What Will Our Legacy Be?
Editorial by CIF President Michael J. Springer, Jr.
D. Hamilton Jackson
We walk in the footsteps of D. Hamilton Jackson, whose legacy will always be tied to the creation of the labor movement in the Virgin Islands.
As proud Virgin Islanders, Labor Day has a special place in our history. But as we look at the fate of so many who are without gainful employment, we must question what has gone wrong.
Yes, there is a recession – but we are also suffering from a lack of vision in our current leadership resulting in missed opportunities and misplaced financial resources.
So this weekend, as we honor those among us who earn a fair day’s pay for a honest day’s work, let us recommit ourselves to creating opportunities for Virgin Islanders first and to electing leadership that will execute on that commitment as their number one priority.
This time next week, the Democratic primary will be another chapter in our history. Will we look back on it as the turning point toward a Virgin Islands that embodies the virtues of fairness and self-sufficiency to which Jackson dedicated his life and his legacy?
The decision is in our hands.
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Herb,your 9.50 post is six lines long…..five more than a ‘oneliner’.
Soldier Crab…I’m not known for one-liners like Henny Youngman. I suggest if you want one, simply cut and paste my reply in its shortened version. I like to post more than is required to make my point. But according to von Klauswitz: Always consider an artillery barrage before you order in the infantry to attack. Keep the cavalry in reserve to deliver the final coup de grace.
You should know my style of rhetorical warfare by now.
….yup,I do indeed know of your ‘style of rhetorical warfare’.It was
‘Anonymous @ 12.27 pm’ who,I do believe,was asking that you give Vegan
an assist by answering her with a ‘oneliner’.
Both Henny Youngman and Bob Hope were brilliant when it came to one-liners.Can’t think of any comedians today who have that sense of humor and killing their audiences as they did.
Today’s stuff is,as you well know,in your face crap.
Henny Youngman for years could open with the same line and always get the audience on his side with laughter. The one I am thinking of is:
“Take my wife……….Please!”
No you didn’t, Herb. You talked about it in the backdrop of Arab slavery, African slavery, abolitionism. Can’t you just say that one line alone? Or are you a racism denier/excused?
Herb if you can’t do it you are an excused/ denier if racism.
Maybe we should look at this a different way. Our fore bearers survived the 1 month trip across the middle passage to a beautiful tropical island and were made to cut cane or cooked food for the slave master. The European Christians assigned as rowers in the belly of an Arab ship in the Med. They seldom saw the light of day and there were not many survivors. If you had a choice between the two, which one would you choose?
Herb is that you @ 6.45 p.m.?
Our speech and writing patterns are like that of our walking in that they aren’t easy to disguise.
So,if that’s not you be honest and say it isn’t.
Man! Soldier Crab you are sharp. When the GOP takes over in 2012 I will highly recommend you for a high paying positions at the CIA. Soldier Crab has talent!
……oh bwoy! Here goes Herb with his brand of warfare.Noticed how he avoided saying whether or not he was the author of the 6.45 pm post
but chose to dress me up in all sorts of ‘borrowed robes’?
Soldier Crab….yes indeed I was the writer and you nailed me cold. Who else writes like me on this blog anyway? The answer is nobody. And I will take that as a compliment just like I intended to give you one as well.
……just messing with ya,big guy.But in all sincerity,there are many
(moi included) who,despite the sarcastic and racist sprinklings with which you sometimes write,will concede your possessing much knowledge
on and of the many issues discussed and debated on this site.
So,who do you see winning the gubernatorial primary on the 11th?
What would prefer is that you acknowledge the brutality of the enslavement of Africans by Europeans. What I recognized is Herb’s racism denying slavery minimizing view point more than his distinct style of prose.
When your wife says, “tell me you love me” she wants you say it, not say “ditto” or “yes to what you just said”.
Who would I like to see win on Saturday? That would be the candidate that shares my values in what the purpose of government really is for:
Reduced government spending
Reduction in the size of government
Who views government as a protector not a provider
Who has the goal of not making people the wards of government and not the victims of government but fully autonomous citizens;
Who have the freedom of choice in their lives, i.e. schools, healthcare, and commerce.
May I have the envelope please!
Kenneth Mapp is your choice is what I hear you saying. Herb.
And I also now conclude thAt you are a racism denier. Period.
Vegan….Racism abounds for sure for which I do not deny. I just wish it didn’t.
Since i wasn’t asking WHO you’d be voting for on the 11th,assuming you are eligible to vote,you could have named names and not have,by asking for the ‘envelope’,insinuate the question to be a private and personal matter.
But having answered in the manner in which you did,let me ask yet another question,and that is;which team of candidates you think best embrace those philosophies?
I will be voting on Saturday but will be directed to a GOP since we have to select members of our Territorial Committee. The “envelope please” refers to the decision of registered Democrats in the primary. My observation is that the V.I. Democrats are a party divided who are currently engaged in the internecine cannibalism of eating their own. I have not seen such division in this party since the 60′s when the local Republicans were call on to save one of the factions.
Nor do I see an instant healing between September 11th to November 2nd. Any announcement by Democrats suggesting that “we are together now” will ring hollow with the electorate. Interesting games of “lets make a deal” will certainly occur, the substance of which will not be known until after the election. None of the deals will be for faithful voters but rather for the candidate alone.
Here are some possible scenarios to which I have not given much thought:
I would expect Luz to stay with the party’s choice and Jimmy to cash in his chips to the highest bidder, this assume that neither cans win the primary. Now if it turns out that AFD wins the primary you will see the classic death struggle between the Mongoose and the Cobra. AFD the anti Vitelco/ICC protagonist vs. Ken Mapp who is said to be one of the major beneficiaries of them. It will not be a Sunday school picnic but rather a major mud slinging contest with all of us the victims of likely collateral damage.
If Governor deJongh wins I don’t any possibility of reconciliation with AFD but the his supporters will split 50/50 in the general and that will be a wash. deJongh/Franics vs. Mapp/Sekou would be more focused on the accomplishments or lack of them over the past 4 years. Both took similar positions on the Draft V.I. Constitution, pet coke vs. coal will split the global greeners, and profligate spending and waste will provide no significant difference for either to lay their election upon. One coupling of potential candidates will be another definition of fireworks and the other will be just a slight cut above total civility.
A fair and balance analysis of what could very well happen.
Well,the day of reckoning is almost nigh and we’ll soon know,as my peole would say,’how barley grow’.Will be reading and listening to events as they unfold.
Who knows,September 11th may be the day history is made in the U.S.
Virgin Islands.