#TempeTantrumr

St John, USVI, hotbed of #shutdown protest?

So it would seem, however unlikely.

Our fair island is about 70% National Park land.  Our tourism industry depends largely on operations and concessions inside the park – everything from taxi tours to boat charters, from snorkeling trips to beach weddings.  Visitors come from near and far, both domestic and abroad, to sit on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Most of all, people visit for a chance to breathe, relax, and let the rest of the world fall away for a little while.

Yesterday, all of that changed.  When Congress allowed partisan politics to prevent them from reaching an agreement to fund the government, a long list of government programs and agencies were immediately shut down, including the National Park system within the Department of the Interior.  In the Virgin Islands this left some 65 employees furloughed until further…