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Charlotte Amalie
Saturday, April 20, 2024
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Inalienable Rights and Letterheads

Dear Source:

Sadly, In the midst of much despair- I contemplate the following sad state of affairs… Why have some of our elected officials taken to writing "informal" complaints to regulatory bodies on Official Legislative letterhead? The private position of these individuals should be clearly separated from their official positions. Are these same "informal" public elected officials Constitutional Experts? Isn't the right to free speech and freedom of press an unalienable right, which is granted to us by and preserved by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution as further supported by the Organic Act as revised?
There is no obvious nor apparent imminent or clear and present danger by which to suspend these unalienable rights as required by later Constitutional Amendments. Verbal or political disagreements and debate will abound freely in a society, which has free speech as an unalienable right. This unalienable right to disagree is one of the foundations upon which our democracy was founded and is maintained. The people, especially the voting electorate are well within their rights to voice satisfaction or dissatisfaction and then to recall any and all elected officials who have run astray of the requirements of the electorate which has elected them.
We should all stand up and remain steadfast and resolute- showing our total and committed total solidarity to recall and if necessary dismiss or otherwise seek to impeach all of those same public elected officials who seek to abridge, deny or otherwise hinder the public's right to free speech. Further, we should gladly and proudly voice our satisfaction as well as dissatisfaction with our elected officials and correspondingly reward or castigate these officials as they may deserve, for this is one of our unalienable rights…
Joseph P. Stropole
Frederiksted, St. Croix

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