Dear Source:
Are we really slaves to the past? Not necessarily our past, but the generic past?
I am an individual over fifty years of age, I respect tradition and customs but I do not allow the past to control my present nor my future, do you? Why is that we are allowing a few individuals to dictate our present and our future? They assume that posture in the name of preserving history. Can we not preserve history in our history books, in our libraries, in our museums, with our oral narrative (traditional)? What allowance are we making for our current generation, our contemporary professionals and artisans? Each generation should be allowed to leave their mark in our community for posterity. Would you agree?
We have amongst us native architects, engineers, city planners and builders. Why have we not challenged their creative genius to bring the physical aspect of our communities into the 21rst. Century? Why do we want our communities to be chained to the past? Why is it that our very patriotic leaders, our very nationalistic and native conscious leaders, elected and appointed, could not collectively challenge our local professionals to assist the community in modernizing our towns? We have local sociologists and other professionals at our university; how are we challenging them to benefit the community with their profession, with their talents?
Our community have grown tremendously on all major islands. But the politicians seems to be oblivious to that reality. There is no comprehensive plans to address the present and future needs of our community. It is written: "Where there is no vision the people perish". Are we prepared to perish for the lack of vision in our leaders? Is it not our duty to select and elect persons with intelligence, vision and courage along with integrity to lead our government? We receive the government we elect and maybe deserve. If we fail to do our homework, if we fail to be involve in the affairs of our community we have no one to blame but ourselves.
We have a great need to improve our public transportation system. A comprehensive plan could address that situation and possibly correct the deficiencies. We need a truly well structured public parking lot for Charlotte Amalie, the present one is underutilized and needs to be upgraded. It is underutilized because it is not operated on a 24/7 schedule. There are other government properties that are likewise underutilized or not used at all, a waste. Our roads and streets needs proper designation and enumeration as well as other properties and buildings that lack proper numeration. Are those needs that difficult for our government officials to address? What is it that they lack?
When are we going to allow property owners and others to bring the properties in our towns into the 21rst. Century? When are we going to upgrade our sense of aesthetic and really beautify our towns? Are we waiting for "outsiders" with a better sense of aesthetic to do the modernizing for us? Are we willing to be more progressive than those that preceded us and leave a better more beautiful towns than we received?
J.J. Estemac
St. Thomas, V.I.
Editor's note: 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.
