Dear Sir,

Your Opinion page on October 25 was disturbing because both your opinion piece and the Letter to the Editor by Robert J. Baron on the same page both addressed and underscored the tragedy of the black community: the disintegration of the black Community initiated by the introduction of party politics, which, ironically, left the white community united.

You write “ ... to cater to some MPs’ self-serving interests rather than those of the wider community”. It is unfortunate if David Burt did not follow the appropriate protocol, but both the results of the last election and subsequent polls have made it clear that the Progressive Labour Party leadership does not have the confidence of the black community — no doubt for very good reason.

Before party politics, when we saw ourselves as a coherent and unified black community with a common history, a common experience of segregation and injustice and a common desire and struggle for justice for all, our black MPs represented our common purpose and our common interest because we were united.

Our black men turned their anger and frustration at our unjust society, against an oppressive establishment and not against each other.

But with the political divide and the disintegration of the black community, they see no struggle to address our second-class status. Look around you.

But blacks turning on each other is not limited to the “murderous gangs”.

The AME Church, to which a very large percentage of the black community gives its allegiance — for a very good reason.

It was there to give significance and support to those in the black community when we were overtly seen as subhuman and “nobodies”.

The contribution of the AME Church to the existence and development of the black community cannot be overestimated and its contribution has often been enhanced by American-born leadership.

The betrayal by one of their own, which could not have happened without the political divide within the black community, as a result of party politics, is a matter of concern. Not only for the members of the AME Church, but for the entire black community. It is such a clear symbol of the contempt in which we are held and also of our failure to have made any progress since the Progressive Group and the Committee for Universal Adult Suffrage.

If there is an ordained AME minister in search of an opportunity, there is no doubt one can be found without this betrayal and attack on someone who is only a little less Bermudian than they are. The churches that have come together in prayer for the Reverend Nicholas Tweed need to stay together for the divide and disintegration of the black community, which is so devastating for all of us in so many ways.

EVA N. HODGSON