'You will know them by their fruits'
- Mary Camacho Torres
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Mary Camacho Torres
April 1, 2026
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the difference between what’s easy to say and what it takes to be honest.
Some answers tell people what they want to hear. Others tell the truth … even when it’s uncomfortable … even when it would be easier to stay quiet.
I was raised to believe that public service calls for the second kind.
And this week, as many of us pause to reflect on the message of Easter, I’ve found myself returning to a verse I often heard growing up: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).
It comes toward the close of the Sermon on the Mount - a reminder from Christ to look beyond words and toward what follows … what something produces over time.
That feels like a useful way to look at public service - especially on issues our community has been raising for years.
RECA is one of those.
For decades, the United States tested nuclear weapons across the Pacific and the American West. The fallout did not stop at borders. It reached Guam.
That is not a matter of opinion. It is reflected in government records, scientific studies and in the experiences of families here at home. Guam today faces some of the highest cancer rates in the United States.
In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to provide compensation to communities harmed by that exposure. Other affected areas were included. Guam was not.
For years, families and advocates have worked to change that. And last year, when RECA moved again, there was a real opportunity to finally include Guam.
But as the bill moved forward, Guam was removed from the legislation.
Let me repeat that: Guam was removed.
Not because the evidence was lacking, but because representation was. And once that moment passed, there was no time left to correct it. Today, families are left where they have been for far too long: still waiting.
I want to recognize the advocates who refused to let this disappear - Robert Celestial and the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors, who carried this fight when Washington chose delay over action.
In recent days, we’ve seen renewed attention to this issue, including a flurry of new congressional legislation being introduced. But while I agree with its importance, anyone who has worked through the process knows that bills introduced this late in the term face a narrow path forward. The legislative calendar is short, and meaningful progress usually depends on groundwork laid well before the final months of a term.
There is a difference between raising an issue and moving it forward. Between introducing something and getting it to a place where it can pass.
Most people don’t follow what happens in Congress day to day. They’re not tracking committee hearings or legislative calendars. But they do see what changes in their lives.
That kind of work rarely happens at the last minute. It takes planting seeds early, working through the details, nurturing relationships in Congress, sitting down with the people you need to move something forward and seeing it through until it’s signed into law and reaches people.
That’s what fruit looks like.
And that’s where honesty matters - not to criticize, but to be clear about what it takes to deliver results and where things actually stand.
So as we reflect this week, maybe the question isn’t just what we are hearing … but what we are seeing.
Because in the end, that’s what counts.
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