Dear Source:
Sometimes I think, no matter what the senators do, people will not like it. A recent writer called the appropriation for drag racing "a folly" and a "pork bill." With everyone crying for positive outlets for our youth, especially geared toward our young men, I cannot see why someone could not see this was a very worthwhile appropriation.
The people who run the drag strip have always been fairly self-sufficient. I am not into drag racing but I know from listing to local news and keeping up on current events that the organizers have built this entertainment from a few cars racing illegally on back streets to a world class operation where drag racers from all over the Caribbean come to St. Croix to compete. Just listen to their commercials and you would hear them advertise cars from Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Antigua and even Miami, racing right here on St. Croix.
Everyone who gets a chance should go down to the drag strip at least once. You should really go there, Ms. Lange. I went twice. I was astounded at what was going on there. Lots of fancy and fast cars were there and hundreds of people, mostly young males. I felt comfortable and I have never heard of any violence erupting from any activity they have held. Vendors were making a brisk business selling pizza, sodas and hot dogs.
The one thing that struck me was the amount of young males who had their male children in tow! This was a place for positive male bonding like I have never seen on St. Croix before! It was awesome and gave me a really good feeling to see this was a place where young men came to find common ground with their fathers. Just that alone is worth more than $400,000. Oh, and the main reason for the appropriation was to fix the track which was damaged by a broken sewer line. Just like another writer to this forum, Ken Floyd said, "This facility suffered irreparable damage caused by a malfunction of a government utility and infrastructure." He was referring to a broken sewer line, which is under the purview of WMA. All the drag strip organizers got from WMA was an apology, no funds to repair. You can read all about it in the St. Croix Source story here.
The youth of St. Croix have been crying out for entertainment. The public chides the senators about making empty promises for our youth and using them for campaign slogans. Then when a positive action is taken on behalf of our youth, it is criticized by the same people! We are all human, we all have flaws, but how is anyone supposed to feel when they are trying to do good for this community and get beaten down for every move. It's like the old adage "you're dammed if you do and you're dammed if you don't."
People of St. Croix, please support drag racing – it is a good and positive activity.
Victoria Williams
Frederiksted, St. Croix
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