Thursday, September 24, 2026 - Part 1

0:00The views and opinions expressed on analysed this are entirely those of the on-air participants and do not reflect those of the station's board, management, staff or underwriters. And good Thursday morning and welcome to another edition of Analyze This here on your NPO station in the US Virgin Homers WTJX FM 93.1, where you are surely level champs. So, had a very good show yesterday. Didn't realize as much as I've been playing out some music for the last 4 or 9 plus months that people in the Virgin Islands especially the elderly listeners, my age group,

1:06like the Latin music so much. Got a text message yesterday. We have family on St. Croix. Don't ask the airwrecks. Jose Eric. Crucia through and through. Dora. Lita. Ferubin. She's a cantano. They didn't know that never. Like you sell some music. Where you don't mind. You don't act like you've found porico. It is what it is man. I appreciate you listening. Thank you very much for looking out for your childhood friend man. We've got to party them by raffianos. House updates. Jenna cross. Diana via cross. Vanquido. Shang them.

2:13The good old days man. Leads 70s. All the 80s. One them back. So you know I got a son out of the decade. Right to the ladies or as I colloquially say to the woman them. And it's a tag song that we are using one of us, but then it's not a salsa neither. But it's a song for a band that group that love to spend time in the Virgin Islands back in the day. We met our group is Spirojira. So Louis. For town that they're given because they just steal pan in it. And some of the greatest panace of all time. The hang out here in the Virgin Islands man. No, sir. So this morning dance. Lita, cantano, man. And to the entire. And Rick family. And the cantano to Ruben.

3:21Benny. I actually know that we sit on an arm. We sit on it in so we are under savagia like them. Benny. The command to allow you man. Salita. You people you're causing text me when she didn't know I had the latino thing in my own army. But it is what it is. I'm a child of the grand combo. And a recent. To me, I live in Asia. I'm holding it against me. Africa music the calic. I carry the epmaligant. It's for the ladies man. One is increasing time I sing jammed VVI. Cool, Abra, B.A.K.S. Definitely Puerto Rico. You know what I'm saying? And of course, all the ladies with positive and less linkage. Who might be living on the mainland? I'm going to enjoy this. This one. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? This has to be a joy of a classic.

4:22Thank you, Mr. Beezy. You need to know how to tell the other business that we have to do to tell your own. That's a Mario Mario, no? I wanted to figure any Mario Mario by himself said music. Hey, you don't find that all the time.

6:35Yes. So let me pull up this thing. Let me tell you about this. This way, I have this attachment to this mirror. I say from the fact that I'm saying aside from the fact that it's a beautiful song. Right? The story goes that it traces back to a impromptu gay at a place in St. Thomas' call Barnacle built. Right? And they say the band had been operating in the Netherlands a number of times before, although in a far different venues from the 1200 seat right-hole center amphitheater. It played on St. Croix in 1988, 1989, and 1992.

7:42I'm in St. Thomas at the old Barnacle Bills in 88. So when I mentioned that with friend Frank, friend Frank, don't call me to give me the history. Right? And they said the Barnacle Bills, the Barnacle Bills gig wasn't exactly planned. Right? They said it went down to St. Thomas' and vacation, and we're going to rehearse new material that they were going to record. But Billy Grogan, who is Barnacle Bills owner, tracked them down and asked if they were coming and play and they said why not. Right? Phil Brennan, whose cross-eyed beard productions had managed by Roger from the start, said the band was unseen. Thomas for a couple of weeks long stays before that. Right? But his computer records go only go back to 88. And Beckhamstein, who's the leader for the band, said he has romantic memories of the islands first with a girlfriend later with his wife, the entertainment dynamics of playing and a funky laid-back little venue like Barnacle Bills

8:45are a lot different from those performing on stage at a large theater such as Raikol. Right? And he said part of me loves to play in a little place where people are right there. It kind of helps me be more of a human being. I'm really speaking to people I can see and I have to be very real. So I'm saying and the realness, you know, you get that in smaller venues and smaller locations like when you come to St. Thomas and St. Croix, you know what I'm saying? So we have an attachment that I'm glad that we use our song as one of our tags. Now yesterday I had sent a a song to Glenn by mistake. Then I said not yesterday, instead of we were dedicating I went into Salsa, right? But I like to play this particular song for Blinky to tease the great saxophones from Otter, St. Thomas and St. Jan that our saxman, the motor, Otter, sing, Cray, just as nice. I

9:53think I'm getting a better takemist one. I want to say just as nice. Right? Because, you know, while we learn our instrument, we learn it for good. So whenever you want, yeah man, bring it out one day and we can, we can dedicate this one to Elita, this one for mommy. Okay? Tell mommy, never. For time I'm floating in the raingate. The grand commune is for Jose, that's for daddy. Great. For this one is for mommy. Right? This Blinky and me were with masters. Right with my god, man, Adam. Right? And I'm a mommy girl like this one. Oh gosh, for the here that sax, the A-Will-Ed. Thanks a lot for coming up with this one, man. Tony Thomas, right, Mr. Um, this one, the music man. Yeah.

11:14Oh gosh, yeah, Blinky. I'm Judy Bontex, let me know. We all, we all have a better. Yeah. I just find something. So the Boston We eh Eh man, eh man, eh man. What? Start without him gon'-

12:43Here I've been getting with masters that are getting a lot of mummy emery and hope all as well wherever it may be. I just find out that today's Ivy Greenwich, Ivy Head for Inet Handman, Inet Handman, both of them. So I did tap and then I got to go and find out Franky Ruiz because she's a big Franky Ruiz fan. So happy about the Ivy, are we going to play? We're going to send out a Franky Ruiz song between now, the first candidate this morning and the candidate's pick, Josebés Gonzales and this Bianca Frank's, she don't come out about this time during the 9 o'clock hour. So we have number nine here in the studio candidate Josebés Gonzales, a Democratic candidate

13:47of a sign like a morning. Sir, when you're ready for an headphone so we can have a conversation and you can make your argument to the public as the way you should be considered for a vote for one of seven sounders representing the district as an inquiry in the 37 Legislature. Good morning, sir. How are you? Good morning. How are you doing? I'm good. So let me make a public apology to you. I'm a reader. I've been waiting to do this. You've been texting me, I've reached you know to me. One thing they get on the show for the longest and the reality is you ran as a Democrat, right? Yeah. We don't yet involved in the interviewing aspect of the campaign during the primary phase because we don't want all the parties to think that we'd be in bias to the Democratic party. That's the reason why that didn't work out. Okay. So I just wanted to apologize to you for that then. It was personal because we go way back over 50 years.

14:50Yeah, we bow on and all that stuff. So do my favorite introduce yourself to the public. We don't go far breaking a couple minutes and then we'll come back when you get into your platform. Yeah, my name is Jose Baseg on Zalas. I'm number nine on your ballot. I am a Democrat as you said before. You want me to give? Go ahead. Yeah, I was born and raised here. I'm saying, Kroy, you know, I went through my group in the water. I also moved to have a view. So I frequent the area around these premises. I attended the Parabilizing Elementary School along with Helena Christian, Central High. Did a quick stint in St. Joseph. You know, went to middle school in New York as well. New York City. Yeah. I went to school in Manhattan. And I came back down here. I guess for some reason I was wanting to come back home.

15:51But besides that, I am a father, a mentor. I'm a retiree. I retired in 2023. You graduated from high school last year? I graduated from St. High School. Just to high school? Yeah. I graduated from 1991. 91, okay. Yeah. You know, in high school, I said, try, add some good mentors like, you know, River, River, my locker. Yes. Still good friends up to today. It's a pleasure. I was seeing him whenever I see him. Craig, Jake, you have another one. Javis. Yeah, the main greens. Alvin. Yes. I was a great athlete. What was that basketball? Yeah. And many things sports, you know. Yeah. And then also a lot of people forget big conelias. That made me. Yeah. Yeah, Danny Conelias. Yes. He was the man before me. So lots of times. Yes. Yes. How are we? You know, my first set of mentors was Iceman. Iceman, I'm new to this.

16:51I agree. I'm a conelias. You know, even Chuck Knight, I keep telling people that he was a pitcher. I did. You know, I was a sportsman. A part of your work. Yes. I started, you know, what developed me and shaped me to the person I am today. And is what thrives and pushes me to, you know, deal with our young people here in all community and in all general as entirely, you know. What, why 2026, why you want to run? No, why why are you stepping up? No, I'm for some. For years. So there was a particular governor asked a question. What do you, you know, they were, he was answering other people's question in a barbershop and ask, what do you have planned for the youth? And his answer was once we fixed WAPA, everything will work, everything will work out, you know. This was like 12. I'm a good amount of years ago, right? I, I didn't appreciate the answer to that degree. And from there, I started studying politics. But politics and then I started seeing what I could do from my end when it comes to the

17:56young people. So year after year, when I was born, you know, the theme was always, when political season came up, the theme was always, we're going to do this for you. Then within the last 15 years, they put the youth to the side, they put families to the side, they put seniors to the side. And I've been absorbing and I don't know, absorbing the crimes I was going on, the different issues I've been going on. I'm plaguing our communities. When we stop you right there, here we go to break. I don't want to get into full flight. And then I got there to wrap you up. We got in on my name on the ballot for the 37 legislature district of St. Croix, Jose B. C. O'Gallers here on the candidate speak. We'll take a break, come back and get more into his platform and why he's offering himself to be to serve on behalf of the blue and Croyon of Virgin Islands. Be back right after this. Healthcare costs are continuing to rise.

19:07Bank of St. Croy offers health savings accounts and individuals enrolled in qualifying high deductible health plans. HSAs provide a way to set aside pre-tax funds for qualified medical expenses, such as doctor visits, prescriptions, and other eligible health care costs. Contributions may be made by account holders, employers, or others on behalf of the account holder. Accounts may be opened with a minimum deposit of $25, earn interest over time, and our FDIC insured. Bank of St. Croy offers health savings accounts through its local banking centers and online. More information is available at bankofsaintcroy.com. Bank of St. Croy, member FDIC. And here's Heather with the weather. Well, it's beautiful out there, sunny, and 75, almost a little chilly in the shade. Now let's get a read on the inside of your car.

20:10It is hot. You've only been parked a short time and it's already 99 degrees in there. Let's not leave children in the back seat while running errands. It only takes a few minutes for their body temperatures to rise, and that could be fatal. Cars get hot fast and can be deadly. Never leave a child in a car. A message from Nitsa and the ad council. Travel in soon? What are your vacation and a visit in family? You might have a special food you want to take with you. Just remember food containing pork and nut enter any part of the US, or even travel between the mainland and the US, Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico. That's because pork and curry are African-Swan fever. A virus has harmless to humans, but deadly to the pigs we rely on for food. To have stopped the spread, don't part pork when you travel. You can learn more at www.usda.gov. That's www.usda.gov. We're back here.

21:23I'm Alexis, the candidate speaker and candidate. On the mic this morning is Mr. Jose Bessigonzales, a Democratic candidate to the 37-legist teacher. Good morning once again. Morning again. You were talking that you are not only a basketball player throughout sports, but you also coach. Yeah, I'm a coach. So you coach young people so you have a natural affinity for looking out for them. What you're saying that you found out that it wasn't just a coach, I mean, the young people that were being ignored. No, it wasn't just a young people. It was families in general. When we talk about family, when we grew up, the structure of family was the youth, the parent and the grandparents. And at this point, from what I've been absorbing for the last several years, is that every young people, the youth, have been pushed behind.

22:25Families have been pushed behind in the back seat. And the focus has not been on that. The focus has been on the same situation, the same issues that play us today, which is costs are living, WAPA, et cetera, and health care. And these issues mostly WAPA has been our own forever and hasn't been fixed or solved or anything. But no one is, everybody's back the way from families, youth, our seniors. And I've been seeing that for a while. And when you want to talk about why what's going on here is because we're not focusing on some of the issues, which is families, and especially our youth. So your, the foundation for your platform is what? Because I don't want to speak for you. It is what? My foundation is putting our youth, our families forward. My platform is based on our youth, especially mental illness, because families go through that.

23:25A lot of families are going through that. A lot of people don't understand. There's a beginning stage to mental illness, which is depression, and et cetera. And then our seniors, you know, so that's my platform right there. And I feel that I want to be a part of bringing that back. I'm putting everyone back in where they need to be when in regards to, you know, striving here on St. Croix. No, no, the primary responsibilities for Senator are as follows. Working legislation to make for better quality of life here in the Virgin Islands. Set in spending limits for the executive branch because of the legislatures. Authority to actually determine how much money is to be expanded by each branch of government, including the legislature, exercising oversight. Right? And reaching out to your constituents. And in fact, they are looking for some support in certain areas.

24:26So with mental illness, being a main part of your platform and looking out for families, those four tenants that I'm talking about, are you going to be using the legislative process to address these areas that you have articulated as your foundation? Oh, definitely. Of course, you know, in order to make things happen, you got to be able to work together with your constituents and so forth. And for me, even right now, you know, it's trying to find funding. Funding is a big issue. But when it comes to you, when it comes to my platform and everything that I'm covering, there is funding. You know, when you talk about legislation, we have a lot of bills out there. We have a lot of outdated bills, you know, a part of, you know, what, what, what, what, what I want to do is revisit some of these bills and start to amend and then start to, you know, make sure that they apply to today's way of delivering. You mean laws and statutes?

25:27Yes, exactly. Yes. Okay. Sorry. And so for me, I can see the incorporation and using my platform and what I'm dealing with too. I'm working alongside my constituents to be able to provide better health, better health care, more opportunities for our young people and our families. So there's a lot still to be learned. But yes, bring in my passion, my honesty and my experience dealing with the community, dealing as a service, providing a service for the community for the last 20 plus years and also working as a correction officer and a you, you are at Golden Grove and the re absent, I think those qualities are going to help me in working alongside and being able to put forward, you know, legislation and anything else I needed, that's needed. No, today is the 24th. We were five days removed from when Irma hit us back nine years ago, right?

26:30That was September 19th, 2017 and we're going to our protracted recovery. I asked this question for every candidate. If you have to grade the recovery on a scale of one to 10, one being poor, 10 being excellent, what would your number be? numerical grade. Since then, it's been very poor. So I would say numerically, I would say three. Everybody, I don't know if they might, my engineering realized that, but the majority of it, the, the, the, the answer is three. Well, if there's one thing we got uniformity on, right? And a some say it's higher, some say lower, but the majority of the answer, the number is three, three, four. So, yeah. And so you're so and white, white, three based on what you've seen and what you haven't seen. You know, when you, when you study other areas and so forth, that was affected by, you know, you got the time, you got the Roger and I was put a Rico got a touch as well.

27:31But I'm for the funding that we received to be able to bring back this our community, the Virgin Islands, the money hasn't been dealt with or spent properly or has been basically, they haven't been transparent with how the fundings are being used. And to me, going back out with the Hugo, Hugo took some months to recover, but we recovered a lot better than this recovery and this, uh, uh, Maria received more funding and we received way more funding. And for, to see that the islands are still in this, um, the, the, the way it is now, to me, it hasn't been any improvements, lack of improvement. And then, uh, even so, everything has dropped, every department, every area that you want to, you know, cause that should have been dealt with through the funding received or given, um, has, has just been down.

28:33It had, we haven't seen any improvement to me that anywhere else that there has received, would have received this money, you would have seen improvements, um, by far, you know, so that's one of why reasons why, um, you know, I give you, I give a three. No, you mentioned WAPA earlier, um, what is it about WAPA that you believe or you've experienced that you, you believe we aren't giving it the, the focus that it needs to actually get us out of this energy crisis? Um, well, I wouldn't say we are not giving it the focus. The focus is on WAPA. I think WAPA's transparency and, um, they're, they're not being transparent with the people, they're not being transparent with the legislature or the government. Um, and I think WAPA has a lot, they, they, they have a plan in place, um, but yet, it's maybe 75% of the people don't know their plan, you know, and I think if transparency

29:35was there, you would have a better, um, better, um, understanding of what WAPA is dealing with. Um, WAPA also, um, of course, they, they always claiming funding, they, they need more money and power to bridge need more money power to, you know, um, infrastructure is definitely an issue that needs to be dealt with, but WAPA is gained attention, it's just that in return, there's not enough transparency or accountability when it comes to WAPA. So you're saying WAPA's problem is internal, WAPA problem? It is a internal WAPA problem and it's an executive problem because the, the executive branch is who assigns who's on the board. And if who's on the board, especially those that are getting paid highly are not being transparent or are not fixing the issue or at least, you know, leveling up the issue, then, you know, we have a problem there. Cost of living in the territory. That's a big issue right now. What's your take on that? I'm the cost of living again. We go back to WAPA. We definitely, if we could get some

30:40WAPA dealt with in a in a court and manner, then the bills a lot of businesses will be able to be operational. It'll be able to hire more people. The more people you have employed, the more people, you will have to pay into the system and so forth. And so not only that tourism, you know, we have to be a little more innovative. We have to think outside the box. I think one of the key things islands like Puerto Rico and the city of Orlando is doing is sports tourism. Sports tourism is big anywhere. You know, if we could start attracting, we are a diversion islands in St. Croix in particular, we host every sport, almost every sport possible cricket, soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis. If we could start having this, or pushing this island and diversion islands in a sports tourism part, and you know, type of thing, we would see more revenues coming in. I also believe in agritourism. That's something that we have to educate the people more on. But also when it comes

31:47to cost of living, if we start helping a pushing agriculture, in which, you know, there's vision in 2040 in which we're at 3% of production and want to reach to 35% of production. If we could start really emphasizing on our agriculture because we have the land for that, you know, we start teaching our young people. We need, we will be able to produce food for not only to trans, not only to export, but to be able to our schools, our hospitals, you know, on these different areas will be able to buy from our supermarkets. Now, they don't have to buy away. They could buy purchase, you know, food and, you know, different things here from the agriculture department, or, you know, individuals that are farm, farm farmers. So I think those are some of the issues that we need. We definitely need to grow the blue economy. You know, the blue economy is a big thing. Why are we on an island and not more engaging with the blue economy and also educating our young people on the blue economy, you know, is so many things there that we have a wave of

32:51things that we could push forward that would help our economy and help the cost of living and help the betterment of people here on St. Crayon, the Virgin Islands. You are, Rand, in the, in the, you chose to run as a Democrat. I'm not run as an independent, which we're daring to you to be on the ballot in November. You've always been a lifelong Democrat. Why did you take that road? Why did you run as a Democrat and want to be a part of the numerical, the dominant numerical force in politics and the Virgin Islands? So initially I started a Democrat when I was young and then I didn't like some of the things that I went, became an independent, in reference to, well, at least mentally for sure, I didn't feel, I wasn't, you know, agreeing in certain things, you know, and so I decided to become a Democrat or run as a Democrat because I want to be a voice. I don't, I want to be the voice for our young people, for our families and from the studies and from watching what's going on as a Democrat, you know, high percentage

33:57of the challenge, you'll be a part of the majority once you get in. I don't want to be a senator to be called just a senator. I want to be able to produce. I want to be able to, you know, be able to do what I see I want to do and as independent, there's some senators or incumbents that can do it because they already experienced, they're loud and they have knowledge and the people back in them. I wanted to, I chose to be a Democrat because I wanted to be able to do the job. I wanted to be able that it once I got elected and that's where the primary comes in. If the primary comes in and you don't let me then you don't want me and I could understand and like, I'll live with that. But I once, you know, I'm, which I was chosen one of the seven. My whole goal is, you know, I want to be a part of the majority. I want to have a committee. I want to be able to produce for our people and you can do that as a rookie independent. I personally don't, I didn't see that. No, no, no, no, respect that, respect that. No, um, so talk about that process. You out there talking with the, with the constituents,

34:59is voter apathy real are people turned off by the electoral process based on what you're seeing. When you, I want you to go up to them and say, um, my name is Jose Basing on Salas. I'm running for office. What was the response you were getting in general from those who didn't know you number one and for those who knew you but didn't know you have political aspiration? It's just a lot of mixed feelings. Um, you know, not just basically towards me, but towards the party. Um, there's a lot of people that are, there's several people that I encounter that are not fans of the party, but they're fans or they, they believe in my mission, they believe in what I believe in and that's our young people, families and our seniors. So, especially I keep pushing our young people because we, if we give our young people more opportunities, if we teach our young people, um, the things that's needed to thrive in life, then we have better communities and when we have better communities, right? We have better families, we have better communities, we have less crime and then we, you know,

36:03so for me, the encounter with the people is like, um, we're for our, we're for the young people, we for your thoughts and your, and what you're thinking about. And, um, so I've gotten some good positive, you know, answers are in my, but there, there are a lot of frustrated voters out there, a lot. They're not, um, they're not happy with how things are being run and how things haven't been run within the last several years. No, um, I've been in the political arena myself from the naked eye. The, the atmosphere, yeah, man, I appreciate that. Thank you very much, you know, it's that, yeah, put that on the record. Yo, I appreciate that. Um, I, I asked this question, it looks quiet out there politically. Is it because the, the, the dollars simply aren't there for you to actually campaign because cost of living is so high because everywhere everybody I talk to individually or in a group conversation, oh, they're quiet. Is that really what, what's going on? Because I'm not campaigning.

37:07It's like, yeah, I'll shoot. Yeah. I don't think it's quiet. I'm working seven days a week twice on Sunday, you know, um, so I don't think it's quiet. Um, you know, I think, um, a lot of the energy was given, um, from the democratic side because that's where, you know, it, um, led to the primary. I really don't think it's quite there. Our people out there, the issue is, and I'm sorry to say is that, um, some of the other, um, aspirants are not pushing as they should if they really wanted, you know, the Democrats, I'm sorry, I don't want to separate anything, but I don't think it's quiet. And I can't speak for everyone, but I know that there's just, you're seeing the same individuals trying their best out out there. And but there's 24 or 25 in the senatorial for the legislature. 24. So you would expect more noise, but you're, so when you're seeing the same individuals, then, you know, for me, if you're out there, um, during the day, when you have the retirement

38:12parties, you're there, when you have these, these things going on during the day, we're out there. We're talking with, uh, Jose, basic Gonzalez, he's on my name on the ballot, seeking a seat to be one of the seven senators representing the district of St. Croix in the 37th legislature of the Virgin Islands will take a break and be back right after this here on the county of this if you think it's hot outside, the interior of park vehicles are even hotter. Children can die from heatstroke after being mistakenly left in a car. This can happen when there's a change in the team. Make it a habit to place your phone or bag

39:14next to the child's car seat. Park, look, then lock. If you see a child alone in a car, call 911 immediately. This message was brought to you by the Virgin Islands Office of Highway Safety. The PBS NewsHour has a rich legacy of in-depth reporting and strong storytelling. Only four people have sat in that chair before us, and the enormity of this moment is not lost on me. People turn to us because they know they can hear from trusted sources of information and news. That will change a bit even as the pace is behind the desk change. Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Omnitna Vaz. Weekdays at 7pm on WTJX TV, Channel 12. WTJX is underwritten in part by Cost U Less. Your local warehouse retailer offering a wide variety of grocery items, bulk size everyday essentials, and household necessities to run your home or business, located at 4300 Sion Farm, Christianstead 3407194442 or costuless.com.

40:23Cost U Less is proud to support public media in the Virgin Islands. When we pursue only convenience, we miss those hidden connectors that give our lives meaning. But nearly anything can show up to our doorstep with just a few clicks. What's the point of pursuing something more challenging? This is a show that celebrates the people around us that haven't taken the convenient road to where they are. And they remind me that life's meaning often comes in the pursuit of simple pleasures. I'm Georgia Pellegrini, and this is Modern Pioneering. We're back here on Analyzer. The candidate speaking, the candidate on the mic this morning is

41:30on, we'll say it, we'll say Gonzales. Candidate number 9 seeking a seat to the legislation for morning once again. Good morning. Candidate Gonzales. So, quickly, because you mentioned you did a stint in New York. How long have you been in New York for? What grades? What grades you did in New York? I've been in New York and it was 6th grade and then I went to 8th grade in New York. You said that happened? In 1999. At first I've been in New York. Oh, you had an e-save. Okay, okay, okay. I got a sauce puff in there. Everybody knows I was born in New York. A lot of us were born in New York. I'm back in the 60s and all that stuff. So, what I mentioned, that was cool. So, you come back home. So, you were actually here during Hurricane, you go? Yeah. All right. You graduate in 91. 91. What did you do after that? I attended Albany State College, which is no Albany State University. That was in Georgia.

42:31Okay. Yeah. Played in the baller on Albany State? I had to register at my first year. Okay. But I only went the first year. I played there. I practiced with the team. I trained with the team and everything, but I couldn't play that particular year. And then my mom, I kind of, a part of missing saying, Kroy, but my mom needed my help because we had two other siblings. She herself was ill at the time. And so, I'm disabled. So, I left college to come back home. You did the right thing. Yeah. You went to work for the Department of Corrections, a Department of Economic Home? Yeah. So, I played for different jobs throughout the time after I left college and so forth. Just wasn't in 2000. I applied. I took the test and I became a correction officer at the Golden Grove Facility. And then I did five and a half years there. And then from there, I went to the rehabilitation center, YRC. And I did 19 years there. And at the same time, it's where when I

43:34was working at the Ureab Center, I used to always coach because what really prompted me to coach was growing up in half of you. We had two years of coach, but there were no other coaches when the when the younger side decided at 17, 18, 19 to start a coaching within the neighborhood. I had my own, I created my own league within the heart of your neighborhood and Golden Rock. And so, you know, I became the correction officer. And then I worked at YRC and I created my own. All the time, I still coaching, traveling to St. Thomas with the young kids. You know, with the young children. And then I created positive guidance in 2006. And that from there is where, you know, positive guidance. I really wanted something in which our young people could be able to just create a positive atmosphere for our young people. No, no, however, if you had two stints, however, you had a kaya stint and however, you had a gay dance thing. You were with a gay dance window. Yes, the kaya stint was a, yeah, that was before my time.

44:40Let me mind you well. And Juni Peters and Oliver and Sam Kerr back in the day. Yes, big, big. And then you were Sunil. You were with the Sunil. Sunil, come on, yes, come on. Sunil Charles, all that stuff, right? Yes, Sunil, Charles. Five or five or five? Five or five? Five or five? Five or five? Five or five? I win the championship. We won, we ended up winning our championship. I ensure not that year. No, but no, no, no, no. So you know what competitions are, the competition aspect of politics. You like that, you like that? I'm built for that. And then the five years and the five years and Golden Grove wasn't no easy thing. That tougher drop. It tough in me out. It taught me not to provide, not to bring like when I saw certain things happening in there, it, you know, Golden Grove taught me that, you know, if you start doing for the inmates in a negative way, the reaction and what you're going to get back is not going

45:41to be what it's up for me. It just taught me to be tough. It taught me to say no more often than I've ever said no before and do the right thing, you know. Let me ask this question. Since you work in the in the Golden Grove correction for cities in John Bell, for city, right? I said, yes. And you work in YRC. It is rehabilitation real. Or we just into incarcerating and holding them are are they better? Are they rehabilitated after the stint? Or is recidivism the reason is re lack of rehabilitation? Why recidivism is what it is right now? That is such a good question. Well, you're out of good show. I mean, that has been dear to my heart, man. I know people are not recognizing their steps to what's going on out here when it comes to crime, you know. And I would tell you this, you know, in my time

46:41at Golden Grove, Golden Grove is producing slightly more rehabilitation, right? Then the your rehabilitation center, you know, now I can't speak on Golden Grove, but I know they're still doing a slight more when it comes to trying to get our get the image back into society as productive citizen. And sometimes you do see it. And but for me, one of my biggest thing once I gain as a senator and analyst, I want to be able to find ways to revitalize the rehabilitation center. And what people fail to understand is that with the rehabilitation center, at this current moment, our family judge doesn't trust or doesn't have faith in the rehabilitation center. The family judge you're talking about. Yes. Okay. And since 2021, I've seen and heard a lot of juvenile arrests, over 120 juvenile arrests and you would have like two being centers, the rehab center, they're being sent back home. And one of the issues I had with that was if they, if they committed a crime and

47:46then you sent them back home and they committed another crime, you sent them back home, what message are you sending? Because we got to understand this generation is different. They manipulate in the words, they manipulate in the bold words as well. So we think that by sending them back home, we're going to fix them, you know, where the issue has probably started at home. But then the trust in the rehabilitation, which is not rehabbing at this time, working there. And even now, they're not rehabilitating our young people. How our young people should be rehabilitated. I think there's more that could be done. I think the curriculum needs to be revamped. I think we need to and implement more when it comes to mental illness. We need to add more trades. So these young, education is there. But at what, you know, to me, education could be improved as well. So the revitalization of the rehabilitation center is one of my things that I want to bring forward and I want to find a way to help because if we could curve and we don't have to use the

48:46utilization as a detention or every time someone commits a young person commits a crime, we could use it as also that if that young child is not being able to be handled at home, the school system can go at school, they can't handle the keep getting in trouble at home, they're not paying attention at home, they're misbehaving at school. Then this is where a true rehabilitation center would come in and be able to help change the mind structure of this young person and be able to rehabilitate them in the ways that they is needed for them to be rehabilitated and put back into society. As good productive citizen. No, one of my piece, and it isn't about me, it's about the candidate, I'm asking about it, literacy. I believe literacy is one of the reasons why some of the young people are struggling, not all. And when we grew up, there wasn't an internet. By the time we graduated 91 internet came about three or four years after that, the library was an area that we

49:49were, we went to, it taught us a number of different things, but it did something in addition to a setting for us to read it actually dealt with our discipline. What's your take on us potentially using our libraries as a means of getting our young people to understand a certain structure and discipline? I am for our libraries, it's just of course we need to update our libraries in reference to not only books alone. And I think it's the process is there and it's becoming. I think we need to go back to that traditional way of having our young people, you know, be a part of the libraries. I think we need to push, I'm not fully sure, but we need to push our project to the library as well. You know, you know, I don't hear enough or a lot being spoken about the library in Fredrick's dead. We need to incorporate our schools, somehow our schools and the libraries need to have some, you know, I'm working together to be able to have our young people,

50:51you know, be either dropped off to the library and then have that as an outsource after school program, like it was back in the days, although we didn't call it after school program, we went to the library for resources and we need to bring that back. You know, we definitely need to bring it back. When it comes to literacy, you know, I speak to my young, because with my organization, I do it over 100 kids a year, you know, sometimes two or a half positive guy that's your club. And at this current moment, you know, I'm speaking to them about, especially my nine graders, I'm like, listen, the statistics show that Matt, in nine grade, I just spoke to someone, just one of my players, you're reading out, or your Matt is from fifth to seventh grade level. If you're bringing to my organization a 75, you are failing, you know, and I tell them, I don't want to see a 75, I need you to push, I need it to push harder, because you know, you're already behind when it comes to them, what the standard, you know, they're saying Matt and reading, fifth to

51:54six, fifth to seven. So if you're getting a 80, I mean, imagine it, like someone, I got a 93, you got a 93 at its seven grade, maximum level, and you're in nine grade. That's unacceptable, you know, and we need to understand that that moves a long way. From what I've researched, especially, let's say with UVI, right? Over 75% of our public school students that transition to UVI when they take the entrance exam. I'm going to high school graduates. Yes, the graduate, yes, public school graduates, and then they go on to UVI or 10 UVI or any college, but you vary specifically. Around 60 to 75% of them have to take the remedial courses. What does that say? Like, you know, they're going to, you know, higher learning, but they're still not at the level that they're supposed to be. I was setting up our children for failure. So we need to somehow emphasize and work on our children and education and being able to raise the standard so that they could be at the

52:54level that's needed. So if they do decide to go to higher learning, they don't have to take these remedial courses. And that's a problem that I have, you know, right now with education system. One of the things that we need to suggest to children is self-teaching. A lot of, well, I use the right word, very successful people over the years are self-taught. You're not going to learn everything that you learn in the classroom setting. You know, I was when you leave class and you go home, there's nothing wrong with picking up a encyclopedia or picking up a book and reading and then, you know, educating yourself, you know. So that's how you thrive. I had a problem when I was in school. I remember when I was in biology, 10th grade, and my my teacher said, you know, never when it was pretty young, keep talking the same don't, don't say very so. You'll never, when you take notes, it isn't just to take the notes so that to night before the test, you could cram because you know, you have an exam in the morning. When you take notes, it's actually to go home and study the notes. You know, I'm saying it's about a habitual

53:54thing. So maybe those are the, that's one area where we could get where young people to be more understanding of what the educational process is. That's just me, you know, I'm saying. And I hear what you're saying and that's a... I'm not making an excuse for any of that. I'm just saying that maybe sometimes it's your habits. You know, you got to ask where I play it. You know, you got to put in the work. Yeah, you got to put in the work and I tell our young, you know, children all the time you got to put in the work. But also just like you, I always tell my, my, my, my, yeah, I got to provide them with the resources. Yeah. And I always tell my players, you don't get better at coming to my practice. You get better when you're with yourself and you're putting in the work and yourself. You're worth nothing. But where does that start? Again, a lot of times we, everyone wants to blame the government for all the issues we have. A lot of these issues start at home. When we, you know, our families and these parents and I know we do have a lot of single parent. I was raised in a single parent household, you know, and I was determined to not be, you know, like, you know, like my, my dad, you know, he left whatever the case is. I knew

54:58from what I learned in my neighborhood, I wanted to thrive to be better than what I was and I did that, you know. And so for me, it starts at home, you have to be able as a parent and understand that you're busy, but you have to be as a parent to be able to teach your young, your child, some of these basic necessities because for them to thrive, if you really want, you know, because in the government, we want to be able, my whole approach is family oriented. So if I, my child, my son, what I want the best for my son is what I want the best for our government. We have to carry that approach, that family approach, those values we have to carry. And I'm carrying with me within government so we could be able to push, you know, our young people. So it starts at home. The regular reading, somebody's parents don't even check the homework of their children. So at time, you know, we have to also hold ourselves accountable as parents, you know, to why our child hasn't been like selling or where they're at at this moment. Put up both time and your appearance

55:59here on the candidate's peak and tell the people your name, number, and why you should be considered to be one of the seven standards representing St. Croix in the 37 legislature to provide an ask. My name is Jose Basic Gonzalez. I'm number 99. You're about it. Come this November 3rd, generally election. The reason I'm asking and requesting of your vote is because I am here to support families, to support you, to bring back families to where they need to be. I am someone that has served the people for over 37 years, which in the last 20 years, I've served within, you know, the correction facility and the rehabilitation center. I've dealt with you. I've been a civil servant in the community. I am a mentor and for me, I feel that my honesty, my passion to bring families back to the forefront, to bring our young people, to bring more opportunities for our young people. You know, I feel that I'm the right person to push our people forward.

57:01Our elders need help. You know, at this particular moment, there's not even a center in Fredricksefer, our elders. You know, these things I want to bring to to the attention of the people and that's my reason for wanting to run for Senate and be an ex-Senator. Name number Jose Basic Gonzalez, number nine on the ballot. Thank you very much for joining us on the Canada speak. Thank you. You look with the campaign. Thanks. You're welcome to see you. We'll take a break and be back right after this. The views and opinions expressed on analyze this are entirely those of the on-air participants and do not reflect those of the station's board management staff or underwriters. Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Join me on my new season of Joseph

58:05Rosando Stepaná, where from Cuba to Malaysia and from Iceland to Taiwan. I explore these destinations and more on my lifelong quest to celebrate our planet's natural treasures, amazing people and cultural bishops. To an insider news at 230 PM on WTJKTV, Channel 12. They were partners in crime who had one hell of a ride. They are really cut from a different cloth. They don't leave bodies in their wake. The true story of the last legendary Western outlaws. When they're gone, the law of West has gone. Which Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Fune in September 15 at 9pm on WTJKTV, Channel 12.