I am motivated to address the comments made by Ms. Hill in the St. Thomas Source's editorials Friday [Thursday], September 1. Comments such as hers that lump large groups of people as one, are by nature, racist in themselves. I am white and have lived here for 18 years. My daughter was born on St.Thomas and goes to a parochial school where she is one of two whites in a class of 15. Would Ms. Hill say the that the Virgin Islands do not belong to my daughter as much as any other child born here? If she does, what does this say about her?
We did not come here to take over anything or anyone. I am saddened by comments like the ones made by Ms. Hill as they only serve to further polarize our community.
I did not attend the meeting on Thursday night as I knew that emotions were running high and there would be people there with their own agendas to further at the expense of my and my families safety. I sincerely hope that the perpetrators are caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There needs to be a police presence in Coral Bay full time. Why is there not one now? A sane, calm approach is what is needed now, not a lynch mob as some community leaders are advocating.
Further, while I have great respect for the history of the Virgin Islands and it's people I disagree that this is not America. We live in the greatest democracy ever created and will do every thing in my power to respect the veterans of the Virgin Islands who fought and died to protect it. There are and will always be bad elements in any given group of people. To spew out such racially, polarizing comments puts Ms Hill in the same class of people she is speaking against! The good people of St. John will move beyond this as we have through hurricanes and other troubled times, hand in hand, side by side.
Frank Cummings
St. John
