WAPA's Attorney Racist Rampage

So I got word today about WAPA's Atty, Mark Kragel, who recently posted some racist comments on his fb page. I heard he litterally said f$@# #blacklivesmatters along with some other derogatory comments. I also understand that this is not his first offense.

While I can respect his right to share his opinion, VI residents also have the right to offer backlash through comments and/or boycotting his business as well as expecting WAPA to do something about it.  He has no business representing the VI in any capacity if that is how he feels about us. We are predominantly people of color and have fought tooth and nail to exist on these islands without racial discrimination.

One of the few things I enjoyed while growing up on the island was that there was no racial tension. All races coexisted peacefully. In fact I was never more aware of my skin color until I moved to Atlanta. It is here that I encountered racial prejudice for the first time in my life. It was here that my then 13 year old daughter came face to face with hate when 3 white boys threatened to hang her if she did not go back to where she came from. No doubt they meant Africa in their ignorance. It was tough trying to console my daughter while explaining to her why people who did not know her wanted to do her harm based solely on the color of her skin.

In a time where racial tension is high across the nation, there is no room for people in high positions to be adding to the flames with reckless comments. We as virgin islanders should have no tolerance for this type of ignorance. It is your money that pays his salary. So if he has no respect for us as a people, which is clear by his comment, then you should not support his business. The people of the VI deserve better. WAPA should know better. WAPA should do better. They can not look the other way because it "was a personal comment" and not delivered in an official capacity. We have been held hostage for way too long because of their monopoly, i.e., only electric company in the territory. So they have no motivation to do right by us, but we can still send a message with our voices, with our post, and with our votes. If WAPA really stands behind their slogan - "working for you" then they will do the right thing.

I am so sick and tired of people thinking it's okay to say whatever they want without any fear of repercussions or consequences. Then only making a retraction or half ass apology when or if it affects their pocket or bottomline. I am sure if we put our minds together we can come up with a way to pressure WAPA to do something about Mark. We are not completely helpless in this situation. Sure we need WAPA but they need us too. They depend on your payments just like you depend on their service.

Something has to give. How long will we continue to let people who have no use for us short of using our money to line their pockets get away with treating us like second class citizen? The time to act is now. The time for change is now. The time to do away with bigotry is NOW. I'm just saying - I got issues. What about you?)i( 

#blacklivesmatters #wapavi #usvi #racist #notolerance #igotissues #yahsdaughter863 #yaminah89 #wakeup #consciousness #consciousthinking #bethechange #stopthehate #blackpeople #blackmen #questfortruth #imatter #black #peopleofcolor #speakup #knowledgeiskey 

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 The views and opinions shared here are by the Author and are the property of I Got Issues, Inc.

Juneteenth - Real or Memorex

Juneteenth - never heard of it til yesterday during a conversation with my daughter. We were discussing her son's pending graduation for today. Then this morning I received a few text messages wishing me a happy Juneteenth.

While speaking with a friend earlier today the topic came up again. Where this come from and who decided to call it Juneteenth? There is nothing in the name that suggest abolishment or freedom for that matter. My friend decided to Google the teenth since we already determined that June was the 6th month of the year.

According to Wikipedia: "A sixteenth is a measure of mass, often of drugs, and is shorthand for a sixteenth of an ounce, or 1/256 of a pound, 1 avoirdupois dram, or 1.77 grams. Not to be confused with shorthand name 'Teenth' an abbreviation for 'Juneteenth', a period of time in June that was connected to the End of Slavery for many Black people in 1865 and also associated in misfortunate irony to the massacre occuring in Black Wall Street at Tulsa Oklahoma that occurred in 1921. The period of recognition and mourning occur between June 19-21 every year." Interesting.

How come I've never heard of it before now? Flipping through my Google calender on my phone, the first time Juneteenth pops up is June 19, 2018. Nothing before but every June going forward. Interesting.

Seems odd that this movement was adopted in Texas in 1980 and only now being focused on. Can't help but feel this is yet another attempt to distract from the nationwide protest of the killing of unarmed people of color or it could be a clever ploy to shed light on an otherwised ignored event. I mean 150 years is a long time for it to only now be making it's way into the spotlight.   Do you have any recollection of any civil activist, ie Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, etc. talking about Juneteenth? I'm just saying - I got issues. What about you?)i(

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T-Mobile Network Outage

Woke up yesterday to no phone service - so inconveniencing. I tried calling #tmobile customer service to no avail.  First call was met with a recording that they were experiencing technical difficulties and advised customers try their call again later. Other call attempts were met with "all circuits are busy". Then subsequently calls would fail to process all together - calls would just not go through. Sporadically I got notifications that I had voice mail but could not access them either. 

I would later learn that it was a country wide network outage. Perhaps it was a necessary outage for them to implement the widely anticipated 5-G platform/network they have been raging about.

Anyway, just before midnight I got a slew of text messages from people complaining that their calls to me were not going through. Based on greeting I ascertain they were sent earlier in the day. I called customer service today to request a credit for the no service period and the rep was very apologetic and more than happy to offer a credit to my account for the inconvenience.

I know a lot of people probably thought their phone was the issue and tampered with the settings. So I made a suggestion to the customer rep for upper management. I figured they became aware of the network outage at some point. Perhaps they could use the same or similar platform that state authorities uses to send out mass Amber alerts or curfew reminders to cell phone users in the event something like this happens again. They can use it to send a notice to let customers know the network is down.  This would really be helpful especially when customer service can not be reached. You may think this is impossible if the network is down but not necessarily. While the calling feature was impacted apparent emails and texting worked sporadically. Not sure how but it did.

I'm not sure if they will automatically apply a credit to customer's account since it was a network outage, so my advice is, if T-Mobile is your cell phone carrier, call them and request a credit for rhe day in question.  Better to call than get left out. I'm just saying - I got issues, what about you?)i(

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