CFJ Partner Michael Pangelinan was one of several Guam residents who commented to the New York Times on August 10, 2017 for the article entitled, "At the Tip of the Spear": Guam Residents on U.S.-North Korea Tensions. Mikes thoughts are set out in full below:
'Just Regular Americans'
Michael A. Pangelinan, 47, a lawyer who lives in Dededo, in the north of the island, was one of many Guamanians who expressed frustration about how little their home was understood by Americans.
"It's very disappointing that our national media reports of North Korea's threats against Guam focus only on the U.S. servicemen and women and their families stationed here and only in passing mention that all 162,000 residents of Guam are Americans. All of Guam's residents are U.S. citizens. If you're born here, you're a U.S. citizen. We're patriotic Americans and love our military, and we're happy to be home to U.S. military bases - much like other American cities with U.S. bases - but we're mainly just regular Americans like Americans who live in Phoenix or Albuquerque. We drop our kids to school in the morning and work at normal jobs. We shop at Kmart and Home Deport and watch our kids play soccer on the weekends. How do we feel about being threatened with a missile attack by North Korea? How would Americans in Phoenix or Albuquerque feel?"