Former Bermuda National martial arts team captain/coach and new United Bermuda Party candidate Al Wharton took the plunge yesterday, making his first political speech to the public, broadcast from the weekly Hamilton Rotary Club meeting.

Covering everything from youth violence to suggesting MPs learn martial arts, Mr. Wharton spent most of his speech focusing on the community coming together to combat racism.

"If we are going to talk about humanity, about respect, and about empathy, we are going to have to talk about racism," he said.

"Whether we want to admit it or not, this is a subject which is crucial to our progress as a nation.

"We carry with us the legacy of slavery, of bigotry and separatism. It is a grim part of our history that is impossible for us to change, it is part of who we are. Yet we can change how it affects us.

"Many of us continue to nurture a form of mental slavery. As black people we were brainwashed into believing we were less capable than we really are, and many have continued to perpetuate this mindset. We persist in enslaving ourselves and our children.

"Racism today exists as a by-product of ignorace, insecurity and fear. `Free your mind and the rest will follow.' The more we seek to find our commonalities as human beings, the more we will able to celebrate our differences."

Although he noted both the PLP and the UBP have agreed economic empowerment is necessary, Mr. Wharton added: "I have to reject the Robin Hood methods adopted by the current Government.

"I do not believe that racial equality - let alone humanity and respect and empathy - are served by handing out contracts to `people who look like me'.

"We all know the saying `Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day - but teach him to fish and he can feed himself for a lifetime' ... We must seek to reach a place where we can look at each other eyeball to eyeball and not feel threatened by a sense of fear, inadequacy or superiority, but be partners with equal opportunity in building a better Bermuda.

"I would like to remind you that we get what we focus on. So let us focus on what we can do in the present that will create a better future for all of us."

When Rotarians asked what should be done about racism in the community, Mr. Wharton replied: "Of course we are not going to fix race in any easy way."

However, he added: "The spirit governs your mind, the mind governs your body, the body governs your actions, your actions govern your character, your character governs your destiny.

"If we are going to change racism we must change our heart, and our heart must look to the spirit."