It is time for government officials, business leaders and every Virgin Islands resident to take a giant step back from their own self-interest and look unflinchingly at where cowardice, corruption and self-interest have gotten us.
Enough money pours into our treasury each year to solve the infrastructure problems, education problems, housing problems — all of our problems. But corruption, demagoguery and political self-aggrandizement are costing us dearly.
How many political hires has Gov. Charles W. Turnbull made — and how many will he continue to make — in preparation for his re-election run?
How many white-collar crime cases languish on the attorney general's desk while he and the governor drag their feet on hiring the personnel to investigate and prosecute public corruption?
How many people in the Education Department's top-heavy administration continue to collect hefty paychecks even as federal officials threaten to pull education funds from the territory due to lack of accountability (which is nothing more than lack of proper follow-up and paperwork)?
How much more bickering, rudeness and mudslinging will we tolerate from overpaid legislators who claim to be protecting the public interest but are really concerned with preserving their own private fiefdoms?
How long will it take for the electorate of this tiny territory to call for a new order?
If by chance someone or several someones of strong moral character and proven capability were to stand up against the status quo and step into the political arena (though we can't think why anyone of that description would want to), would we stand by and watch them be demoralized and defeated by the rumormongers, demagogues and naysayers who have a vested, death-grip interest in maintaining business-as-usual? Or would we support them and vote for a new order, a new way of conducting the public business?
Write to your public officials. Write to the media. Demand a change. Stop saying, "It's just the way it is." Everyone knows what's wrong. Who is willing to do something about it?