Dear Source:
I am glad you agree with some of my points and with all respect to your opinion, my point isn't the current short falls, unlike many on the island my family and I have been cleaning up the west end beaches, that's us with rakes and plastic bags picking up trash, we stack the tires at the side of the road and thank god someone picks them up too. my point is its our responcibity to make St croix a nice place (us meaning that if we didn't litter and we picked up our island it would be clean already) , government is better left to the big stuff
1. getting a fair deal from the cruise ships something most ports that accept them do not do, Disney world is a fine place to visit but i dont want to live there, yes big business makes a big profit but the average person in Orlando isn't sharing those profits, they are just getting bigger bills for the usage of there infastructure.
2. I wouldn't mind the costs to our island if 25% of the profits were directly allocated to employing the unemployed, we could use it to clean up all of st croix. the stores and business that will profit from the cruise industry will pay taxes and they may hire some people yet it is unexplained how St. croix it self gets anything from this. A sad statistic is that over 50% of the people on the boats never leave its decks in port.
Let me be clear – I think the cruise boats coming to St. croix is a good thing I would like to see avoid becoming like the other standard ports the ones that sell cheap goods from china and are nothing more than side shows at the fair. St Croix is unique, we have a culture that is vibrant and alive. Anyone who was at the jumbilation event a month ago knows how special we are.
I would like to see us on our island get as good as we give-lord knows we dont get it from wapa, innovative, or even the government but if we set the goal high then we get the greatest value from selling our selves.
Do we want to be a Nassau? A St. Thomas just another stop some cruise boats line use to keep making there profits?
To keep St. croix unique it will take planing and work, those who so quickly reach for the money they have been told is coming on the boats will loose sight of our way of life it will disappear as quickly as most of our fish, its time someone tried to do something before the problem arises instead of waiting for the problem dose something to us.
Mrs. Jackson I hope you can accept that this is my opinion not some rule or law, I find that sharing our thoughts helps us refine our beliefs, hopefully we will arrive at an answer and we can agree that we love St. croix and we love our people.
Ps: being a native of St. croix is something to be proud of not something to wave around like it means more than what anyone else has to say, we all pay our taxes to the same place we live love and die exactly the same way.
Paul Vrabcak
Frederiksted, St. Croix
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