By Senator Clarence Payne III
It is after being in office for about two weeks and receiving several calls of the following nature that I pen the following:
To my Virgin Islands People those at home, abroad and especially those asleep, the aging amongst us are dying lonely, miserable, depressed, destitute, impoverished and many have lost hope and the will to subsist. The last phone call I received agitated me to say something publicly even though I am sure most of us don’t fit the bill. Question, how is it that two parents can take care of five children and five children can’t take care or two?
Let’s say an elderly lady with a strong tomian accent age of 78 have a husband 83 who is bedridden and she is left to fully take care of him and let’s say they have 3 adult children living the American nightmare, I mean dream. Giving their parents the impression that they are absolutely happy where they are and they can’t spare the time or the dime to take care of them, the same parents who refinanced their house to pay for their children to attend collage even though they themselves did not attend high school.
Now in their twilight years dad is bedridden, mom physically can’t labor in love any more. I ask the question again, who’s responsible? Over the years, Virgin Islanders from the most meager of circumstances have produced children who have risen to the highest level of respectability; we have produced neurosurgeons, admirals, teachers, clergy, inventors, writers, network engineers, hedge fund managers, business experts in most disciplines, and many trades men and women who build and construct everything that makes a country move.
And in our pretentiousness some of those who are most successful have forsaken their parents and are forcing them to live a dependent life on a government whose finances are depleted in part by mismanagement, corruption, nepotism, greed and the like. The overriding issue at hand is who’s responsible for our aging parents? Historically governments don’t do a very good job providing efficient services and our parents are to be treasured in their twilight years. Read more »