I grew up on St. Croix but am writing from College Station, Texas where I now attend Texas A&M University.
I first want to say that I enjoy reading the St. Croix Source and appreciate your efforts in covering the news of the Virgin Islands. I looked into getting a subscription to the Daily News sent up here but it was insanely expensive. With the St. Croix Source, I can keep up-to-date with news about the V.I.
I especially want to say that I enjoy reading the coverage on the V.I. government, its corruption and fiscal problems. I personally think the feds just need to take over the territorial government, fire Gov. Charles Turnbull, fire some of the legislators, fire half the government employees and basically, just restructure the entire government from the education system to the public works department.
I just can't believe the U.S. government just keeps sending money to the V.I. without requiring any accountability. This frustration with the V.I. government leads me to my second point: Are there any "concerned citizens" groups in the territory demanding governmental reform in the territory?
Activism gets peoples attention and is an impetus for action. If there was a group that constantly called for reform, pointed out government waste and petitioned the federal government to look at the V.I., maybe the government couldn't get away with wasting so much money.
The only way the government is getting away with it all is because the V.I. is overlooked. I would definitely be interested in joining or help forming such a group. I think we need to get a group of concerned citizens to petition investigative shows like Dateline or 20/20 to profile the V.I. I think Americans would be outraged that the U.S. government is continually just throwing their tax money at the government, and that the territory, with a population of 112,000, has a debt over 1.12 BILLION.
I also think we should try and get the feds to take over the territory much like they did cities in New Jersey and elsewhere. The V.I. has so much potential as a tourist destination, but the government is just wasting the opportunities it has.
Once again, thank you for your efforts with the St. Croix Source!
Sincerely,
Ryan Burkhalter
