The wrong message

October 11, 2003

Dear Sir,

Allow me get this straight.

One of our judges lets off a convicted knife attacker because one year (sort of) in jail is considered adequate punishment. In other news, it was deemed necessary that undercover cops would be needed in order to arrest some youths in a public park not because they were fighting or anything like that, but because they were having a drink and smoking a joint.

Mind you, I'm sure these young bloods would have much rather sat-off and chatted with some tourist girls at a legit location where people their age can socialise, but sadly no such place exists, and oh yeah … no tourists!

Anyhow, the main point here is that evidently on this Island, having a drink and a smoke with friends and minding your own business is considered a worse offence than stabbing someone.

I'm in agreement with Mr. Middleton; we are definitely sending out the wrong message!

D. H. T.

Paget

October 15, 2003

Dear Sir,

Whatever else might be said about Mr. Dale Butler, we should at least give him credit for being faithful to the politicians creed, which is, in order of priority.

1. Me;

2. party;

3 constituents.

PETER J. WILLCOCKS

Smith's Parish

Dear Sir,

Last Sunday, October 12 at 6 p.m., at The Anglican Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, a 'Celebration of Life Service', was held in lieu of the MESSIAH concert, that is held world wide every three years, to honour Hospices.

Since we had suffered from the wrath of Hurricane Fabian and many people in our community were somewhat shell shocked, it was felt that a service should be held to honour the memories of those who had died in the hurricane, together with those who had died recently in Bermuda and others who had died of terminal illnesses.

It was a marvellous evening with 60 people from various church choirs singing the 'Hallelujah Chorus' and two soloists who sang, 'He shall feed his flock', also from the MESSIAH.

The choir was conducted by Dr. Gary Burgess, accompanied by Mrs. Ruth Henderson and the soloists were Mrs. Berta Barretto-Hogan and Mrs. Julie Madeiros and they were accompanied by Mr. Bill Duncan.

Rev. Canon Keith Wassall, Rev. Canon Alan Tilson, Rev. Dr. Conway Simmons, Rt. Rev. Bishop Robert Kurtz and Rt. Rev. Bishop Ewan Ratteray were in attendance.

The lessons and writings were read by: Joanne Fox of PALS, Hermine Dill of Agape House, Claire Preyra-Leader. Mr. Keith Hollis - Master of Ceremonies. Members from

the congregation lit the candles.

My colleague, Mr. Stephen Todd and I would like to sincerely thank each and everyone of the participants, who helped make this wonderful evening the success that it was. Long will we remember the singing!

HILARY SOARES, MBE, JP

St. George's

October 16, 2003

Dear Sir,

I served on a jury for three different trials; all three cases were performed from three different defence attorneys. I was disgusted as to how unprepared these three defence lawyers were to defend their client. For example:

Showing up late to court;

dishevelled paperwork and files brought with them;

getting mixed up with different cases;

wasting more time looking through their notes, as they can't remember which case they're working on or what it was about.

I actually felt sorry for the criminals, who were either paying for or getting financial aid for these persons to defend them.

No wonder Mr. Archibald Warner gets so frustrated. I was getting frustrated myself thinking, "how the heck did these guys get their papers to become a lawyer?"

I sure wouldn't want them defending me; I'd be in jail for sure, with a life sentence!

Mr. Archibald Warner takes no nonsense from anyone and I respect him for that. He performs his job very professionally and is a very fair person. I have never met him, but I saw for myself how he works.

I'm now defending he and Ms Graham-Allen, whom I've never met, against Mr. Larry Mussenden's "cry baby" comments in the October 16 Royal Gazette. The truth hurts, but it really annoys me when someone always has to use someone else's nationality because he really has no good excuse. Just do your job!

Mr. Mussenden, I think you've let everything go to your head and you need to get your act together and help defend these people properly and stop making excuses.

Ms Graham-Allan and Mr. Archibald Warner are doing a great job. I applaud you to continue to tell it like it is and demand their respect for the courts.

Respect should be shown for the jurors, especially those who are self-employed, as well as all those involved in the "system".

A NOT SO PROUD BERMUDIAN

Warwick

My stretch of hog heaven

Dear Sir,

Once upon a time there were three little pigs and they were born, raised and all of them lived in that little stretch of Middle Road in Warwick just along the front of PHC and across from the bowling alley.

Now these three little pigs all grew up to be big little pigs and they had baby pigs and multiplied. Some were sows and some were hogs but they were all pigs.

They lived in a pigsty - that would be the aforementioned stretch of road outside PHC - and they sat there all day drinking their drinks from dirty bottles and eating their greasy food from paper plates.

After they had been at the trough for, say, a few minutes, they threw all their garbage right on the ground next to them... which was the only thing they knew how to do because they were pigs and pigs live in a pigsty.

Now all the people - local people and tourists and business people who live here - drive by this pigsty everyday (sometimes twice) and, boy, is it a sight for sore eyes - or, maybe, it's a sore sight for eyes ... but anyway, they all wonder what to do because the rest of us humans don't want to live in the sty.

And all these people wondered what they could do, but mainly what the leaders (i.e. the Government) and the Police were going to do because, after all, they were paying these people to do something!

One day, I was driving by the sty and I saw a group of schoolkids ...that's right, kids from a local primary school who couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old ...and they cleaned up all the trash in the sty and put it in bags.

This wasn't that easy because the pigs were sitting there and kinda got in the way, but they did it and it really looked clean for once.

But... I came by again later that day and there were the pigs, all sitting around looking like they were waiting for Haile Selassie to return... drinking out of the bag, eating their slop and throwing their trash all over the ground... taking it for granted that the pigsty had been transformed back to hog heaven.

(Guys, I know it's brutally difficult to throw trash in a trashcan when you turn it over and sit on it and then you smash it up).

I cannot be the only person who sees this pigsty and is embarrassed and doesnt know what to do... I cannot be the only one.

George Scott, Dale Butler, Ewart Brown and Neville Darrell - you are the elected leaders of this area. Do you think this pigsty is a really neat tourist attraction (I'm thinking maybe a connection to hog money). Maybe you could actually suggest a solution - you seem to have one for everything else?

And, Quinton, I remember when PHC said they were giving some land for a gas station and you went ballistic... telling everybody that this was your little 'village'! So, what do you think we should do?

These little pigs actually look like confrontation could be a problem but they probably are all really great guys (you know, potential leaders of the country types but downtrodden and oppressed black males) - most little pigs are really sweet once you get to know them.

Personally, I think they are just trying to get our attention - and they do - but I surely don't know how to tell them that I am attentive.

I hope someone has an idea because all those little humans from the States, and Canada and London Town ride past there everyday and maybe they will begin to think that we are all little piggies.

THE BIG BAD WOLF

City of Hamilton