Dear Editor,
Before I got the paper of January 15th, someone called me and told me that I can answer the “short and sweet”. I told him that I didn’t get the paper yet. His response was, “These people won’t let up. When I got the paper and read what he told me about I understood where he was coming from. I thought, ‘You never miss the water ’til the well run dry.’ So I said to myself, ‘If St. Maarten was not in its darkest (not dark) days, then nobody would have said anything.’ I believe it was Martin Liuther King Jr. who said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
That is the history that has become the legacy of especially the older politicians who have been in government for a while on St. Maarten. Our elected officials continue to “jump on” the latest Ministers of government and their portfolios. I believe that government continues. And if you did not leave anything good (for instance GEBE and VROMI [utilities company and Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure – Ed.]) for me to build on, don’t I have to start from scratch?
And for those MPs [members of Parliament] who claim that the draft budget lacks vision, may I state that it is time that they start by growing up. Find out what being member of Parliament entails. They did not campaign to become opposition members of Parliament. Which by the way doesn’t exist. They are all equal members who bring proposals and vote for or against the proposals.
I consider laying and waiting immature behavior and I would even consider stating that they are delinquent for not working for their over-inflated salaries. If they have the vision to see that vision is lacking, then they should demonstrate that they have vision and bring it forward. That would be working for the people who are responsible for them being in Parliament. I do not think anyone would criticize me if I close with suggesting that it is time for them to grow up, demonstrate their vision and in so doing earn their pay.
Russell A. Simmons
