To the leaders of Guåhan,
you are supposed to be the voices of our island
representatives of nearly 170,000 residents who call this island home
you say you want what's best for our people
that everything you do is with our future in mind
but the moment you told the world
that we welcome the military buildup with open arms
our voices were drowned out by your war-drums
after years of working for our people
how can you claim that the buildup will bring
growth, jobs, and greater confidence in our future?
we will become military welcome mats.
crushed under combat boots and armored vehicles
the island and its inhabitants
Will inherit live firing ranges
deep sea sonars
bombing exercises
and underwater explosives
like the spoils of war
our island will be spoiled by war
collecting pollution, radiation, contamination, and extinction
like dirt left of the boots of the military’s carbon footprint
and all for what?
generations of sustainable living
lost to a couple million dollars
this wasn’t the lush green
that made our island valuable
you took their currency
blood money in exchange for acres of our history
Litekyan
Ritidian point
will soon be just another no trespassing zone
replacing our culture with military readiness
but if you read the fine print
on the contract you’ve sold our futures in
you’d see that this mission is only achieved
by taking land that wasn’t yours to give
destroying our culture and supporting the same people
who withhold our freedom to the waters we were born on
Your support
Is deadly
Is radioactive
Is nuclear
Is genocide disguised by pride
they’ve taken our homes
and turned them into targets for their bombs and bullets.
to them, Litekyan is just a piece of land on some island in the middle of nowhere
but to us
Litekyan is the backbone of our identity
our people still call this land home,
it is a sacred place blessed with a wildlife
that can only survive where the ocean kisses the limestone
but you want to paint targets over our memories
Thousands of bullets will be fired daily
that’s millions of bullets a year
you may think that you can drown out our people’s anger
by shuffling through the money produced by exploiting our land
but we will not stand for it
if you let this buildup happen,
our children will find more bullet shells than sea shells
they will never know how deep their roots grow
if every trace of our past is excavated and a firing range takes its place.
bullets will be planted in the soil like seeds,
and kids will use battle tanks as jungle gyms.
I don’t want my children,
the future generation of our people,
to be born into a war that none of us had any business being in
we will not sit back and watch this happen
we will stand in the way of your soldiers and bulldozers
until you cannot tell where our bodies end
and the land begins
we will speak until our struggle
brings freedom for future generations
Leaders of Guåhan,
we know that you can hear us
and it's about time that you start listening