One of the most important things any Government has to do is to listen, and to change decisions and policies when it is clear they are unpopular.

This isn't always easy to do; there may have been good reasons for a policy at the start, and at a more human level, no one likes to admit when they are wrong.

On that basis, Culture Minister Dale Butler deserves credit for dropping Government's idea of replacing Bermuda Day with a National Heroes Day.

That's not to say that a day on which Bermuda honours people who have made major contributions to the Island doesn't have merit; it does.

Making all Bermudians aware of some of the great Bermudians of the past and the roles that they played in the major events of history is a worthwhile one. It is sometimes suprising how little people today know about leaders like Dr. E.F. Gordon, W.L. Tucker and Sir Henry Tucker, let alone some of the leading figures in Bermuda prior to the 20th Century.

The problem is not that they should be honoured, but when. Bermuda already has a wide range of public holidays spanning the year. Either an existing holiday can be renamed, or a new public holiday created.

But there are good reasons to keep all of the existing holidays, while making a new one will inevitably cause concerns from businesses, schools and even the Civil Service about losing another day of work at a time when Bermuda needs to be as competitive and cost efficient as possible.

At first glance, creating a new holiday does appear to be the only option, short of causing outrage among one sector of the community or another, as Government has already learned with regard to Bermuda Day.

There is another possibility, and that is to honour a leading Bermudian on Bermuda Day.

This is already done to some extent with the naming of parade marshalls for the Bermuda Day Parade; they, of course, are living, and one condition of National Heroes Day is that they should have passed on.

But it would seem to make sense to offer people the chance to build floats in honour of the national hero of the day, and to work in their role as part of the Heritage Month events, perhaps through an exhibition, lecture or theatrical performance.

On a related matter, this newspaper has already stated that it is not entirely convinced that making the late Dame Lois Browne-Evans the first honouree of such a day is entirely justified.

It would make sense to start with someone, like Dr. Gordon or, as Dr. Eva Hodgson had suggested, Mr. Tucker or Roosevelt Brown who had as great, or possibly a greater impact on Bermuda today.

That is not to take anything away from Dame Lois' contributions.

But those are already pretty well known, whereas memories of the efforts of others who died earlier are at greater risk of being forgotten.