Dear Source:
Many of us for years have advocated a great need for more localized government on each Island. Why? Because nothing seems to ever get accomplished with the present dysfunctional system that we presently have! Each Island has unique individual problems that must be identified and solved by those living on that particular Island. It is such a basic common sense principle that many of us are perplexed at why this cannot be accomplished; why there seems to be so much resistance to it.
Well, Delegate Caine Magras has put his finger on exactly why we "spin our wheels" and make no progress–and spend so much money doing nothing and going nowhere. When this subject of Municipal Government was once again expressed in St. Croix he said: " Such a proposal did not take into account what will happen to all the jobs and bureaucracy that surround the present Senate".
So help me with this, please. We need to keep a dysfunctional system going to employ too many (certainly not all) people who have been in the system for a long time; too often dislike their jobs; are putting in their time; are often ill-suited for their positions; have little skills in the areas of Management or "runnin' tings"; resist customer service training because it is more important to keep this system going as it is than to solve the many, many problems before us–including poor schools; run-down infrastructures; lack of housing; increased poverty, crime and over-all lack of faith in our Government? Unbelievable…and a very sad commentary as well. What comes to mind is the fact that slavery was allowed and continued because the economics of the time and those in power said that it was necessary to keep the economics of sugar cane in production. We all know the devastating emotional pain and impact that this had on the black race–we pay the price even today of a system that was allowed to continue when it was simply wrong. Economics…money came before doing what was right for human beings. It is wrong to hang onto a dysfunctional system of Government that is ultimately keeping all of us down. If we can first of all own this problem, we would be in a better position to become creative about solving it. Maybe some people could be offered early retirement; other be trained in their areas of interest where they could be excited about doing a job they loved–matched to those jobs and new kinds of skills that are desperately needed. Change is difficult however if we do not embrace change, it has a tendency to force itself on us, often with much more serious consequences.
I sincerely hope that our Governor and our Delegates to the Constitutional Convention take a serious look at this problem. We presently have a very broken system of government that must change. Hanging on to a system that does not work is pure craziness.
Bonny Corbeil
St. John
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