santos. “Our Sea of Voices.” Marianas Variety 19 Dec 2011. Accessed 10 January 2015. [and other works here] […]