THE continuing political status of Guam is one of those things that is so important, but so complicated, that most people would rather pretend it’s not an issue. The more you reflect on Guam’s territorial/colonial status, the more it requires that you ask and attempt to answer very difficult questions. If you are prohibited from participating in an election, does it truly make the person elected your president? If the laws of one country apply to you even though you have no formal say in the creation of those laws, is that really democracy or rule through the consent of the governed? If the application of the Constitution to everyone who lives in Guam is something that can be changed at the whim of Congress, what does that say about citizenship or federal-territorial relations in Guam?

Because of this difficulty, people undertake a daily sort of Olympics in creating massive convoluted games that will allow them not to confront Guam’s colonial status. We create entire economies of denial and apologia in order to pretend everything is fine and the flag waves exactly the same in all 50 states as it does in Guam. As a result we regularly miss how our political status affects nearly everything on the island. While we are conditioned to talk glowingly about how our relationship to the United States has supported us and continues to sustain us, we are not supposed to provide the same verve in understanding how the relationship could negatively affect the island.

We can all recite a laundry list of ways the relationship affects us in terms of things the island has access to because of being an appendage of the United States. But, we don’t make the same connections to how our subordinate status affects everything from the price of goods to the structure of our economy, our local government and the control of our natural resources.

As a community, I feel that we are incredibly uninformed about political status and the ways it is to be resolved, through decolonization. Our educational system is supposed to provide a foundation in understanding political realities here on the island, but in terms of political status this simply isn’t the case. Our students do not grow up learning the nature of Guam’s relationship to the United States, either today or historically. They grow up learning about things as if Guam were just like any other corner of America. It is no wonder, then, that people cling to blissful ignorance.

It is an election season and so an old crop and a new crop of leaders are vying for a chance to help steer the course of the island for the next two years. These candidates are going to be asked all sorts of questions about their qualifications, their platforms, and their ideas for the island. For me, one of the things I look for in a candidate is having a solid understanding of political status issues. It is for this reason that I have been working with the Independence Task Force for Guam to develop a quiz for the legislative candidates this election, which will test their basic knowledge on this issue.

The Independence for Guam Task Force is a part of the Commission for Decolonization, which was created by the government of Guam in order to help facilitate the process of political status change. Although the purpose of this task force is to advocate Independence as the ideal future political status for Guam, this quiz is not geared toward supporting any particular status option. It is not geared toward supporting any particular candidate either.

This quiz is just 11 simple multiple-choice questions and one essay question. Like any test, some questions are easier than others. By now every candidate should have received an email or a letter inviting him or her to take the quiz. Even if candidates aren’t sure what their level of knowledge is, I encourage them to still try to take the quiz. They may be surprised with the results. Political status and decolonization are part of general public discourse today in ways they haven’t been since the Chamorro Spanish Wars. But the question remains: How many people understand those ideas that are floating around? For example, you may know the three potential political status options that Guam can become through a process of self-determination, but do you know where we get those three options? Everyone knows that the Organic Act is what created the government of Guam and gave people on Guam U.S. Citizenship, but how much do you actually know about the Organic Act?

By the end of the month, the Task Force will publish a report on how well participating candidates did on the quiz.