Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Finally, A Marine Monument
Establishment of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
Over approximately 480 nautical miles, the Mariana Archipelago encompasses the 14 islands of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Territory of Guam that sit atop the Mariana Ridge in an area known as the Mariana Volcanic Arc. The Mariana Volcanic Arc is part of a subduction system in which the Pacific Plate plunges beneath the Philippine Sea Plate and into the Earth's mantle, creating the Mariana Trench. Six of the archipelago's islands have been volcanically active in historic times, and numerous seamounts along the Mariana Ridge are volcanically or hydrothermically active. The Mariana Trench is approximately 940 nautical miles long and 38 nautical miles wide within the United States Exclusive Economic Zone and contains the deepest known points in the global ocean.
The Mariana Volcanic Arc contains objects of scientific interest, including the largest active mud volcanoes on Earth. The
The waters of the archipelago's northern islands are among the most biologically diverse in the Western Pacific and include the greatest diversity of seamount and hydrothermal vent life yet discovered. These volcanic islands are ringed by coral ecosystems with very high numbers of apex predators, including large numbers of sharks. They also contain one of the most diverse collections of stony corals in the Western Pacific. The northern islands and shoals in the archipelago have substantially higher large fish biomass, including apex predators, than the southern islands and
WHEREAS the submerged volcanic areas of the Mariana Ridge, the coral reef ecosystems of the waters surrounding the islands of Farallon de Pajaros, Maug, and Asuncion in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Mariana Trench contain objects of scientific interest that are situated upon lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States;
WHEREAS the United States continues to act in accordance with the balance of interests relating to traditional uses of the oceans recognizing freedom of navigation and overflight and other internationally recognized lawful uses of the sea;
WHEREAS the islands, waters, and airspace of the Mariana Ridge are of particular importance to the national security of the United States;
WHEREAS section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431)(the "Antiquities Act") authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected;
WHEREAS it is in the public interest to preserve the known volcanic areas of the Mariana Ridge, the marine environment around the islands of Farallon de Pajaros, Maug, and Asuncion in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Mariana Trench for the care and management of the scientific objects therein:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Antiquities Act do proclaim that there are hereby set apart and reserved as the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument (the "monument" or "marine national monument") for the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States within the boundaries described below and depicted on the accompanying map entitled "Marianas Trench Marine National Monument" attached to and forming a part of this proclamation. The monument includes the waters and submerged lands of the three northernmost Mariana Islands (the "Islands Unit") and only the submerged lands of designated volcanic sites (the "Volcanic Unit") and the Mariana Trench (the "Trench Unit") to the extent described as follows: The seaward boundaries of the Islands Unit of the monument extend to the lines of latitude and longitude depicted on the accompanying map, which lie approximately 50 nautical miles from the mean low water line of Farallon de Pajaros (Uracas), Maug, and Asuncion. The inland boundary of the Islands Unit of the monument is the mean low water line. The boundary of the Trench Unit of the monument extends from the northern limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the
Submerged lands that by legislation are subsequently granted by the United States to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands but remain controlled by the United States under the Antiquities Act may remain part of the monument, for coordination of management with the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Any submerged lands and interests in submerged lands within the monument not owned or controlled by the
support some of the largest biomass of reef fishes in the Mariana Archipelago. These relatively pristine coral reef ecosystems are objects of scientific interest and essential to the long-term study of tropical marine ecosystems.Management of the
The Secretaries of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Interior, shall manage the monument pursuant to applicable legal authorities and in consultation with the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of the Interior shall have management responsibility for the monument, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, except that the Secretary of Commerce shall have the primary management responsibility, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, with respect to fishery-related activities regulated pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) and any other applicable authorities. The Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce shall not allow or permit any appropriation, injury, destruction, or removal of any feature of this monument except as provided for by this proclamation or as otherwise provided for by law.
The Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce shall take appropriate action pursuant to their respective authorities under the Antiquities Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and such other authorities as may be available to implement this proclamation, to regulate fisheries, and to ensure proper care and management of the monument.
Regulation of Scientific Exploration and Research
Subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary deems necessary for the care and management of the objects of this monument, the Secretary of the Interior may permit scientific exploration and research within the monument, including incidental appropriation, injury, destruction, or removal of features of this monument for scientific study, and the Secretary of Commerce may permit fishing within the monument for scientific exploration and research purposes to the extent authorized by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The prohibitions required by this proclamation shall not restrict scientific exploration or research activities by or for the Secretaries, and nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to require a permit or other authorization from the other Secretary for their respective scientific activities.
Regulation of Fishing and Management of Fishery Resources
Within the Islands Unit of the monument, the Secretary of Commerce shall prohibit commercial fishing. Subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary of Commerce deems necessary for the care and management of the objects of the Islands Unit, the Secretary, consistent with Executive Order 12962 of June 7, 1995, as amended, shall ensure that sustenance, recreational, and traditional indigenous fishing shall be managed as a sustainable activity consistent with other applicable law and after due consideration with respect to traditional indigenous fishing of any determination by the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Monument Management Planning
The Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce shall, within 2 years of the date of this proclamation, prepare management plans within their respective authorities and promulgate implementing regulations that address any further specific actions necessary for the proper care and management of the objects identified in this proclamation. In developing and implementing any management plans and any management rules and regulations, the Secretaries shall designate and involve as cooperating agencies the agencies with jurisdiction or special expertise, including the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and other agencies through scoping in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), its implementing regulations and with Executive Order 13352 of August 26, 2004, Facilitation of Cooperative Conservation, and shall treat as a cooperating agency the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, consistent with these authorities. The monument management plans shall ensure that the monument will be administered in accordance with this proclamation, and shall, as appropriate to their respective authorities, provide for:
1. management of the Islands Unit of the monument, in consultation with the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, including designation of specific roles and responsibilities and the means of consultation on management decisions as appropriate, without affecting the respective authorities or jurisdictions of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands or the Secretaries of the Interior or of Commerce;
2. public education programs and public outreach regarding the coral reef ecosystem and related marine resources and species of the monument and efforts to conserve them;
3. traditional access by indigenous persons, as identified by the Secretaries in consultation with the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, for culturally significant subsistence, cultural and religious uses within the monument;
4. a program to assess and promote monument-related scientific exploration and research, tourism, and recreational and economic activities and opportunities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands;
5. a process to consider requests for recreational fishing permits in certain areas of the Islands Unit, based on an analysis of the likely effects of such fishing on the marine ecosystems of these areas, sound professional judgment that such fishing will not materially interfere with or detract from the fulfillment of the purposes of this proclamation, and the extent to which such recreational fishing shall be managed as a sustainable activity consistent with Executive Order 12962, as amended, and other applicable law; and
6. programs for monitoring and enforcement necessary to ensure that scientific exploration and research, tourism, and recreational and commercial activities do not degrade the monument's coral reef ecosystem or related marine resources or species or diminish the monument's natural character.
The management plans and their implementing regulations shall impose no restrictions on innocent passage in the territorial sea or otherwise restrict navigation, overflight, and other internationally recognized lawful uses of the sea, and shall incorporate the provisions of this proclamation regarding Armed Forces actions and compliance with international law.
This proclamation shall be applied in accordance with international law. No restrictions shall apply to or be enforced against a person who is not a citizen, national, or resident alien of the
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to diminish or enlarge the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of the
Advisory Council
The Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce, within 3 months of the date of this proclamation and after considering recommendations from the Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall establish the Mariana Monument Advisory Council to provide advice and recommendations on the development of management plans and management of the monument. The Advisory Council shall consist of three officials of the Government of the Commonwealth of the
Members of the Advisory Council will be appointed for a term of 3 years by the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce after nomination by the head of the pertinent executive branch agency or, with respect to the officials of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, by the Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Advisory Council will adopt such procedures as it deems necessary to govern its activities. Each participating agency shall be responsible for the expenses of its representative and the Departments of the Interior and Commerce shall be equally responsible for the costs of the Advisory Council.
Emergencies, National Security, and Law Enforcement Activities
1. The prohibitions required by this proclamation shall not apply to activities necessary to respond to emergencies threatening life, property, or the environment, or to activities necessary for national security or law enforcement purposes.
2. Nothing in this proclamation shall limit agency actions to respond to emergencies posing an unacceptable threat to human health or safety or to the marine environment and admitting of no other feasible solution.
Armed Forces Actions
1. The prohibitions required by this proclamation shall not apply to activities and exercises of the Armed Forces (including those carried out by the United States Coast Guard).
2. The Armed Forces shall ensure, by the adoption of appropriate measures not impairing operations or operational capabilities, that its vessels and aircraft act in a manner consistent, so far as is reasonable and practicable, with this proclamation.
3. In the event of threatened or actual destruction of, loss of, or injury to a monument living marine resource resulting from an incident, including but not limited to spills and groundings, caused by a component of the Department of Defense or the United States Coast Guard, the cognizant component shall promptly coordinate with the Secretary of the Interior or Commerce, as appropriate, for the purpose of taking appropriate actions to respond to and mitigate any actual harm and, if possible, restore or replace the monument resource or quality.
4. Nothing in this proclamation or any regulation implementing it shall limit or otherwise affect the Armed Forces' discretion to use, maintain, improve, manage, or control any property under the administrative control of a Military Department or otherwise limit the availability of such property for military mission purposes.
This proclamation is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, by any party against the United States, its agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers, employees, agents, or any other person.
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of this monument are hereby withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, sale, or leasing or other disposition under the public land laws, to the extent that those laws apply.
The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing rights.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the national monument shall be dominant over any other existing Federal withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, excavate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the
GEORGE W. BUSH
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
OVR Employment Summit on Saipan
Evolving employment paradigms for PWDs
Text and photos by Alexie Villegas Zotomayor
“Attitudes of people with disabilities need to change. We need to set the bar higher for ourselves.”
This is the challenge issued by a visiting California cabinet member in the recently concluded National Disability Employment Awareness Month Summit at the Hibiscus Hall of Fiesta Resort & Spa Hotel.
In his keynote address before participants of the 2008 NDEAM Employment Summit, California’s Department of Rehabilitation director Anthony Sauer called on people with disabilities to rise above the challenge and overcome fear of going to work.
“Disincentives to go to work are changing. Don’t be afraid to take the risks. Don’t be afraid, if you have disability, to go to work and move along.”
A paragon for those with disabilities, Sauer has been paralyzed from waist down since encountering a motorcycle accident at 18. But Sauer did not sulk and allow his disability to take charge of his life. With a strong will, he triumphed against difficulties and managed to earn graduate degrees and reap success.
Citing anecdotes and personal experiences, Sauer called on people with disabilities to make a difference. “You in this room can make a difference. You can choose the way things are done in the CNMI.”
Direct and frank, Sauer talked about the need for people with disabilities to change their attitudes.
“Many PWDs have a perspective that they can’t work—from their experiences or the words of ‘well-meaning’ professionals and friends. I’ve experienced that look in a potential employer’s eye, or the leading questions that make me know they are not going to hire me. It’s painful, very painful. You in this room can change this and I urge you to just do that,” Sauer said as he hit a poignant chord with his audience.
Relying on his experience fraught with encounters with prospective employers who denied him the opportunity of employment, Sauer lambasted at those who see people with disabilities as a liability in the workplace, saying “We should not discriminate based on disability.”
In his keynote speech at the NDEAN Employment Summit on Saipan, Sauer traced the history and evolving employment paradigms for PWDs.
People with disabilities, Sauer narrated, have either been taken care of by their family or have been forced to beg to survive throughout history. He told his audience that very few PWDs were allowed to work, “let alone expected to work.”
Sauer claimed that in the past, people with disabilities were shunned and hidden from society, “forgotten in the backrooms of their homes or prisons, sometimes (relegated to places) called ‘institutions or sanitariums’.”
Mandating a vocational rehabilitation program
But key turning points in the 20th century changed the world’s perspective of disability with the war veterans making an impact in the society and the polio epidemic that overran the world leaving many victims in its wake.
On the coattails of the veterans’ coming out of the war with disabilities, pieces of legislation in the US Congress have been enacted into law.
Sauer began his discussion with the Soldier’s Rehabilitation Act of 1918 and the Smith-Fess Act of 1920. Sauer told his audience that the Smith-Fess Act or otherwise known as the Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act (Public Law 236) set forth a vocational rehabilitation program for people with disabilities that allocated $750,000 for the initial year of implementation and infusions of $1,000,000 for each succeeding year for two years.
Sauer said the act provided for the funding that would defray costs of vocational guidance, training, occupational adjustment services, and job placement.
Although the US Congress had created a federal vocational rehabilitation program by virtue of this act, the program remained subject to periodical vote by the US Congress to reauthorize it.
Then Sauer proceeded to discussing the Social Security Act of 1935 and discussions that began in 1936 of measures that would provide the Social Security Disability Insurance in the executive agencies and Congress culminating in the measure becoming law only in 1956 with Lyndon B. Johnson as Senate Majority leader. This significant piece of legislation concerning people with disabilities had been passed into law with 47 in favor over 45 votes in the US Congress.
Research on disability policy and history revealed that the measure had had to go through a long period of modification.
In a statement before the Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on Ways and means by Professor Edward D. Berkowitz of George Washington University, he told the legislators in 2000 that planners in the Social Security Administration had been considering the measure as early as 1936 and devised a program that “they felt could withstand pressures of depression, citing, for example, a tough definition of disability, distinguishing it from unemployment.
Based on Professor Berkowitz’ statement before the committee, he said, “Instead of adopting a definition similar to the ones in the existing workers’ compensation and veterans’ pension laws, they chose to define disability as ‘an impairment of mind and body which continuously renders it impossible for the disabled person to follow any substantial gainful occupation’ and was likely to last for ‘the rest of a person's life’."
Given a tough definition like this which is similar to the present law, Professor Berkowitz argued that many doubted the ability of federal officials to administer a disability program.
He said, “As an actuary who served on the 1938 Social Security Advisory Council put it: ‘You will have workers like those in the dust bowl area, people who have migrated to California and elsewhere, who perhaps have not worked in a year or two, who will imagine they are disabled.’ The actuary warned that unless a highly qualified medical staff examined each applicant, the cost of the program would be higher than ‘anything that can be forecast’. "
He also declared before the committee “although the Social Security officials sought a strict definition of disability, they knew that, if the program were administered in too severe a manner, then the courts and the Congress would act to make federal officials admit more people to the disability rolls.”
He further added, “One of the principal Social Security researchers thought of disability as an elastic concept. ‘Too strict a system invites pressure to swing in the opposite direction,’ he said. His remarks foreshadowed the volatility that would accompanied disability insurance after 1956 and in particular the sequence of rapidly expanding rolls in the 1970s, attempts to stop the growth of the rolls in the early 1980s, and the rise in the rolls in the later 1980s and early 1990s.”
Going back to Sauer’s keynote speech, he discussed the evolution of disability policies from 1935 to 1972 and cited Randolph-Sheppard Act and the Wagner-O’Day Act of the 1930s that sought to purchase products from workshops for the blind that opened employment opportunities for those in the workshops.
He also spoke of the Barden – Lafolette Act of 1943 that “expanded eligibility for vocational rehabilitation services to mentally retarded and psychiatrically handicapped individuals.”
With the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Sauer said, vocational rehabilitation program was made first priority to serve severely disabled individuals with the behavior disorder category discontinued and consumer involvement stressed by requiring their involvement in the development of their Individualized Written Rehabilitation Program (IWRP) with the consumer made to sign the plan indicating they understood it and approved.
Sauer said that at that point in American history, a political debate was ensuing regarding turning the program into a comprehensive rather than a strictly vocational rehabilitation program.
“The act authorized funding for demonstration independent living centers that could work with individuals regardless of vocational potential, but a vocational objective and feasibility of reaching it was maintained as an eligibility requirement for the state-federal program. The act also stressed program evaluation and supported rehabilitation research,” said Sauer adding that the Americans with Disabilities Act signed by President Bush in 2000 mandated similar provisions to state and local government as well as private sector.
The American with Disabilities Act was signed by President George H. W. Bush into law on July 26, 1990 creating the world’s first comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities and is often described as the Emancipation Proclamation for the disability community. The Act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, in public services, in public accommodations, and in telecommunications.
According to Sauer, throughout the 20th century, numerous programs were created to “take care of PWDs” which began to change in the 1970s that saw the rise of “Disability Pride” or “Crip Pride.”
With the “Disability Pride,” Sauer segued into discussing the key social changes that led to the Independent Living Movement: Civil rights movement, consumerism, self-help, de-medicalization and de-institutionalization.
Stories of Independent living
In discussing this, Sauer cited several experiences of people who have become precursors of independent living.
He noted the exemplary life of Ed Roberts who was referred to as the father of independent living.
Sauer narrated that Roberts became a quadriplegic as a result of his contracting polio as a 14-year-old and had been using an iron lung every night and breathing machine attached to his wheelchair in the daytime.
Using Roberts’ own words, Sauer narrated, “I contracted polio when I was 14. I had a serious fever, and within 24 hours, I was paralyzed and in an iron lung. Within earshot, my mother asked the doctor whether I would live or die. ‘You should hope he dies, because if he lives, he’ll be no more than a vegetable for the rest of his life. How would you like to live in an iron lung 24 hours a day?’ So Ed said, ‘I decided to be an artichoke…a little prickly on the outside but with a big heart. You know, the vegetables of the world are uniting, and we’re not going away.”
A bright young man, Sauer said Roberts was accepted at the University of California at Berkeley in 1962. Unbeknownst to campus officials Roberts had a significant disability that by the time he arrived on campus, he was told, “We’ve tried cripples before and it didn’t work.”
The university, according to Sauer, reluctantly admitted him and made him live in the campus medical facility called the Cowell Hall.
It was Ed’s brother, who served as an on-campus PA, who moved him from one class to another in his old manual wheelchair.
In the 1960s, when Ed came to the DOR, Sauer said, “he was deemed too disabled to work.”
But Sauer noted that a twist in his fate happened in 1974 when Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him Director of DOR.
For his strong will and exemplary life, when Roberts died in March 1995, his wheelchair was enshrined at the Smithsonian for everyone to remember him by and give hope to those with disabilities.
For Sauer, his experience was much different than Ed Roberts’.
Extending his gratitude to those countless advocates who blazed the trail for him, Sauer said his VR counselor worked with him to strategize his future and helped him get past the agonizing months following his paralysis.
Sauer looked back, “I began believing in myself again and started seeing all the possibilities instead of the doom and despair that was lingering around me in the hospital those early days.”
He profusely heaped praise and gratitude to his VR counselor Bill Hendricks whom he said “listened and encouraged me. At times he would gently nudge me back to reality but he never discouraged me from my goal of becoming a self-employed cabinet maker.)
From the shadows and into mainstream
Sauer, in issuing the call for people with disabilities the move into the mainstream, quoted Roberts’ as saying, “We used to talk about hiring people with disabilities as a moral issue—‘it’s the right thing to do.’ The government and communities set up sheltered workshops and set aside programs ‘to make work” for some people with disabilities. Some of those programs still exist and many see them as a valuable resource. My hope is that we can move people with disabilities out of the shadows and into the mainstream.”
For Tony Sauer, “now we see it as a practical issue—having hard working, reliable people is good for the bottom line. There needs to be a place for everybody—in our communities, in our schools, and in our workplaces.”
Establishing rapport with his Saipan audience, and looking them into the eye, Sauer encouraged them to “please continue to do your part and spread the word.”
Social Security’s a big part of the problem
Sauer acknowledged society set up a system full of disincentives for people with disabilities.
“Our Social Security system has discouraged work at many turns forcing people into a dependency mentality that perpetuates poverty and perpetuates welfare for PWDs,” Sauer said.
Citing his own story, Sauer told his audience that the first couple of years after his disability, “I remember my annual Social Security reviews were agonizing and degrading.” When he started working, Sauer requested in writing to Social Security to stop sending him checks.
Moreover, Sauer also cited the story of Catherine, a power wheelchair user with significant disability. According to Sauer, when she began working, Social Security sent her a letter indicating she’s no longer disabled. To this, Catherine, he said, remarked, “Great! Now I can join the Air Force.”
For Sauer, there is hope. He said SSA is making it easier for PWDs to work while still maintaining the safety nets they need to survive and receive health care.
Set yourself free
Having gone through the difficulties and surviving the struggles in life, Sauer challenged people with disabilities to be independent and raise the bar for themselves.
“When a PWD goes to a benefits counselor, many times they are coached on how to receive and stay on public benefits, not how to get off. Is a life of poverty really what we should be encouraging?” said Sauer telling the audience that disability should not be an excuse.
“If you’re not making a difference, you’re making excuses, “ said Sauer encouraging people with disabilities to believe in themselves, stop wallowing in fear, and make a difference.
He did it. So can the many others.
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