Dear Source:
As one who lived on St. Thomas, along with my wife and six children, throughout the 1970s, I found the Open Forum piece of particular interest. For us, and our kids in particular, our experience was very much the opposite of what he who had no choice but to leave recounts. They had the experience of growing up in a multi-racial, multi-cultural society, among people of both wealth and very little, and we enjoyed friends from all groups and many of the islands in the Caribbean, and interesting and satisfying work that would be hard to match on the mainland. Of course it wasn't all sweetness and light, but then where is it.
I recall walking in town one day with a Brit friend, when a young local greeted us as "mash potato faces." This riled the Brit, a former World War II officer who apparently retained a bit of the colonial attitude toward the "wogs." To me it was a bit amusing and nothing to get the back up about, but to the Brit and others it would be taken quite differently.
In different settings and among different people–in the mainland, the islands, and throughout the world–one can either despair and resent or take life for what it is and make the most of it. Of course you need the right attitude to do that, and when "No Choice But to Leave" writes something such as the following it indicates a lack of that attitude.
"The short answer is, that after 12 years living and working in the community, investing our savings and caring for native born disabled folks, who in many cases had family on the island who had no involvement in their care, my family and I were still reminded on an almost daily basis that we were not full members of the St. Croix community, nor would we ever be."
I don't mean to downplay the slights he encountered, but in my experience attitude begets attitude.
John D. Thompson
Fairfax, Virginia
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