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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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'RESOLVING OUR POLITICAL PROBLEMS'

Dear Source,
It is my firm belief that we here in the Virgin Islands — the people who truly love this community, those that constitute the positive force in the community, those who really contribute the economic growth of this community — are to band together and resist the negative onslaught of unscrupulous politicians and their cronies. They have held and are holding this community hostage for too long. We need to take a stand against all those practices that have proven inimical to the growth and welfare of this community. We need to assert our rights as citizens and as taxpayers, and demand that our political representatives in government be more responsive to our concerns.
Our current representatives in government refuse to think outside the box. They fail to be creative in addressing traditional and new problems facing our community. I believe the solution to our fiscal crisis lies in the very large and decisive political component.
I believe that until we address the current political vicious cycle of electing self-serving individuals who fail to be responsive to the electors, we will not improve our fiscal crisis. Our current political system does not lend itself for enough accountability to curb politicians' excesses, neglect and /or malfeasance. It is my studied opinion that political reform, such as instituting sub-districts and autonomous municipal governments, will help our community to find more accessibility to the government and to our representatives. In other words we need to institute local government, which is the typical form of government in the United States of America — the accepted model of democratic government. Are we not an integral part of the USA nation? Should we not practice the typical and common form of government of the USA? Local government, or the autonomous municipal form of government is as typical and traditional as American apple pie. So why are the local politicians resisting its implementation? Is it that they fear the implied accountability factor more than the change itself?
We, the people, the electors of these U.S. Virgin Islands, owe it to ourselves and succeeding generations to assume our responsibility under our democratic form of government granted to us by the U.S. Constitution and the V.I. Organic Act as amended. We need to demand the political changes we deem important for our development as a community, as a nation. We need to expect and demand more and better accountability from our elected and appointed government representatives. If we agree that sub-districting and autonomous municipal government is best for us, let us campaign and demand it of our elected representatives. Remember, we are responsible for the type of government we have in our democratic system; it does not help to pass on the responsibility: the buck stop with us, collectively.
J.J. Estemac
St. Thomas

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