The Properties of Perpetual Light

 Will Pikus

 Julian Aguon’s The Properties of Perpetual Light is truly inspiring. He discusses how small communities on islands that lie in the middle of the ocean are the places suffering the most from the rest of the worlds carbon footprint. Augon’s experience growing up in a village in Guam paints a picture for us what that experience is like. Augon makes a point of discussing

everything from climate change to nuclear weapons.

            Early on in the collection of essays, Augon mentions that he is writing one of them as he witnesses the U.S. Department of Defense tearing apart his homeland for firing ranges and moving marines from Okinawa to Guam to help. In the process of creating firing ranges, the U.S. Department of Defense carelessly placed one of the facilities close to the islands main source of drinking water. By pointing this out for us, Augon makes it apparent that the U.S. Department of Defense is not nearly as careful in other places as they would be in their own country. They see small island communities as blank canvasses for them to place their violent weapons. 

            Augon also writes about the threat of bombing that came out of the conflict between North Korea and America. When North Korea announced that Guam was withing firing range, a call was received by a Governor in Guam from President Trump. Augon pens “ President Trump even phoned the governor of Guam, telling him that he, that the country, was “with [us] a thousand percent.” The conversation devolved from there, with our governor, in a kind of curtsy, saying, “Mr. President . . . I have never felt more safe or so confident [than] with you at the helm . . . We need a president like you.” When Augon talks about how the conversation devolved, he means that Trump went on to other irrelevant topics, exposing the fact that he actually does not care about Guam at all. He only made the call for publicity.  

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