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He delivered a message of inclusion not exclusion, he asked not to separate or reward or recognise one against the other but to unite and make the world a better place. This half white, half black American penetrated way beyond our prejudices, his message and his style took us beyond his colour and united us in a vision. He asked us, can we be different, can we work together, can we emerge from our own historical baggage and be different and, at least his supporters who came from all segments of American society, came back with a single, exciting and dynamic answer. At least in those moments, they, like us were impassioned to reply, yes we can.

So let me return to my earlier theme. To those of you who sought to package me and define me because of my historical baggage, I hope I have proved you wrong. For those of you who sought to label me, I am not PLP, I am not UBP, I am fiercely and passionately, Bermudian. I will continue to serve if asked if I think I can contribute to Bermudians.

And I believe the following:

I believe that if we can but put aside, for a moment, those things that separate us, we will discover that there are many, many more things that can unite us. That if we can, discard our historical prejudices, our inherent thinking, our hates, our dislikes and our rush to judgment, then we, as Bermudians, can solve these issues. But we must do so based on reality and honesty. At the risk of evoking even further wrath, let me say a couple of more truths to me:

I believe that one of the fundamental challenges we face in evolving beyond our racial stereotypical situation, is to solve our education system. I believe we must focus on providing the very best educators in the world so that our children will graduate ready to meet the competition of the world, head to head. Let's not condemn one man who has given so much of his own time and talent for one remark, let's bring that same energy and passion to solving education.

Let's make it impossible for any individual to be denied a position, an opportunity, because of the colour of their skin, because of their gender, of handicaps and yes because of their sexual preferences. Let's ensure that race cannot be an excuse for poor performance so that some whites cannot criticise us for affirmative action and, most importantly of all, let us listen and watch and emulate our children.

Look around you Bermuda, watch your children. They are fed up with the way we have chosen to divide our country. They are fed up with rhetoric in place of action, of excuse in place of effort. And they are going to move ahead. As a generation we have failed to live up to the challenges of the environment, we are passing on a globe that is sick, perhaps even dying and we are so attached to the good life that we are unwilling to make the sacrifices needed to save it. We would prefer to smile insincerely at each, than have that real conversation, to hear and to learn, to understand and evolve.

Because, contrary to the negative hype, the Big Conversation has been all about that, about listening and hearing. About understanding, about communicating and that, in itself is huge action.

As a generation, we have much to answer for because we have not solved the issues we were faced with. As we grew up, our generation had huge hope and huge expectations, somewhere we sacrificed that hope, that potential, on the altar of personal wealth.

We locked our doors, turned away from being a community and became focused internally on our own growth, our own aggrandisement, our own reward. To those who say, enough with the talking what about the action, do some more listening and just maybe we will start to evolve the big understanding which has to be the next step forward.

We must also, as whites, accept the fundamental advantages that we were given as whites. I ask you to drive along Harbour Road, South Shore, Fairylands, Tuckers Town and so many of Bermuda's best pieces of real estate and see who owns those homes. They are definitively owned by whites and why, because whites had the opportunity, the privilege to buy that real estate so many years ago when they were definitively advantaged and have passed them down, from generation to generation.

No-one is suggesting these homes should be forcibly removed and transferred but what we need to do is understand how that makes black Bermudians feel as they drive along those roads. Can they really have reasonable expectations of owning one of those homes?

And today's discussion is not about demanding that whites give up something so that blacks may take it, it is rather about ensuring, no guaranteeing, that every person has equal advantage, equal privilege, equal opportunity. As soon as we can reach an understanding that this is not a discussion of taking from one group and giving to another but rather about demanding that opportunity is truly fair, then we can move forward.

We need to individually come to a profound change and, let me begin that process with an honest commitment to you all. Because this Big Conversation must now lead on to individual action:

When asked to vote again, I will ask myself — who understands my issues, who has the policies I believe are right, who do I trust to deliver and who is working for a solution, who is seeking to bring us together and bring solution to our collective conscious, and then I will vote on those answers and it will be immaterial what party they represent.

Further in between now and then, I will do whatever I can to listen and to truly hear, not to label and not to pre judge and to understand, to recognise I speak from a position of privilege that that privilege also gives me the opportunity to be an agent of change.

So when asked to become involved, to try and make a difference, to hear the other side, to seek to understand, to become involved in this big conversation, to seek solution, to break away from the entrenched positions of yesteryear, I am hoping that we all can genuinely look at each other beyond race, to feel that we genuinely are each other's brothers and sisters but to do so based on honesty and reality.

And then to answer, like our cousins in America, when challenged if we are able to make this change, if we have the will and the courage to at last break free of the past and create an Island based on community, on merit, on energy, on equal opportunity and individual talent that we will answer with those three, now famous words.

Yes we can.