Political Quotes

“Later today, I intend to reintroduce a resolution commemorating the transfer of the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States. In that resolution, it discusses the 1733 slave revolt, the first slave revolt in the Western Hemisphere; the 1848 slave rebellion and emancipation, 17 years before the United States; and, of course, the 1917 transfer of ownership of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the U.S. We also discussed great Virgin Islanders, such as Alton Adams, Edward Blyden, Camille Pissarro, Judah Benjamin, and Roy Innis. What does the transfer mean, and what have been the gains and benefits to the people of the Virgin Islands because of the purchase by the United States? The Americans were able to receive a pristine, geopolitically strategic location in the Caribbean with a people who are loyal to and proud of this country. What has been given to the Virgin Islanders, a people willing and eager to take on the responsibilities of that citizenship but who, in fact, have moved from a system of serfdom, under Danish rule, to second-class, limited privileged citizenship by the United States? We need to take this time in this centennial transfer year to look at what have been the gains and for the U.S. to make a more perfect Union by more perfect citizenship and more inclusion of the U.S. Virgin Islands into the United States. ____________________”