The younger generation took centre stage at the Progressive Labour Party's Founder's Day celebrations yesterday.

'Planting Seeds of Success' was the theme of this year's event, which marked the 45th year of the Party. MPs, Senators, PLP members and families joined Premier Dr. Ewart Brown at the Hamilton Princess to celebrate the founders' legacy.

This year's event, however, also focused on youth, with Thaao Dill — Bermuda's youngest Senator — acting as Master of Ceremonies, and Richard Tucker, a 17-year-old Saltus Grammar School student, making the Keynote address.

Sanae Russell, CedarBridge Academy head girl, gave the Welcome, while Bermuda Institute pupil Ryan Robinson read the Blessing and Thanksgiving Prayer and Glenn Simmons, a Sandys Secondary Middle School student, officially thanked the Speaker.

The Premier said: "The name of the Party indicates our intent to be progressive and you can't be progressive unless you have an active youth sector in your Party."

In his Keynote speech, Mr. Tucker said it was up to the younger generation to take the Party forward. "The seeds have been planted and the trees are growing," he said. "It is up to the young people of Bermuda to be the fruit of this harvest. We must continue in the footsteps of our founding fathers and continue to move Bermuda forward."

The teenager stressed the importance of family values over technology, which he said was making the community more "isolated".

He said he also wanted to see more Bermudian black history taught and that he felt the only way the country would become more united was through Independence.

In paying tribute to PLP founders Wilfred Mose Allen, Hugh Rio Richardson, Albert Peter Smith, Edward DeJean, Walter N.H. Robinson, Austin Wilson and Dilton C. Cann, Mr. Tucker said: "They were men with different backgrounds but were driven by one common goal and interest, which was to see the working class thrive and a new vision for Bermuda.

"As a teenage student, I feel that I serve a different purpose here today. We have seen seeds of success planted and harvested, but where do we go from here? What is the next step in our journey to becoming a unified country? During this month of February we celebrate Black History Month.

"I feel its my duty to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"I will do so by quoting him on what he believes is the way forward. Dr. King once said: 'If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values — that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.'

"In today's society it is a concern that as young people we lack these precious values and moral foundations. In most cases they were given to us. Values like the importance of family and dinner at the family table.

"I am thankful and grateful that I can do this almost very night. It's values like helping out a neighbour with their groceries or something around the house; values such as giving back to society and putting others first.

"It's seeds like these that truly attribute success.

"So why do some young people lack these precious values? As a young person, I see how television and electronics are taking over our minds and daily living patterns.

"We rely on technology-enhanced entertainment, when all the entertainment we need is right in front of us — family, friends, community centres, youth groups, it's all there. As society advances, generation after generation we are becoming more isolated as a community.

"Turn the television off. Educate your children on what we have talked about today."

Mr. Tucker added: "Mark Pettingill (UBP MP for Warwick West) says that the Progressive Labour Party is indoctrinating our young people. Asked about disbanding the UBP, Mr. Pettingill said: 'It is something to be candidly considered because what the PLP will do is poison the minds of young people with speeches like Ms Lovitta Foggo made in St. David's so 14-year-olds will obviously vote nothing but PLP at the next election. It is a sad reflection of what we have come to.'

"I hope Mr. Pettingill was not suggesting we should just forget about our scars of the past. Should we not educate our children about a key piece of Bermuda history? Should we stop teaching the efforts of our forefathers to end slavery, racism, segregation, and discrimination? It is our duty and our right to express to our children where we have come from, to let them know where we intend to go.

"Our history has made us who we are today. Our history is the late Dame Lois Browne Evans, L. Frederick Wade, Dame Jennifer Smith, Eugene Cox and many more political pioneers and veterans. It would be an insult to their achievements and hard work, if we just bury them in the past.

"They are seeds of success. They are a part of the new harvest, they are the Progressive Labour Party. We are the Progressive Labour Party. We must unite the country in a time of evident division.

"I believe that we cannot fully unite this country until Independence is achieved. I stand behind the Party constitution 100 percent. In order to fully experience nationalism and unity we must take a huge step toward Independence, which, when the time is right, will come."

Mr. Tucker, of Hamilton Parish, said he wants to pursue a career in law, but admitted his ultimate ambition is to become Premier.

He already has a family legacy in Bermudian politics — his great-grandfather was Dr. E.F. Gordon, and Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, Deputy Opposition Leader, is his great-aunt.

"Eventually I would like to become Premier, that's my main goal because from a young age I've always wanted to give back to others," he said.

Expanding on his response to Mr. Pettingill's comments on the "indoctrination" of youth, Mr. Tucker added: "I don't agree that the PLP is persuading people to vote for the Party. It's their parents who are educating them about history and segregation and racial discrimination is part of our history.

"We can only educate our children about what happened in our past and let them make their own minds up. That is what I have done — I have read a lot and decided I wanted to support the PLP."