Amata's Pacific Notebook: EXPORTS AND HOMECOMING
August 25, 2007

by Aumua Amata
Reprinted from The Samoa News


When people would ask my father about American Samoa's economy, he used to jest that we had three major exports: tuna, football players and military recruits. As recent articles in major mainland newspapers suggest, there is some truth to Dad's boast. The Chicago Tribune, the biggest newspaper in America's third largest city, and the Washington Post, the major daily in the Nation's capital, both reserved a very special place for in-depth feature stories: the center of the front page above the fold in the Sunday edition, which has the largest readership in each city.

Both articles occupied two pages inside the paper, with the Trib article focusing on Samoans joining the military while the Post concentrated on Samoan athletes leaving the islands to pursue college football with a dream of an NFL career someday.

Like most Samoans, I was proud to see such important media outlets cover life in our islands. But while there were large elements of truth in both pieces, I thought their coverage was incomplete. Because I felt there was too much emphasis on the aspect of teenage boys anxious to leave "the rock" and not enough to what happens afterwards, last week following publication of the Post story I wrote a letter to the editor in hopes they would bring the story full circle.

American Samoa is no different than small towns all over the U.S., where teenage boys count the days until they can finish school and seek their fame and fortune in the great unknown world beyond. They all are attracted to the bright lights of the city no less than moths are attracted to the flames of a fire. Readers would be mistaken if they came away with the impression that life here was so miserable there was a massive race for the exit and that American Samoan boys were any different than any other American boys in their dreams and aspirations.

Yes, some of our young people do live in the traditional style of village life, like Ne'emia does. But others live a middle class existence in western style housing and their desire to "get off the rock" is just as strong, whether it be for football, the military, on scholarship to college or just to live with relatives in Hawaii or on the Mainland to find work after completing high school. Whether one were going to play football is more a function of size and skills than socio-economic status. After all, Gabe Reid, for example, a starter on the NFC champion Chicago Bears, comes from one of the most prominent business families in American Samoa.

Anyway, the point I made to the Washington Post and want to make here is that when our children leave home, their heart remains. And their families wish them Godspeed because they know the pull of these islands is like a magnet; it is too great to resist. I do not think either the Trib or the Post took notice of that reality

Had I had an opportunity to visit with the papers' correspondents who traveled here to research and write their stories, I would have urged them to tell the rest of the story by visiting with our veterans who have come home after long and distinguished military careers and the teachers and coaches who have returned to impart their ways and teach their skills to today's aspiring athletes.

My Dad was one of those who went abroad for education. My grandmother sent him on a ship at age 15 to join the older brothers she sent before him to be educated in Hawaii. In his childhood, he grew up much like Ne'emia in the Post story but perhaps with even greater handicaps because he boarded that ship without knowing a word of English and had never before even worn shoes.

Nonetheless, he mastered the language, played football at St. Louis High School in Honolulu and, among others, played against Al Lolotai of Iolani High. When Lolotai joined the Washington Redskins in 1945, he became the first Samoan ever to play in the National Football League. From their high school rivalry Dad and Al became friends but World War II intervened and any dreams Dad might have had to continue a football career were replaced by military service in the Pacific theater. Al was so talented an athlete he went from junior college to service in the war and right into pro football at war's end.

After the war Dad got a fellowship to attend Georgetown University but although Georgetown was still playing big time football in those days (they played in the Sun Bowl his first year at GU Law School), he needed all his spare time to study (to finish college and law school in five years) and work a full time job at night as a Capitol Police officer and later as a congressional staffer to take care of his growing family (he went there with three children and left with seven).

Unfortunately, his buddy Al already had left Washington after the 1945 football season to join the Los Angeles Dons of the All American Football League, so dad didn't cross paths with him again there because he did not arrive in Washington until the fall of 1946.

In the 1950s, Al went on to be a famous wrestler while dad finished up school and came home to serve as public defender, attorney general and governor. After serving later as athletic director for BYU-Hawaii Al returned to American Samoa to become athletic director for the Department of Education and dad returned from his years in Micronesia to be governor again and they were at last reunited. The pull of the magnet was too strong to resist. They both came home and renewed their friendship begun so long ago.

When Al passed away, Dad recalled at his funeral how they first met: on the football field during an Iolani-St. Louis game: "He charged at me on the left and I blocked him. Then he charged at me on the right and I blocked him again. Then, he barreled right down the middle of the field with the football and I didn't know what else to do, so I just sat on him. Al started yelling at me, 'Alu ese! Alu ese!' I was stunned that he was speaking Samoan, and I said, "Hey are you a Samoan?" Al said, "Of course. What do you think I am? Why do you ask? Are you Samoan?" And that's how I became friends with Al Lolotai."

I am sure stories like this have been replicated over the years, now even more so on the Mainland with so many Samoans in the NFL. In fact there was also just a story about how there are five Samoans (plus one Tongan) on the Miami Dolphins training camp roster--with a good possibility most if not all of them will make the cut who are large enough in number as well as size to make up a Polynesia Bloc. Years from now I expect they, too, will come home and tell stories of their times together.

My message to our young people is simple: work hard, study hard, do not fear to explore the world outside but you will find that your heart remains here. Like all of us, eventually you will find the pull of these islands is just too strong The tuna may leave here forever but the veterans and the athletes come back. You, too, will come home.

E toe fo'i lava le Samoa i lona atunu'u.

As always, I would welcome your comments. Please e-mail me at aumuaamata@mail.com.