A Place Called Frederiksted is Rising Up Again
Editorial
You can try to break the spirit of a place called Frederiksted. You can swamp its streets and buildings with the floods of a tsunami. You can exploit its people with decades, centuries, of cruel, enforced slavery. You can blow down its walls and structures with hurricanes like Maria. You can make it seem, if you listen to the naysayers, that all hope has been lost, that nothing short of a miracle can bring back the spirit of the place. You can try to fool its people into thinking there is no way they can rise back up from such crushing blows.
Yes, you can try to break the back of a place called Frederiksted, rewrite its history, wash away its identity, erase its cultural heritage, but, in truth, you can never keep a free spirited people down.
Because, all throughout the history of Frederiksted, along came the saviors, the Queen Marys, the General Buddhoes, the Liberators, the Champions, blowing their conch shells, leading the charge, trumpeting their songs of a new vision. They rode swiftly on the heels of defeat, they rode boldly to the rescue, they rode on the wings of all the folks who love and cherish the place called Frederiksted. They gathered up what was broken and slowly started to piece it all back together. One brick at a time. One dream at a time. These saviors, these Liberators, risked it all to reach down into the life-blood of the place, to reach into the heart and the soul of the place, and salvage the embedded hope of the people. These Champions somehow find the light at the end of the darkest tunnels, they find the love of a people who refuse to give up, of a people who stand tall in the face of all adversity, who stand close to their brothers and sisters and cry out: We will not be broken! We will fight for our victory! We will blow the conch shell of freedom until the walls of tyranny, the forces of destruction, are brought to its knees. We will rebuild. We will plant and we will sow. We will make new again. Again and again, as many times as it takes, no matter what the odds are against us.
These Liberators, these Champions, do not have to relight the candle because it has never gone out. It has always shone bright in the hearts of the people of Frederiksted, in their minds, in their souls.
These are the good people of the place called Frederiksted, of the place called St. Croix. Their spirit will never be broken. Their culture, their history will never be destroyed. They will never let their place be left to decay, to rot away. Because they are a proud people. And they cherish their place called Frederiksted.
And now today, here come the New Queen Marys, the New General Buddhoes, the New Liberators, the New Champions. They keep in their hearts those who lit the fires that burned down the town. They keep in their hearts all those who suffered to keep their place alive. They use the same torches that burned their way to freedom to light the way into the future.
They are the New Pioneers of a place called Frederiksted. And they are charting a course filled with new developments, new visions, new ways of thinking about every rotting corner, every broken down structure, every empty lot of the graceful old town. They bring with them new hope. New dreams. Changes to be instituted, plans to be formulated. Dreams that will reshape the future.
They look to breathe new life onto every street. These New Pioneers bring with them people who are willing to invest their money, people who are willing to refurbish buildings, repurpose buildings, rethink outdoor spaces; people looking to revive the glory days of the past, people looking to lead the charge toward a renewed vision of the future. People who see Frederiksted rising up again. They are the New Pioneers, the New Champions who make up organizations like Our Town Frederiksted, like West Guyl, like CMCArts; places like the Fort Frederik Museum, the Athale Petersen Library. Champions who are breathing new life into the loving town of Frederiksted. People who will not stand by idly and watch the spirit of the place be broken, watch the brick and mortar decay, watch the empty spaces be taken over by weeds, the streets taken over by trash, the town overrun with despair.
These are the New Pioneers, the New Champions of a place called Frederiksted. And They Are Rising Up Again.
