LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Who are these people?

Monday,  February 27, 2006

Dear Sir,

The other morning as I was driving down South Sound road, the one going directly into town passing the cruise ships, I heard a strange sound that, I must say, disturbed me a bit.

First off it was 8:30 am in the morning so as you can imagine, the street was filled with cars all making their way into town and stuck in the early morning traffic.

Never mind the sight that it came from; the (Trolley) Roger but here is the sound that I heard, “these people cannot drive, and these people cannot drive”.

This was the seeming chant streaming though the loud speakers of the trolley obviously communicating to the group of tourists while on the course of the tour. 

Now I know this may seem petty to some and if you think so then please, I urge you, move on, but to those of you who feel my pain; can you understand why this would be offensive? 

I want to know to whom the tour guide was speaking about. 

Who, pray tell, are “these people”?

Now I’m not going racial on this one at all so bear with me. 

Here we are from a small Island where people already have the impression that the natives are primitive and simple minded but a foreigner, none the less, is referring to us as “these people” and speaking quite loud and animated to tourists about “these people” not being able to drive.

Now does this strike anyone else as offensive?

Do we need a group of tourists to go away with this impression to match the other negative ones?

First off I don’t even remember seeing any of the tourists’ even smile at the little “joke” because I imagine they probably felt what I felt on that occasion.

Not only is this woman a foreigner, with a clear southern drawl, and obviously living and working on a beautiful Island, but also has the nerve to seemingly bite the hand that feeds her. Now “ya’ll” talk about us all the time disliking foreigners and giving them a bad rap when in fact you are positive contributing members of society that are helping our economy and want to be seen as such.

Can you then understand why this was a “wee” bit inappropriate? For someone to not appear politically incorrect, I would think their better judgment would have kicked in before such an announcement was made while guiding a (“Trolley Roger”) full of tourists.

But then again she was navigating a (Trolley) Roger so maybe I might be expecting a little too much from her after all. HHHMMM I wonder if that last statement might perturb or offend her. Funny how the brain works doesn’t it? 

If I may, Ms. Lady, here is a suggestion for the future – while you are navigating your (Trolley) Roger on our streets in the height of morning traffic while “these” people are simply trying to get to work and not touring, could you work on navigating your “vehicle” properly (because you are very big, odd and dufuss) and try not to offend anyone with your jokes while you and the tourists are out sightseeing; because remember you are at your job already and the people you are transporting are on vacation unlike “these people” who are not!

V. Jordon

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