COVER STORY
Above: Governor Albert Bryan, Jr., presides over a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the modernization of the Virgin Islands Port Authority.
of legislation signed that's going to fix our public employees’ pension system. This problem has been around for the last, at least 30–40 years. People have been talking about the system go- ing defunct and all these people who would suffer as a result. We came across a solution to this and we finally got the Legislature to agree with it. So, we're embarking and this is huge. I mean, this is 30–40 years in the mak- ing. In fixing this, we settled lawsuits that were 30 years old. That was huge for me. I think that was the quintes- sential accomplishment of my adminis- tration. We have had many.
is the 'Lord is my shepherd I shall not want' and the other one is, 'I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.' And, I really believe that. You know that when you're taken to your limit in terms of being tested, and you see what it can be, then you know what you have in you. I liken that, now, to my darkest day with the Coronavirus. You know, like the other decisions are easy now. When you make decisions based on people's lives. We have a very small community and they told me in the first three months, 200 people would die. We're two years into the pandemic, almost to the date and our numbers are far fewer —much better than the original estimates. I don't think there's any place in the Caribbean that has done as well as we have. We're number one in every demographic in terms of [managing the impact of] COVID in the Virgin Islands. And then, because we dealt with it so well, our tour- ism product has really boomed over the last two years. We saw all kinds of people come. Especially, a lot of African Americans for the first time. So, that's another huge accomplish- ment. If you ask anybody in the street in the Virgin Islands, they'll tell you
'the governor has done an excellent job with COVID.' There's no political discussion or debate in that matter. And, I always remind people that because we managed that so well, everything else was able to con- tinue. And yes, we have had delays but nothing like what the rest of the world has experienced.
Dealing with COVID-19
"The main thing about COVID is because we're such a small space, we just follow the numbers. Being an economist, numbers make sense to me. And, we tracked the virus, where it was coming in, how was being disseminated, and then we just made the cut-off points. We made a big push to get all the people that are dealing with you from outside the territory, to get vaccinated. We were the first place in the country that had vaccinations open to everyone. People were fly- ing in on jets to get it. We were the first place in the country to imple- ment: No Mask, No Service. Our people are very disciplined because we always deal with disasters and hurricanes. So, the people really enforced it on themselves."
Preparing to Lead
What prepared me most? I think being the Commissioner of Labor, when I took that job actually took a pay cut and decided that if I wanted to be governor, I needed to see what running a government looked like. So, I have to say, that prepared me the most. But, if I have to say any- thing in life that really has prepared me for life the most, and this is going to sound cliche, but I after I crossed those burning sands after nine weeks, there's nothing I could not do. I know one of the questions was, what is my mantra? Like, I have two. One of them
THE JOURNAL ♦ SUMMER 2022 | 27
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