Heroes of the sea
Over the past year or so, a Beaconite has become acquainted with dozens of Virgin Islands Search and Rescue volunteers on a personal and professional basis and has heard dozens of fascinating, harrowing and often blood-drenched stories of their adventures at sea. But she had never visited their headquarters or even set foot on one of their boats. All she knew was that some of her friends are mysteriously tied up for hours on Monday nights, leaving everybody else to speculate on what goes on behind closed doors. That all changed a few weeks ago, when the life-saving crew gave her a free ride to Little Jost Van Dyke while they were monitoring the safety of the swimmers in the Bonecrusher 10K swim (and were even nice enough to feed her lunch). On Monday, she was excited to finally visit their base to witness the launch of their new boat and actually attend one of their legendary Monday night meetings. Although it’s fun to believe that VISAR is a mysterious, exclusive “secret society” whose inner workings can never be known, the reality is that the group is simply an extraordinarily dedicated group of people who give up much of their spare time to deal with some very scary stuff, and she’s very grateful for their service.
Think like a tourist
On days that Disney cruise ships pull into town, a Beaconite has seen well-meaning residents post on Facebook that “tourism is everybody’s job.” After family members came to visit over the weekend, she wishes that everyone actually took that message to heart, especially when it comes to simply cleaning up trash and debris. Through the fresh eyes of a tourist — and without the blinders of mindlessly moving through a daily commute — the reporter started noticing the huge amounts of garbage strewn around the islands. From mounds of discarded Styrofoam containers along the roadside to the smell of burning trash now perpetually pouring from the Pockwood Pond landfill, a Beaconite realised that you can judge a vacation destination by basic standards of cleanliness. And her family members agreed that more glamorous aspects of a holiday, like staying in an expensive villa or eating at a five-star restaurant, are less important than being able to drive through West End without choking on lingering landfill smoke. Everyone — from the average person who might throw an empty water bottle into a ghut, to officials making bigger decisions about proper landfill regulations and fire hazards — can do better in making tourism (and therefore a better quality of life) a priority.
Lawmaking
A Beaconite has come to believe that the Attorney General’s Chambers is in desperate need of more lawyers to help draft laws faster. The ambition of government’s legislative agenda, as outlined most years in the Speech from the Throne, always seems to vastly outpace the actual legislative successes, which usually amount to far less than 20 percent of what was promised in any given session. Still, if last week was evidence of anything, it’s that the government’s law agenda failures aren’t completely the fault of the attorney general. Much of the blame also lies at the feet of the elected legislators themselves. After more than a decade of missed promises, false starts and inaction, House of Assembly members had finally moved a Human Rights Commission Act through to the committee stage last week, using a bill that — though it had some apparent faults — would have represented a good step towards ensuring some additional human rights protections for citizens and residents of the territory. All legislators had to do was tinker with a few of its clauses and bring it back to the House for passage. Instead, however, some lawmakers — namely opposition members Andrew Fahie and Julian Fraser — decided to rail against some of the details of the bill during its public debate. Those complaints must have bled into the closed-door committee stage, because instead of passing, the act was referred to a select committee and likely another decade of legislative doldrums. Yes, such delays present the Beacon with lots of opportunities to fill many pages recounting an ever-growing list of legislative failures. But it unfortunately does nothing to improve the human rights protections of vulnerable citizens who need them the most.