Once every 10 years we all get counted. It's called the Census. The federal government needs to know how many people resided in the United States, including the Virgin Islands, as of Saturday, April 1.
It's impossible to count everyone on a single day. So the Census people mailed out questionnaires in advance of last Saturday. Now, Census employees are driving and walking around our islands, knocking on the doors of every household.
All households in the Virgin Islands were mailed the so-called long form, 33 questions. These long forms have been part of the Census for decades. In fact, this year's long form is the shortest one in 60 years.
All answers on the forms are confidential.
Those are the facts. But here in the Virgin Islands some people, perhaps misled by Republican politicans in Washington, are balking at filling out the forms. They think their privacy is being invaded.
One caller to local radio talk shows—he says he's from St. John—claims that under the Constitution all he's required to reveal is his name and the number of persons living in his household.
The federal government uses the data from the long form to allocate money to the Virgin Islands for such entitlement programs as school aid, transportation, housing, and services to the elderly and disabled.
So we say to the man from St. John, and to anyone else who supports his views: If you don't answer the questions, at least do us the favor of moving from the Virgin Islands. We need those federal funds. If you don't want to help us get them, then you shouldn't partake of them.