Dear Source:
Now that you are all elected and you are about to begin the hard work of crafting a Constitution I would like to pose a problem to you that needs to be solved. While it may not look like a problem to most people, I submit this idea – if we solve the problem of representation for the people of Water Island – then the problem of representing the rest of the people in the outlying areas of the Virgin Islands will be solved.
Water Island is a tiny place yet separate and having problems of its very own. Its problems are not just extensions of St. Thomas problems any more than St. John has problems that are just part of St. Thomas's problems.
Like each island it needs to have its issues and problems addressed by the government. Yet it is too small to really command a full time representative in the present Senate. There is no separate seat for Water Island any more than there is a separate seat for St. John – they are both too small to get their own full-time Senators.
The people of St. John and St. Croix all know what I mean when I say that St. Thomas so dominates the political system that the needs of the other islands get lost or forgotten. St. Croix gets more attention that St. John and St. John gets more attention than Water Island. If Water Island gets lost – so do the other small areas of the Virgin Islands.
Why is solving the Water Island problem important? Because of we create a Constitution that addresses the need of one of the smaller islands to have a voice in government; we will have simultaneously solved the problems for other outlying areas. In our current government, the people of Bordeaux and Fortuna and Coral Bay St. John and East End St. Croix are largely ignored.
In addition, the residents of Hassel Island and the other outlying islands are also ignored. And the entire marine community is simply dumped into the St. Thomas – St. John district. People who live on boats and are registered voters simply go to the polls as St. Thomas voters – no one addresses their issues. So we have no representatives who care about the needs of the marine community or the out islands or Water Island or Bordeaux or other outlying areas.
In the time of the creation of the US Constitution, the small colonies (Rhode Island and Delaware) were concerned that the big colonies (New York and Virginia) would so dominate the new government that the small states would be ignored or trampled by the needs of the big ones. The invention of the US Senate was a move to insure that ALL states had one chamber of government in which each state had an equal voice. Hence Rhode Island with only one million citizens has TWO US Senators just like California with its 35 million residents or New York with its 19 million residents. Each state gets two senators. The US Senate is NOT a place where one man gets one vote… We can adopt this model. It is very important to see that the US Senate is a place where each state is each given an equal voice regardless of their population.
The US House of Representative was invented as a way to make sure that the whole population would have a chamber of the government where each community had a voice and where each voice was representing approximately the same number of citizens.
There are a variety of ways to address the Water Island problem.
In the America Samoa group there is an outlying island called Swains Island with a population of only 50 residents. Swain's Island has a non-voting representative in the Samoan Senate. That is an option in any Legislature that is configured in a manner like our present Senate – Water Island would be designated a non-voting representative – this has all the problems of Delegate Dr. Donna Christensen in the US House of Representative and is probably not a good solution, but it matters to see that there is a precedent for addressing the needs of a small out island in the legislature of a large community. Am Samoa felt that it was important to give Swains Island a voice.
If you are offended that Delegate Dr. Donna Christensen has no vote in the US Congress then you understand how upsetting it is to the residents of Water Island that we have no vote in the Virgin Islands Senate.
A two chambered Legislature could be created with one chamber holding reps of each population area – Imagine a representative for each population cluster of 200 people. For 100,000 people in the Virgin Islands it would mean a Senate of some 50 to 60 representatives who would function like the US House of Representative. In this chamber, Water Island would have one representative. Coral Bay, St. John would have a representative and so would Bordeaux and other outlying areas. One could even imagine a representative for the marine community.
In a two-chambered legislature, there could be a senate in which each island had one representative and the se reps would function like the mayors of their islands. Water Island would have a voice in this chamber equal to the big islands. This might seem unfair to the populations of the larger islands but this chamber modeled on the US Senate might have limited powers to address island-specific issues only.
I suggest that whatever the size of the legislature, that we utilize district representatives with one district that clusters Water Island with Hassel Island all other out islands and all the marine community in one district. Imagine a district for the "Other islands" for residents who do not live on the three big islands. This is the most satisfactory solution.
I urge the Delegates to this Constitutional Convention to get creative. The worst nightmare is that the Constitutional Convention simply re-invent what we have right now…
I urge you to give due considerations to the 4th island (and the 5th and 6th and to the marine community) as you invent our new constitution. Failure to include everyone in the new Constitutional is certain to doom it to failure. If you solve the "Water Island problem", the representation of the other small areas is assured.
Dr. Alexander Randall 5th
Water Island
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