Tyranny Was Real—Don’t Cheapen Its Meaning

BY MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

As someone who has served in the Guam Legislature and as Ricky’s partner in a life dedicated to public service, I know well that partisanship and principle often lead to passionate political disagreements. In those days, we argued fiercely over ideas and priorities—but there were still boundaries of respect.

Words like “tyranny” were not thrown carelessly into the debate. That word carried too much weight for our generation. It was not an abstract talking point
or a clever political barb. It was the lived experience of our friends, our neighbors, and in many cases, our families.

Tyranny was the Japanese occupation of Guam, when families were forced from their homes, when people marched barefoot to camps in Yigo and Manenggon, when farmers were beaten for keeping food for their children, and when innocent men and women were executed or brutalized for acts of quiet resistance. Tyranny was fear, hunger, and violence—suffered daily by those who endured those years.

That is why I find it troubling to see the word “tyranny” used today in the context of a budget debate. Senator Duenas is free to call his opponents names. He is free to declare himself the lone savior of the oppressed. That freedom is not tyranny—it is democracy. It is the very system we inherited because others before us fought and died to free this island from real oppression.

While I applaud the passion my colleague brings to his convictions, I would urge him—and all of us—not to let passion blind us to who we are or what we have been through. Words matter. They carry history. And if we are to honor the sacrifices of the generation that lived through tyranny, then let us not cheapen their suffering with careless comparisons.

In this democratic republic, disagreement is an inevitable part of the process. That is not tyranny—that is freedom. And for that, we should give thanks.

Madeleine Z. Bordallo was the first female Democrat elected to the Guam Legislature, serving five terms as a senator from 1981 to 1983 and again from 1987 to 1995. She is also a former First Lady, Lt. Governor, and Guam Delegate to the United States Congress.