June 23, 2003 – The American Red Cross is holding a meeting for all national responders in the St. Thomas-St. John Disaster Services Human Resources Program at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, at the University of the Virgin Islands Small Business Development Center located at the east end of the second floor of the Nisky Center.
The meeting is also open to anyone interested in volunteering for this program.
Red Cross national responders are deployed to disaster areas to provide assistance in supplying food and shelter, health services, and administrative and logistical support.
Volunteers must be available for deployment within 12 to 24 hours after being called to duty, and must be able to commit to at least a three-week deployment period.
For further information contact the American Red Cross of the V.I. at 774-0375.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
RED CROSS DISASTER SERVICES MEETING
The American Red Cross is holding a meeting for all national responders in the St. Thomas-St. John Disaster Services Human Resources Program at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, at the University of the Virgin Islands Small Business Development Center located at the east end of the second floor of the Nisky Center.
The meeting is also open to anyone interested in volunteering for this program.
Red Cross national responders are deployed to disaster areas to provide assistance in supplying food and shelter, health services, and administrative and logistical support.
Volunteers must be available for deployment within 12 to 24 hours after being called to duty, and must be able to commit to at least a three-week deployment period.
For further information contact the American Red Cross of the V.I. at 774-0375.
Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.r>
The meeting is also open to anyone interested in volunteering for this program.
Red Cross national responders are deployed to disaster areas to provide assistance in supplying food and shelter, health services, and administrative and logistical support.
Volunteers must be available for deployment within 12 to 24 hours after being called to duty, and must be able to commit to at least a three-week deployment period.
For further information contact the American Red Cross of the V.I. at 774-0375.
Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.r>
RED CROSS DISASTER SERVICES MEETING
The American Red Cross is holding a meeting for all national responders in the St. Thomas-St. John Disaster Services Human Resources Program at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, at the University of the Virgin Islands Small Business Development Center located at the east end of the second floor of the Nisky Center.
The meeting is also open to anyone interested in volunteering for this program.
Red Cross national responders are deployed to disaster areas to provide assistance in supplying food and shelter, health services, and administrative and logistical support.
Volunteers must be available for deployment within 12 to 24 hours after being called to duty, and must be able to commit to at least a three-week deployment period.
For further information contact the American Red Cross of the V.I. at 774-0375.
The meeting is also open to anyone interested in volunteering for this program.
Red Cross national responders are deployed to disaster areas to provide assistance in supplying food and shelter, health services, and administrative and logistical support.
Volunteers must be available for deployment within 12 to 24 hours after being called to duty, and must be able to commit to at least a three-week deployment period.
For further information contact the American Red Cross of the V.I. at 774-0375.
RED CROSS DISASTER SERVICES MEETING
June 23, 2003 – The American Red Cross is holding a meeting for all national responders in the St. Thomas-St. John Disaster Services Human Resources Program at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, at the University of the Virgin Islands Small Business Development Center located at the east end of the second floor of the Nisky Center.
The meeting is also open to anyone interested in volunteering for this program.
Red Cross national responders are deployed to disaster areas to provide assistance in supplying food and shelter, health services, and administrative and logistical support.
Volunteers must be available for deployment within 12 to 24 hours after being called to duty, and must be able to commit to at least a three-week deployment period.
For further information contact the American Red Cross of the V.I. at 774-0375.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
The meeting is also open to anyone interested in volunteering for this program.
Red Cross national responders are deployed to disaster areas to provide assistance in supplying food and shelter, health services, and administrative and logistical support.
Volunteers must be available for deployment within 12 to 24 hours after being called to duty, and must be able to commit to at least a three-week deployment period.
For further information contact the American Red Cross of the V.I. at 774-0375.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
FRIENDS OF THE FRENCH CULTURE MEET
The Friends of the French Culture will meet at The Pointe – Villa Olga in
Frenchtown at 5:45 p.m. Join in the fun, friends, and French.
Frenchtown at 5:45 p.m. Join in the fun, friends, and French.
SENATE BIAS SUIT IS ABOUT VOTERS, NOT CANDIDATES
Dear Source,
We were happy to see that University of the Virgin Islands Prof. Adam Parr agrees that our at-large system of voting creates serious imbalances in legislative apportionment. (See "Discrimination by the numbers [or not]".) The suit we filed in federal court to compel the government to create single-member "neighborhood" voting districts provides a rare opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of Virgin Islands governance.
There are dozens of forceful reasons why districting is needed, but none so unassailable as the return of the power to the people. People don't live in the Legislature; they live in communities and neighborhoods and districts, and they have a right to direct representation.
The denial of voting equality to Hispanics and whites accrues to itself the license to deny everybody's rights. And that is precisely what happened: None of us is getting good government, and every citizen in the territory is politically enfeebled by the randomness of the at-large system.
Each single-member district would send an accountable and known lawmaker to the Senate from the community, with his or her job subject to the pleasure of that particular community. As long as that senator makes his or her constituents happy, or at least not unhappy, the job is secure. (One of the wonderful side effects of redistricting would be to eliminate almost entirely the cost of senatorial political campaigns. Anyone can run.)
We sued to force districting because (a) to expect the political process to effect constructive change is to dream on, and (b) the territory is in violation of federal laws. Thus, and because of (a), the federal court is the ideal forum in which to seek to put things right.
The lawsuit, incidentally, says nothing whatsoever about who should represent whom, since that is up to the voters, not the law. A candidate's color or ethnicity is irrelevant. If a purple Martian with a political-science degree moves into the neighborhood and runs for the Senate against an aimless local jerk, people would tend to vote for the alien.
We are arguing, simply and straightforwardly, that Hispanic voters of any color and white voters (of any ethnicity) on St. Croix are denied an effective voice in government. Not just because they don't get whites or Hispanics elected, but because the at-large system of voting for senators is so dilutive of their voting strength that they can seldom elect people they favor to the Legislature. Tens of thousands of members of the electorate are being short changed, a situation that is richly prohibited under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.
Our second argument is that the people of St. John are utterly disenfranchised, despite the nicety of requiring that the territorial at-large senator live on St. John. This is a political feint ginned up by Gov. Ralph Paiewonsky and friends more than 30 years ago that yet survives like some chronic and long-resigned-to physical ailment.
They reasoned — wrongly, as it turns out — that St. John could not have its own senator since its population relative to the other two islands was so minuscule. The solution was to colonize St. John. And the ultimate practical effect was to give St. Thomas eight senators. (St. Johnians were, not surprisingly, furious, and still are.) Not much of this is new ground to political observers, but the opportunity to end this odious setup is at hand.
In the St. John case (to the extent it is like others), strict adherence to numbers would not be crucial to legal reapportionment. As Prof. Parr points out: By the numbers, any senator from St. John would have to be drawn and quartered before going to work in the Legislature: "… this type of logic would suggest that the St. John group should have only 0.58 representative," Parr writes. The one-man, one-vote doctrine is not cast in stone, for obvious reasons. Courts have ruled, time and again, that where the one-man, one-vote standard flies in the face of reality, reality wins.
(There are well-established "deviations" from the standard, which is also known as "population equality," that courts have permitted, some far exceeding the disparities that would be created by having a real senator from St. John. All you have to show is a good reason for the disparity, and we have several. Exceptions arise from efforts to preserve traditional political boundaries and for variations in the interests of communities. While these both come into important play, the most compelling reason for deviation in population equality vis à vis St. John is the inescapable Caribbean Sea.)
We must be careful not to get ahead of ourselves as this vital issue is debated. The first question to be answered is: What is to be done to comply with federal law? We think it is single-member districting, and we pray the court agrees. Then comes the far more complicated process of drawing lines on the ground. We have asked the Court to appoint a panel of citizens to create the districts in order to keep the process as free as possible of politics.
Will some of these districts have majorities that are identifiable racially and ethnically? Of course; that is inevitable simply by virtue of where people choose to live. To be sure, that is also what provides the diversity that distinguishes one community from the next, each of which has a right to a voice in government. This argument, it seems to us, is unexceptionable.
Our lawsuit asserts that certain groups of people on St. Croix and all St. Johnians are being left out in the political cold by being denied certain civil rights. To remedy these grievances is to empower all other communities as well.
If the people in Mon Bijou have raw sewage flowing into their living rooms, as they currently do, the situation would be rectified in a heartbeat because they would have a man or woman in the government to get it taken care of now. If the majority of those in Frederiksted want Senator Bryan as their guy, they would get him. If the people in Christiansted want to abandon the planned disfigurement of their hillside and get Spring Gut paved instead, the senator from the Christiansted district would huddle with the Senator from the East End district, and wishes would come true.
Who gets elected when things are put right will depend not on their complexion or accent, but on how a candidate can best serve the interests of the people in his or her political community, fully aware that if the community is not profitably served, its senator will be gone with the wind. This bizarre process is known as representative democracy, and it is time to embrace it with passion.
Robert Hoffman
St. Croix
We were happy to see that University of the Virgin Islands Prof. Adam Parr agrees that our at-large system of voting creates serious imbalances in legislative apportionment. (See "Discrimination by the numbers [or not]".) The suit we filed in federal court to compel the government to create single-member "neighborhood" voting districts provides a rare opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of Virgin Islands governance.
There are dozens of forceful reasons why districting is needed, but none so unassailable as the return of the power to the people. People don't live in the Legislature; they live in communities and neighborhoods and districts, and they have a right to direct representation.
The denial of voting equality to Hispanics and whites accrues to itself the license to deny everybody's rights. And that is precisely what happened: None of us is getting good government, and every citizen in the territory is politically enfeebled by the randomness of the at-large system.
Each single-member district would send an accountable and known lawmaker to the Senate from the community, with his or her job subject to the pleasure of that particular community. As long as that senator makes his or her constituents happy, or at least not unhappy, the job is secure. (One of the wonderful side effects of redistricting would be to eliminate almost entirely the cost of senatorial political campaigns. Anyone can run.)
We sued to force districting because (a) to expect the political process to effect constructive change is to dream on, and (b) the territory is in violation of federal laws. Thus, and because of (a), the federal court is the ideal forum in which to seek to put things right.
The lawsuit, incidentally, says nothing whatsoever about who should represent whom, since that is up to the voters, not the law. A candidate's color or ethnicity is irrelevant. If a purple Martian with a political-science degree moves into the neighborhood and runs for the Senate against an aimless local jerk, people would tend to vote for the alien.
We are arguing, simply and straightforwardly, that Hispanic voters of any color and white voters (of any ethnicity) on St. Croix are denied an effective voice in government. Not just because they don't get whites or Hispanics elected, but because the at-large system of voting for senators is so dilutive of their voting strength that they can seldom elect people they favor to the Legislature. Tens of thousands of members of the electorate are being short changed, a situation that is richly prohibited under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.
Our second argument is that the people of St. John are utterly disenfranchised, despite the nicety of requiring that the territorial at-large senator live on St. John. This is a political feint ginned up by Gov. Ralph Paiewonsky and friends more than 30 years ago that yet survives like some chronic and long-resigned-to physical ailment.
They reasoned — wrongly, as it turns out — that St. John could not have its own senator since its population relative to the other two islands was so minuscule. The solution was to colonize St. John. And the ultimate practical effect was to give St. Thomas eight senators. (St. Johnians were, not surprisingly, furious, and still are.) Not much of this is new ground to political observers, but the opportunity to end this odious setup is at hand.
In the St. John case (to the extent it is like others), strict adherence to numbers would not be crucial to legal reapportionment. As Prof. Parr points out: By the numbers, any senator from St. John would have to be drawn and quartered before going to work in the Legislature: "… this type of logic would suggest that the St. John group should have only 0.58 representative," Parr writes. The one-man, one-vote doctrine is not cast in stone, for obvious reasons. Courts have ruled, time and again, that where the one-man, one-vote standard flies in the face of reality, reality wins.
(There are well-established "deviations" from the standard, which is also known as "population equality," that courts have permitted, some far exceeding the disparities that would be created by having a real senator from St. John. All you have to show is a good reason for the disparity, and we have several. Exceptions arise from efforts to preserve traditional political boundaries and for variations in the interests of communities. While these both come into important play, the most compelling reason for deviation in population equality vis à vis St. John is the inescapable Caribbean Sea.)
We must be careful not to get ahead of ourselves as this vital issue is debated. The first question to be answered is: What is to be done to comply with federal law? We think it is single-member districting, and we pray the court agrees. Then comes the far more complicated process of drawing lines on the ground. We have asked the Court to appoint a panel of citizens to create the districts in order to keep the process as free as possible of politics.
Will some of these districts have majorities that are identifiable racially and ethnically? Of course; that is inevitable simply by virtue of where people choose to live. To be sure, that is also what provides the diversity that distinguishes one community from the next, each of which has a right to a voice in government. This argument, it seems to us, is unexceptionable.
Our lawsuit asserts that certain groups of people on St. Croix and all St. Johnians are being left out in the political cold by being denied certain civil rights. To remedy these grievances is to empower all other communities as well.
If the people in Mon Bijou have raw sewage flowing into their living rooms, as they currently do, the situation would be rectified in a heartbeat because they would have a man or woman in the government to get it taken care of now. If the majority of those in Frederiksted want Senator Bryan as their guy, they would get him. If the people in Christiansted want to abandon the planned disfigurement of their hillside and get Spring Gut paved instead, the senator from the Christiansted district would huddle with the Senator from the East End district, and wishes would come true.
Who gets elected when things are put right will depend not on their complexion or accent, but on how a candidate can best serve the interests of the people in his or her political community, fully aware that if the community is not profitably served, its senator will be gone with the wind. This bizarre process is known as representative democracy, and it is time to embrace it with passion.
Robert Hoffman
St. Croix
Editor's note: Robert Hoffman and Joe San Martin, also of St. Croix, filed the referenced lawsuit.
We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Croix Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
SENATE BIAS SUIT IS ABOUT VOTERS, NOT CANDIDATES
Dear Source,
We were happy to see that University of the Virgin Islands Prof. Adam Parr agrees that our at-large system of voting creates serious imbalances in legislative apportionment. (See "Discrimination by the numbers [or not]".) The suit we filed in federal court to compel the government to create single-member "neighborhood" voting districts provides a rare opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of Virgin Islands governance.
There are dozens of forceful reasons why districting is needed, but none so unassailable as the return of the power to the people. People don't live in the Legislature; they live in communities and neighborhoods and districts, and they have a right to direct representation.
The denial of voting equality to Hispanics and whites accrues to itself the license to deny everybody's rights. And that is precisely what happened: None of us is getting good government, and every citizen in the territory is politically enfeebled by the randomness of the at-large system.
Each single-member district would send an accountable and known lawmaker to the Senate from the community, with his or her job subject to the pleasure of that particular community. As long as that senator makes his or her constituents happy, or at least not unhappy, the job is secure. (One of the wonderful side effects of redistricting would be to eliminate almost entirely the cost of senatorial political campaigns. Anyone can run.)
We sued to force districting because (a) to expect the political process to effect constructive change is to dream on, and (b) the territory is in violation of federal laws. Thus, and because of (a), the federal court is the ideal forum in which to seek to put things right.
The lawsuit, incidentally, says nothing whatsoever about who should represent whom, since that is up to the voters, not the law. A candidate's color or ethnicity is irrelevant. If a purple Martian with a political-science degree moves into the neighborhood and runs for the Senate against an aimless local jerk, people would tend to vote for the alien.
We are arguing, simply and straightforwardly, that Hispanic voters of any color and white voters (of any ethnicity) on St. Croix are denied an effective voice in government. Not just because they don't get whites or Hispanics elected, but because the at-large system of voting for senators is so dilutive of their voting strength that they can seldom elect people they favor to the Legislature. Tens of thousands of members of the electorate are being short changed, a situation that is richly prohibited under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.
Our second argument is that the people of St. John are utterly disenfranchised, despite the nicety of requiring that the territorial at-large senator live on St. John. This is a political feint ginned up by Gov. Ralph Paiewonsky and friends more than 30 years ago that yet survives like some chronic and long-resigned-to physical ailment.
They reasoned — wrongly, as it turns out — that St. John could not have its own senator since its population relative to the other two islands was so minuscule. The solution was to colonize St. John. And the ultimate practical effect was to give St. Thomas eight senators. (St. Johnians were, not surprisingly, furious, and still are.) Not much of this is new ground to political observers, but the opportunity to end this odious setup is at hand.
In the St. John case (to the extent it is like others), strict adherence to numbers would not be crucial to legal reapportionment. As Prof. Parr points out: By the numbers, any senator from St. John would have to be drawn and quartered before going to work in the Legislature: "… this type of logic would suggest that the St. John group should have only 0.58 representative," Parr writes. The one-man, one-vote doctrine is not cast in stone, for obvious reasons. Courts have ruled, time and again, that where the one-man, one-vote standard flies in the face of reality, reality wins.
(There are well-established "deviations" from the standard, which is also known as "population equality," that courts have permitted, some far exceeding the disparities that would be created by having a real senator from St. John. All you have to show is a good reason for the disparity, and we have several. Exceptions arise from efforts to preserve traditional political boundaries and for variations in the interests of communities. While these both come into important play, the most compelling reason for deviation in population equality vis à vis St. John is the inescapable Caribbean Sea.)
We must be careful not to get ahead of ourselves as this vital issue is debated. The first question to be answered is: What is to be done to comply with federal law? We think it is single-member districting, and we pray the court agrees. Then comes the far more complicated process of drawing lines on the ground. We have asked the Court to appoint a panel of citizens to create the districts in order to keep the process as free as possible of politics.
Will some of these districts have majorities that are identifiable racially and ethnically? Of course; that is inevitable simply by virtue of where people choose to live. To be sure, that is also what provides the diversity that distinguishes one community from the next, each of which has a right to a voice in government. This argument, it seems to us, is unexceptionable.
Our lawsuit asserts that certain groups of people on St. Croix and all St. Johnians are being left out in the political cold by being denied certain civil rights. To remedy these grievances is to empower all other communities as well.
If the people in Mon Bijou have raw sewage flowing into their living rooms, as they currently do, the situation would be rectified in a heartbeat because they would have a man or woman in the government to get it taken care of now. If the majority of those in Frederiksted want Senator Bryan as their guy, they would get him. If the people in Christiansted want to abandon the planned disfigurement of their hillside and get Spring Gut paved instead, the senator from the Christiansted district would huddle with the Senator from the East End district, and wishes would come true.
Who gets elected when things are put right will depend not on their complexion or accent, but on how a candidate can best serve the interests of the people in his or her political community, fully aware that if the community is not profitably served, its senator will be gone with the wind. This bizarre process is known as representative democracy, and it is time to embrace it with passion.
Robert Hoffman
St. Croix
We were happy to see that University of the Virgin Islands Prof. Adam Parr agrees that our at-large system of voting creates serious imbalances in legislative apportionment. (See "Discrimination by the numbers [or not]".) The suit we filed in federal court to compel the government to create single-member "neighborhood" voting districts provides a rare opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of Virgin Islands governance.
There are dozens of forceful reasons why districting is needed, but none so unassailable as the return of the power to the people. People don't live in the Legislature; they live in communities and neighborhoods and districts, and they have a right to direct representation.
The denial of voting equality to Hispanics and whites accrues to itself the license to deny everybody's rights. And that is precisely what happened: None of us is getting good government, and every citizen in the territory is politically enfeebled by the randomness of the at-large system.
Each single-member district would send an accountable and known lawmaker to the Senate from the community, with his or her job subject to the pleasure of that particular community. As long as that senator makes his or her constituents happy, or at least not unhappy, the job is secure. (One of the wonderful side effects of redistricting would be to eliminate almost entirely the cost of senatorial political campaigns. Anyone can run.)
We sued to force districting because (a) to expect the political process to effect constructive change is to dream on, and (b) the territory is in violation of federal laws. Thus, and because of (a), the federal court is the ideal forum in which to seek to put things right.
The lawsuit, incidentally, says nothing whatsoever about who should represent whom, since that is up to the voters, not the law. A candidate's color or ethnicity is irrelevant. If a purple Martian with a political-science degree moves into the neighborhood and runs for the Senate against an aimless local jerk, people would tend to vote for the alien.
We are arguing, simply and straightforwardly, that Hispanic voters of any color and white voters (of any ethnicity) on St. Croix are denied an effective voice in government. Not just because they don't get whites or Hispanics elected, but because the at-large system of voting for senators is so dilutive of their voting strength that they can seldom elect people they favor to the Legislature. Tens of thousands of members of the electorate are being short changed, a situation that is richly prohibited under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.
Our second argument is that the people of St. John are utterly disenfranchised, despite the nicety of requiring that the territorial at-large senator live on St. John. This is a political feint ginned up by Gov. Ralph Paiewonsky and friends more than 30 years ago that yet survives like some chronic and long-resigned-to physical ailment.
They reasoned — wrongly, as it turns out — that St. John could not have its own senator since its population relative to the other two islands was so minuscule. The solution was to colonize St. John. And the ultimate practical effect was to give St. Thomas eight senators. (St. Johnians were, not surprisingly, furious, and still are.) Not much of this is new ground to political observers, but the opportunity to end this odious setup is at hand.
In the St. John case (to the extent it is like others), strict adherence to numbers would not be crucial to legal reapportionment. As Prof. Parr points out: By the numbers, any senator from St. John would have to be drawn and quartered before going to work in the Legislature: "… this type of logic would suggest that the St. John group should have only 0.58 representative," Parr writes. The one-man, one-vote doctrine is not cast in stone, for obvious reasons. Courts have ruled, time and again, that where the one-man, one-vote standard flies in the face of reality, reality wins.
(There are well-established "deviations" from the standard, which is also known as "population equality," that courts have permitted, some far exceeding the disparities that would be created by having a real senator from St. John. All you have to show is a good reason for the disparity, and we have several. Exceptions arise from efforts to preserve traditional political boundaries and for variations in the interests of communities. While these both come into important play, the most compelling reason for deviation in population equality vis à vis St. John is the inescapable Caribbean Sea.)
We must be careful not to get ahead of ourselves as this vital issue is debated. The first question to be answered is: What is to be done to comply with federal law? We think it is single-member districting, and we pray the court agrees. Then comes the far more complicated process of drawing lines on the ground. We have asked the Court to appoint a panel of citizens to create the districts in order to keep the process as free as possible of politics.
Will some of these districts have majorities that are identifiable racially and ethnically? Of course; that is inevitable simply by virtue of where people choose to live. To be sure, that is also what provides the diversity that distinguishes one community from the next, each of which has a right to a voice in government. This argument, it seems to us, is unexceptionable.
Our lawsuit asserts that certain groups of people on St. Croix and all St. Johnians are being left out in the political cold by being denied certain civil rights. To remedy these grievances is to empower all other communities as well.
If the people in Mon Bijou have raw sewage flowing into their living rooms, as they currently do, the situation would be rectified in a heartbeat because they would have a man or woman in the government to get it taken care of now. If the majority of those in Frederiksted want Senator Bryan as their guy, they would get him. If the people in Christiansted want to abandon the planned disfigurement of their hillside and get Spring Gut paved instead, the senator from the Christiansted district would huddle with the Senator from the East End district, and wishes would come true.
Who gets elected when things are put right will depend not on their complexion or accent, but on how a candidate can best serve the interests of the people in his or her political community, fully aware that if the community is not profitably served, its senator will be gone with the wind. This bizarre process is known as representative democracy, and it is time to embrace it with passion.
Robert Hoffman
St. Croix
Editor's note: Robert Hoffman and Joe San Martin, also of St. Croix, filed the referenced lawsuit.
We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.
Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
SENATE BIAS SUIT IS ABOUT VOTERS, NOT CANDIDATES
Dear Source,
We were happy to see that University of the Virgin Islands Prof. Adam Parr agrees that our at-large system of voting creates serious imbalances in legislative apportionment. (See "Discrimination by the numbers [or not]".) The suit we filed in federal court to compel the government to create single-member "neighborhood" voting districts provides a rare opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of Virgin Islands governance.
There are dozens of forceful reasons why districting is needed, but none so unassailable as the return of the power to the people. People don't live in the Legislature; they live in communities and neighborhoods and districts, and they have a right to direct representation.
The denial of voting equality to Hispanics and whites accrues to itself the license to deny everybody's rights. And that is precisely what happened: None of us is getting good government, and every citizen in the territory is politically enfeebled by the randomness of the at-large system.
Each single-member district would send an accountable and known lawmaker to the Senate from the community, with his or her job subject to the pleasure of that particular community. As long as that senator makes his or her constituents happy, or at least not unhappy, the job is secure. (One of the wonderful side effects of redistricting would be to eliminate almost entirely the cost of senatorial political campaigns. Anyone can run.)
We sued to force districting because (a) to expect the political process to effect constructive change is to dream on, and (b) the territory is in violation of federal laws. Thus, and because of (a), the federal court is the ideal forum in which to seek to put things right.
The lawsuit, incidentally, says nothing whatsoever about who should represent whom, since that is up to the voters, not the law. A candidate's color or ethnicity is irrelevant. If a purple Martian with a political-science degree moves into the neighborhood and runs for the Senate against an aimless local jerk, people would tend to vote for the alien.
We are arguing, simply and straightforwardly, that Hispanic voters of any color and white voters (of any ethnicity) on St. Croix are denied an effective voice in government. Not just because they don't get whites or Hispanics elected, but because the at-large system of voting for senators is so dilutive of their voting strength that they can seldom elect people they favor to the Legislature. Tens of thousands of members of the electorate are being short changed, a situation that is richly prohibited under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.
Our second argument is that the people of St. John are utterly disenfranchised, despite the nicety of requiring that the territorial at-large senator live on St. John. This is a political feint ginned up by Gov. Ralph Paiewonsky and friends more than 30 years ago that yet survives like some chronic and long-resigned-to physical ailment.
They reasoned — wrongly, as it turns out — that St. John could not have its own senator since its population relative to the other two islands was so minuscule. The solution was to colonize St. John. And the ultimate practical effect was to give St. Thomas eight senators. (St. Johnians were, not surprisingly, furious, and still are.) Not much of this is new ground to political observers, but the opportunity to end this odious setup is at hand.
In the St. John case (to the extent it is like others), strict adherence to numbers would not be crucial to legal reapportionment. As Prof. Parr points out: By the numbers, any senator from St. John would have to be drawn and quartered before going to work in the Legislature: "… this type of logic would suggest that the St. John group should have only 0.58 representative," Parr writes. The one-man, one-vote doctrine is not cast in stone, for obvious reasons. Courts have ruled, time and again, that where the one-man, one-vote standard flies in the face of reality, reality wins.
(There are well-established "deviations" from the standard, which is also known as "population equality," that courts have permitted, some far exceeding the disparities that would be created by having a real senator from St. John. All you have to show is a good reason for the disparity, and we have several. Exceptions arise from efforts to preserve traditional political boundaries and for variations in the interests of communities. While these both come into important play, the most compelling reason for deviation in population equality vis à vis St. John is the inescapable Caribbean Sea.)
We must be careful not to get ahead of ourselves as this vital issue is debated. The first question to be answered is: What is to be done to comply with federal law? We think it is single-member districting, and we pray the court agrees. Then comes the far more complicated process of drawing lines on the ground. We have asked the Court to appoint a panel of citizens to create the districts in order to keep the process as free as possible of politics.
Will some of these districts have majorities that are identifiable racially and ethnically? Of course; that is inevitable simply by virtue of where people choose to live. To be sure, that is also what provides the diversity that distinguishes one community from the next, each of which has a right to a voice in government. This argument, it seems to us, is unexceptionable.
Our lawsuit asserts that certain groups of people on St. Croix and all St. Johnians are being left out in the political cold by being denied certain civil rights. To remedy these grievances is to empower all other communities as well.
If the people in Mon Bijou have raw sewage flowing into their living rooms, as they currently do, the situation would be rectified in a heartbeat because they would have a man or woman in the government to get it taken care of now. If the majority of those in Frederiksted want Senator Bryan as their guy, they would get him. If the people in Christiansted want to abandon the planned disfigurement of their hillside and get Spring Gut paved instead, the senator from the Christiansted district would huddle with the Senator from the East End district, and wishes would come true.
Who gets elected when things are put right will depend not on their complexion or accent, but on how a candidate can best serve the interests of the people in his or her political community, fully aware that if the community is not profitably served, its senator will be gone with the wind. This bizarre process is known as representative democracy, and it is time to embrace it with passion.
Robert Hoffman
St. Croix
We were happy to see that University of the Virgin Islands Prof. Adam Parr agrees that our at-large system of voting creates serious imbalances in legislative apportionment. (See "Discrimination by the numbers [or not]".) The suit we filed in federal court to compel the government to create single-member "neighborhood" voting districts provides a rare opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of Virgin Islands governance.
There are dozens of forceful reasons why districting is needed, but none so unassailable as the return of the power to the people. People don't live in the Legislature; they live in communities and neighborhoods and districts, and they have a right to direct representation.
The denial of voting equality to Hispanics and whites accrues to itself the license to deny everybody's rights. And that is precisely what happened: None of us is getting good government, and every citizen in the territory is politically enfeebled by the randomness of the at-large system.
Each single-member district would send an accountable and known lawmaker to the Senate from the community, with his or her job subject to the pleasure of that particular community. As long as that senator makes his or her constituents happy, or at least not unhappy, the job is secure. (One of the wonderful side effects of redistricting would be to eliminate almost entirely the cost of senatorial political campaigns. Anyone can run.)
We sued to force districting because (a) to expect the political process to effect constructive change is to dream on, and (b) the territory is in violation of federal laws. Thus, and because of (a), the federal court is the ideal forum in which to seek to put things right.
The lawsuit, incidentally, says nothing whatsoever about who should represent whom, since that is up to the voters, not the law. A candidate's color or ethnicity is irrelevant. If a purple Martian with a political-science degree moves into the neighborhood and runs for the Senate against an aimless local jerk, people would tend to vote for the alien.
We are arguing, simply and straightforwardly, that Hispanic voters of any color and white voters (of any ethnicity) on St. Croix are denied an effective voice in government. Not just because they don't get whites or Hispanics elected, but because the at-large system of voting for senators is so dilutive of their voting strength that they can seldom elect people they favor to the Legislature. Tens of thousands of members of the electorate are being short changed, a situation that is richly prohibited under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.
Our second argument is that the people of St. John are utterly disenfranchised, despite the nicety of requiring that the territorial at-large senator live on St. John. This is a political feint ginned up by Gov. Ralph Paiewonsky and friends more than 30 years ago that yet survives like some chronic and long-resigned-to physical ailment.
They reasoned — wrongly, as it turns out — that St. John could not have its own senator since its population relative to the other two islands was so minuscule. The solution was to colonize St. John. And the ultimate practical effect was to give St. Thomas eight senators. (St. Johnians were, not surprisingly, furious, and still are.) Not much of this is new ground to political observers, but the opportunity to end this odious setup is at hand.
In the St. John case (to the extent it is like others), strict adherence to numbers would not be crucial to legal reapportionment. As Prof. Parr points out: By the numbers, any senator from St. John would have to be drawn and quartered before going to work in the Legislature: "… this type of logic would suggest that the St. John group should have only 0.58 representative," Parr writes. The one-man, one-vote doctrine is not cast in stone, for obvious reasons. Courts have ruled, time and again, that where the one-man, one-vote standard flies in the face of reality, reality wins.
(There are well-established "deviations" from the standard, which is also known as "population equality," that courts have permitted, some far exceeding the disparities that would be created by having a real senator from St. John. All you have to show is a good reason for the disparity, and we have several. Exceptions arise from efforts to preserve traditional political boundaries and for variations in the interests of communities. While these both come into important play, the most compelling reason for deviation in population equality vis à vis St. John is the inescapable Caribbean Sea.)
We must be careful not to get ahead of ourselves as this vital issue is debated. The first question to be answered is: What is to be done to comply with federal law? We think it is single-member districting, and we pray the court agrees. Then comes the far more complicated process of drawing lines on the ground. We have asked the Court to appoint a panel of citizens to create the districts in order to keep the process as free as possible of politics.
Will some of these districts have majorities that are identifiable racially and ethnically? Of course; that is inevitable simply by virtue of where people choose to live. To be sure, that is also what provides the diversity that distinguishes one community from the next, each of which has a right to a voice in government. This argument, it seems to us, is unexceptionable.
Our lawsuit asserts that certain groups of people on St. Croix and all St. Johnians are being left out in the political cold by being denied certain civil rights. To remedy these grievances is to empower all other communities as well.
If the people in Mon Bijou have raw sewage flowing into their living rooms, as they currently do, the situation would be rectified in a heartbeat because they would have a man or woman in the government to get it taken care of now. If the majority of those in Frederiksted want Senator Bryan as their guy, they would get him. If the people in Christiansted want to abandon the planned disfigurement of their hillside and get Spring Gut paved instead, the senator from the Christiansted district would huddle with the Senator from the East End district, and wishes would come true.
Who gets elected when things are put right will depend not on their complexion or accent, but on how a candidate can best serve the interests of the people in his or her political community, fully aware that if the community is not profitably served, its senator will be gone with the wind. This bizarre process is known as representative democracy, and it is time to embrace it with passion.
Robert Hoffman
St. Croix
Editor's note: Robert Hoffman and Joe San Martin, also of St. Croix, filed the referenced lawsuit.
We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
2ND ANNUAL RELAY FOR LIFE IS A SIX-FIGURE SUCCESS
June 22, 2003 – What a difference a year makes: The 2nd annual Relay for Life, held over the weekend, attracted nearly double the number of participating teams at last year's inaugural effort, and, according to preliminary figures, raised nearly twice as much money for the sponsoring St. Thomas-St. John unit of the American Cancer Society.
A cast of thousands turned out at the Charlotte Amalie High School athletic track for the event, which began a little after 6 p.m. Saturday and ended at 10 a.m. Sunday. A total of 40 teams walked the walk, compared to 23 last year, and the event raised at least $110,000, up from $65,000 a year ago.
The teams and their sponsors collaborated to honor local cancer survivors and their families, remember those who have lost the fight against the disease and raise funds for the local Cancer Society's treatment and support programs.
The opening ceremony consisted of remarks by Fern LaBorde, local unit president; José Raul Carrillo, Relay for Life chair; Gov. Charles W. Turnbull; and Viveca T. deCastro, a cancer survivor.
"I described two different groups of people, survivors and families of survivors," deCastro said later Saturday night. "To the survivors, I said that to get through this experience, you need prayer and a whole lot of faith, and that you should always rely on family and friends for support. To the families of survivors, I said to always be there, even if you don't know what to say or do."
For those with the disease, deCastro urged: "Just keep on living … Make the decision to live until you die."
Her words paving the way for the night ahead, participants took part in the opening Survivors Lap and then made way for the first set of teams along the track. Among the teams were representatives of St. Thomas Rotary Club, Theodore Tunick and Co., Iota Phi Lambda sorority and the Health Department.
Each team had a decorated booth and each booth had a theme, many of them similar in the sentiments expressed regarding how to fight and prevent cancer.
The Iota Phi Lambda members draped ropes of fruits and vegetables around their tent, promoting healthful eating, and had a snack table set up for the public to sample such foods.
Many groups promoted the idea of exercise for fitness in order to reduce the odds of contracting cancer. Cassandra Mallory, owner of Total Fitness on St. Thomas, stated: "We feel that keeping fit is essential to the prevention of the disease … That's why our theme this year is 'A Walk Around the Clock, Time for a Cure,' where walking represents fitness and the need to find a cure."
Mallory added that the idea of "total fitness" encompasses body, mind and spirit. She said that this year's Relay for Life "was made even more important because a week ago, we lost our best friend to cancer."
Rodney Miller, chief executive officer of Roy L. Schneider Hospital, put together a large team of walkers. He surprised the crowd by donating $10,000 to the American Cancer Society from the hospital. "We're going to beat it," Miller said, noting that groundbreaking for the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute is scheduled for September, with a targeted completion date of 18 months later.
Some participants were not affiliated with a group but chose to involve themselves in the event because of a connection with the cause, as survivors or as those who had lost loved ones to cancer.
For Ray Wilson, a cancer survivor originally from Indiana, the relay served to bring back memories. "It's sentimental for me knowing that people care," he said. "It's such a privilege for me to be here and participating with this wonderful group of cancer survivors."
Elliot "Mac" Davis, who survived kidney cancer only to be told at his five-year checkup that the disease had returned, said he had been through anger, grief and finally acceptance.
Davis was the keynote speaker at the 9 p.m. ceremony centered on the lighting of thousands of luminarias around the track. He described himself as a "dedicated fitness devotee" and said that he and his daughter, Elizabeth, plan to run the New York City Marathon together again in November.
Davis said it was his daughter's gift to him to keep him inspired. They ran in the New York event together last year, almost a year after he had been told that his cancer had returned and just before he began a round of ravaging chemotherapy. He bested his own time in two earlier marathons, in Nashville, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida, by 26 and 16 minutes, respectively.
Although he is "relentlessly in search of a cure," Davis said, he does not pray to be healed. "If everyone who prayed to be cured was, there would be more people in the world than the planet could handle," he quipped. Instead, he said, he lives each day, prays for God's will to be done and thanks God for the opportunity he has been given to face his own mortality while he is still "strong, healthy and able to love and be loved."
After Davis spoke, mistress of ceremonies Carol Henneman called the survivors to the track to do their second lap. As the several dozen participants rounded the last curve, they were joined by family, friends, supporters and well-wishers who numbered so many that the track was almost completely filled all the way around with people. Together they then completed one more lap to the drumming of Eddie Bruce & Friends.
The crowd grew larger late into the night, with those on hand enjoying refreshments and activities that included line dancing contests, a fashion show, karaoke entertainment, a hula hoop contest and a basketball shoot-out.
On Sunday morning, a final lap was led by Miller, Carillo and others carrying a huge replica of a check made out to the Cancer Society for $110,000 – the preliminary total of the funds raised by the event.
Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
A cast of thousands turned out at the Charlotte Amalie High School athletic track for the event, which began a little after 6 p.m. Saturday and ended at 10 a.m. Sunday. A total of 40 teams walked the walk, compared to 23 last year, and the event raised at least $110,000, up from $65,000 a year ago.
The teams and their sponsors collaborated to honor local cancer survivors and their families, remember those who have lost the fight against the disease and raise funds for the local Cancer Society's treatment and support programs.
The opening ceremony consisted of remarks by Fern LaBorde, local unit president; José Raul Carrillo, Relay for Life chair; Gov. Charles W. Turnbull; and Viveca T. deCastro, a cancer survivor.
"I described two different groups of people, survivors and families of survivors," deCastro said later Saturday night. "To the survivors, I said that to get through this experience, you need prayer and a whole lot of faith, and that you should always rely on family and friends for support. To the families of survivors, I said to always be there, even if you don't know what to say or do."
For those with the disease, deCastro urged: "Just keep on living … Make the decision to live until you die."
Her words paving the way for the night ahead, participants took part in the opening Survivors Lap and then made way for the first set of teams along the track. Among the teams were representatives of St. Thomas Rotary Club, Theodore Tunick and Co., Iota Phi Lambda sorority and the Health Department.
Each team had a decorated booth and each booth had a theme, many of them similar in the sentiments expressed regarding how to fight and prevent cancer.
The Iota Phi Lambda members draped ropes of fruits and vegetables around their tent, promoting healthful eating, and had a snack table set up for the public to sample such foods.
Many groups promoted the idea of exercise for fitness in order to reduce the odds of contracting cancer. Cassandra Mallory, owner of Total Fitness on St. Thomas, stated: "We feel that keeping fit is essential to the prevention of the disease … That's why our theme this year is 'A Walk Around the Clock, Time for a Cure,' where walking represents fitness and the need to find a cure."
Mallory added that the idea of "total fitness" encompasses body, mind and spirit. She said that this year's Relay for Life "was made even more important because a week ago, we lost our best friend to cancer."
Rodney Miller, chief executive officer of Roy L. Schneider Hospital, put together a large team of walkers. He surprised the crowd by donating $10,000 to the American Cancer Society from the hospital. "We're going to beat it," Miller said, noting that groundbreaking for the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute is scheduled for September, with a targeted completion date of 18 months later.
Some participants were not affiliated with a group but chose to involve themselves in the event because of a connection with the cause, as survivors or as those who had lost loved ones to cancer.
For Ray Wilson, a cancer survivor originally from Indiana, the relay served to bring back memories. "It's sentimental for me knowing that people care," he said. "It's such a privilege for me to be here and participating with this wonderful group of cancer survivors."
Elliot "Mac" Davis, who survived kidney cancer only to be told at his five-year checkup that the disease had returned, said he had been through anger, grief and finally acceptance.
Davis was the keynote speaker at the 9 p.m. ceremony centered on the lighting of thousands of luminarias around the track. He described himself as a "dedicated fitness devotee" and said that he and his daughter, Elizabeth, plan to run the New York City Marathon together again in November.
Davis said it was his daughter's gift to him to keep him inspired. They ran in the New York event together last year, almost a year after he had been told that his cancer had returned and just before he began a round of ravaging chemotherapy. He bested his own time in two earlier marathons, in Nashville, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida, by 26 and 16 minutes, respectively.
Although he is "relentlessly in search of a cure," Davis said, he does not pray to be healed. "If everyone who prayed to be cured was, there would be more people in the world than the planet could handle," he quipped. Instead, he said, he lives each day, prays for God's will to be done and thanks God for the opportunity he has been given to face his own mortality while he is still "strong, healthy and able to love and be loved."
After Davis spoke, mistress of ceremonies Carol Henneman called the survivors to the track to do their second lap. As the several dozen participants rounded the last curve, they were joined by family, friends, supporters and well-wishers who numbered so many that the track was almost completely filled all the way around with people. Together they then completed one more lap to the drumming of Eddie Bruce & Friends.
The crowd grew larger late into the night, with those on hand enjoying refreshments and activities that included line dancing contests, a fashion show, karaoke entertainment, a hula hoop contest and a basketball shoot-out.
On Sunday morning, a final lap was led by Miller, Carillo and others carrying a huge replica of a check made out to the Cancer Society for $110,000 – the preliminary total of the funds raised by the event.
Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
2ND ANNUAL RELAY FOR LIFE IS A SIX-FIGURE SUCCESS
June 22, 2003 – What a difference a year makes: The 2nd annual Relay for Life, held over the weekend, attracted nearly double the number of participating teams at last year's inaugural effort, and, according to preliminary figures, raised nearly twice as much money for the sponsoring St. Thomas-St. John unit of the American Cancer Society.
A cast of thousands turned out at the Charlotte Amalie High School athletic track for the event, which began a little after 6 p.m. Saturday and ended at 10 a.m. Sunday. A total of 40 teams walked the walk, compared to 23 last year, and the event raised at least $110,000, up from $65,000 a year ago.
The teams and their sponsors collaborated to honor local cancer survivors and their families, remember those who have lost the fight against the disease and raise funds for the local Cancer Society's treatment and support programs.
The opening ceremony consisted of remarks by Fern LaBorde, local unit president; José Raul Carrillo, Relay for Life chair; Gov. Charles W. Turnbull; and Viveca T. deCastro, a cancer survivor.
"I described two different groups of people, survivors and families of survivors," deCastro said later Saturday night. "To the survivors, I said that to get through this experience, you need prayer and a whole lot of faith, and that you should always rely on family and friends for support. To the families of survivors, I said to always be there, even if you don't know what to say or do."
For those with the disease, deCastro urged: "Just keep on living … Make the decision to live until you die."
Her words paving the way for the night ahead, participants took part in the opening Survivors Lap and then made way for the first set of teams along the track. Among the teams were representatives of St. Thomas Rotary Club, Theodore Tunick and Co., Iota Phi Lambda sorority and the Health Department.
Each team had a decorated booth and each booth had a theme, many of them similar in the sentiments expressed regarding how to fight and prevent cancer.
The Iota Phi Lambda members draped ropes of fruits and vegetables around their tent, promoting healthful eating, and had a snack table set up for the public to sample such foods.
Many groups promoted the idea of exercise for fitness in order to reduce the odds of contracting cancer. Cassandra Mallory, owner of Total Fitness on St. Thomas, stated: "We feel that keeping fit is essential to the prevention of the disease … That's why our theme this year is 'A Walk Around the Clock, Time for a Cure,' where walking represents fitness and the need to find a cure."
Mallory added that the idea of "total fitness" encompasses body, mind and spirit. She said that this year's Relay for Life "was made even more important because a week ago, we lost our best friend to cancer."
Rodney Miller, chief executive officer of Roy L. Schneider Hospital, put together a large team of walkers. He surprised the crowd by donating $10,000 to the American Cancer Society from the hospital. "We're going to beat it," Miller said, noting that groundbreaking for the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute is scheduled for September, with a targeted completion date of 18 months later.
Some participants were not affiliated with a group but chose to involve themselves in the event because of a connection with the cause, as survivors or as those who had lost loved ones to cancer.
For Ray Wilson, a cancer survivor originally from Indiana, the relay served to bring back memories. "It's sentimental for me knowing that people care," he said. "It's such a privilege for me to be here and participating with this wonderful group of cancer survivors."
Elliot "Mac" Davis, who survived kidney cancer only to be told at his five-year checkup that the disease had returned, said he had been through anger, grief and finally acceptance.
Davis was the keynote speaker at the 9 p.m. ceremony centered on the lighting of thousands of luminarias around the track. He described himself as a "dedicated fitness devotee" and said that he and his daughter, Elizabeth, plan to run the New York City Marathon together again in November.
Davis said it was his daughter's gift to him to keep him inspired. They ran in the New York event together last year, almost a year after he had been told that his cancer had returned and just before he began a round of ravaging chemotherapy. He bested his own time in two earlier marathons, in Nashville, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida, by 26 and 16 minutes, respectively.
Although he is "relentlessly in search of a cure," Davis said, he does not pray to be healed. "If everyone who prayed to be cured was, there would be more people in the world than the planet could handle," he quipped. Instead, he said, he lives each day, prays for God's will to be done and thanks God for the opportunity he has been given to face his own mortality while he is still "strong, healthy and able to love and be loved."
After Davis spoke, mistress of ceremonies Carol Henneman called the survivors to the track to do their second lap. As the several dozen participants rounded the last curve, they were joined by family, friends, supporters and well-wishers who numbered so many that the track was almost completely filled all the way around with people. Together they then completed one more lap to the drumming of Eddie Bruce & Friends.
The crowd grew larger late into the night, with those on hand enjoying refreshments and activities that included line dancing contests, a fashion show, karaoke entertainment, a hula hoop contest and a basketball shoot-out.
On Sunday morning, a final lap was led by Miller, Carillo and others carrying a huge replica of a check made out to the Cancer Society for $110,000 – the preliminary total of the funds raised by the event.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
A cast of thousands turned out at the Charlotte Amalie High School athletic track for the event, which began a little after 6 p.m. Saturday and ended at 10 a.m. Sunday. A total of 40 teams walked the walk, compared to 23 last year, and the event raised at least $110,000, up from $65,000 a year ago.
The teams and their sponsors collaborated to honor local cancer survivors and their families, remember those who have lost the fight against the disease and raise funds for the local Cancer Society's treatment and support programs.
The opening ceremony consisted of remarks by Fern LaBorde, local unit president; José Raul Carrillo, Relay for Life chair; Gov. Charles W. Turnbull; and Viveca T. deCastro, a cancer survivor.
"I described two different groups of people, survivors and families of survivors," deCastro said later Saturday night. "To the survivors, I said that to get through this experience, you need prayer and a whole lot of faith, and that you should always rely on family and friends for support. To the families of survivors, I said to always be there, even if you don't know what to say or do."
For those with the disease, deCastro urged: "Just keep on living … Make the decision to live until you die."
Her words paving the way for the night ahead, participants took part in the opening Survivors Lap and then made way for the first set of teams along the track. Among the teams were representatives of St. Thomas Rotary Club, Theodore Tunick and Co., Iota Phi Lambda sorority and the Health Department.
Each team had a decorated booth and each booth had a theme, many of them similar in the sentiments expressed regarding how to fight and prevent cancer.
The Iota Phi Lambda members draped ropes of fruits and vegetables around their tent, promoting healthful eating, and had a snack table set up for the public to sample such foods.
Many groups promoted the idea of exercise for fitness in order to reduce the odds of contracting cancer. Cassandra Mallory, owner of Total Fitness on St. Thomas, stated: "We feel that keeping fit is essential to the prevention of the disease … That's why our theme this year is 'A Walk Around the Clock, Time for a Cure,' where walking represents fitness and the need to find a cure."
Mallory added that the idea of "total fitness" encompasses body, mind and spirit. She said that this year's Relay for Life "was made even more important because a week ago, we lost our best friend to cancer."
Rodney Miller, chief executive officer of Roy L. Schneider Hospital, put together a large team of walkers. He surprised the crowd by donating $10,000 to the American Cancer Society from the hospital. "We're going to beat it," Miller said, noting that groundbreaking for the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute is scheduled for September, with a targeted completion date of 18 months later.
Some participants were not affiliated with a group but chose to involve themselves in the event because of a connection with the cause, as survivors or as those who had lost loved ones to cancer.
For Ray Wilson, a cancer survivor originally from Indiana, the relay served to bring back memories. "It's sentimental for me knowing that people care," he said. "It's such a privilege for me to be here and participating with this wonderful group of cancer survivors."
Elliot "Mac" Davis, who survived kidney cancer only to be told at his five-year checkup that the disease had returned, said he had been through anger, grief and finally acceptance.
Davis was the keynote speaker at the 9 p.m. ceremony centered on the lighting of thousands of luminarias around the track. He described himself as a "dedicated fitness devotee" and said that he and his daughter, Elizabeth, plan to run the New York City Marathon together again in November.
Davis said it was his daughter's gift to him to keep him inspired. They ran in the New York event together last year, almost a year after he had been told that his cancer had returned and just before he began a round of ravaging chemotherapy. He bested his own time in two earlier marathons, in Nashville, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida, by 26 and 16 minutes, respectively.
Although he is "relentlessly in search of a cure," Davis said, he does not pray to be healed. "If everyone who prayed to be cured was, there would be more people in the world than the planet could handle," he quipped. Instead, he said, he lives each day, prays for God's will to be done and thanks God for the opportunity he has been given to face his own mortality while he is still "strong, healthy and able to love and be loved."
After Davis spoke, mistress of ceremonies Carol Henneman called the survivors to the track to do their second lap. As the several dozen participants rounded the last curve, they were joined by family, friends, supporters and well-wishers who numbered so many that the track was almost completely filled all the way around with people. Together they then completed one more lap to the drumming of Eddie Bruce & Friends.
The crowd grew larger late into the night, with those on hand enjoying refreshments and activities that included line dancing contests, a fashion show, karaoke entertainment, a hula hoop contest and a basketball shoot-out.
On Sunday morning, a final lap was led by Miller, Carillo and others carrying a huge replica of a check made out to the Cancer Society for $110,000 – the preliminary total of the funds raised by the event.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
