I want to take this time to thank all of you who supported our petition to reinstate the travel bans in the FSM. At this writing, the online petition has 8,786 supporters, 32,508 viewers, and 5,196 shared on social media. Thank you all for doing your part.
We are grateful to His Excellency President Panuelo for reinstating the travel ban to and from the FSM. We pray that our action through this petition to protect our vulnerable families throughout the FSM has not been too late. What the FSM Congress did was simply irresponsible and uninformed.
We are grateful to the state governors who took bold actions to restrict visitors to their respective states. In particular, we say Killisou Chapur to Honorable Governor Johnson Elimo of Chuuk State and Kalahngan to Honorable Governor Reed Oliver of the State of Pohnpei for working with their state leadership to ban visitors to their respective states. That defiance of the FSM Congress to protect lives must be applauded.
I am closing the petition now since we have achieved our goal of pressuring our leaders to reinstate the travel ban. Yet we know that this is no time to celebrate because we are nowhere near the end of this danger. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has just determined that the U.S could become the “epicenter of global outbreak” for this coronavirus pandemic. We know that most visitors to our beloved FSM come from the U.S including our own FSM citizens who routinely travel back and forth between the US and the FSM.
This is the time to be more vigilant in our own restrictive measures to protect our nation. For those of us who live in the U.S. and its territories including Guam, please stay put for a while until this coronavirus pandemic is controlled. Letʻs not travel back to our respective home islands lest we transmit this dangerous virus to our homeland. Our healthcare facilities in the FSM are simply not equipped to manage an outbreak if, God forbid, it happens in the FSM.
Meanwhile, please protect your family, protect our communities. If you are a church pastor, clan leader, head of family, please think about the lives in your hands by canceling for a while any of the usual community, church, sporting, and family gatherings that is a part of the fabrics of our lives and cultural heritage in the US. If you havenʻt already been doing so, start monitoring all information coming out of your local health organizations and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) such as the video Iʻm posting. Stay at home if your state has a “shelter in place” order. Be aware of all health advisories in your community.
Be safe out there, fellow FSMers and friends of the FSM. Weʻll overcome this disease by doing our part in protecting our families and the community in which we currently live.
God bless and protect us all. Perhaps instead of washing your hands to the length of the Happy Birthday song as recommended, do it while praying the Lordʻs Prayer…”Our Father who art in Heaven, holy be your name…”
