May 30, 2011Dear Sir,In our collective opinion, three national heroes are too many to celebrate fully at any one time; especially when they are being inaugurated into that status. As they are all outstanding enough to be called national heroes, they must, individually, have a life story long or wide enough to have an entire day’s worth of reflection each. It’s quite easy to sweep over the lives of Dr Pauulu Kamarakafego, Dr EF Gordon, and Sir Henry Tucker and miss so many of those critical events and sacrificial acts that make them national heroes.Again, it is my opinion that Pauulu Kamarakafego, whose life’s work and accomplishments we know well, are certainly worthy of their own platform on his own Heroes Day. We are sure there are many who feel this way about both Dr EF Gordon and Sir Henry Tucker as well. We wonder if the selection and planning committees have thought about how a national hero really becomes a national hero. How can present and future generations be made to regard an individual, who has lived generations before, as a hero? Through intimate knowledge of that hero; that’s how! Time has to be spent on telling that person’s story. We ought to make an effort to get to know our would-be heroes.Could it be that we are in some way making up for having Dame Lois Browne Evans having alone been celebrated on our inaugural Heroes Day in 2008 and again in both 2009 and 2010? We ask the above with the understanding that we would prefer to celebrate the Dame repeatedly than to inaugurate three deserving individuals to the status of National Hero on the same day; thereby selling each of their legacies short. We feel that honouring three men at once is ludicrous and disrespectful to their respective contributions.In future we ask that better judgment be employed in regards to the special observations presented at Heroes, Labour, and Emancipation Day holidays. We also feel that there are dreadfully few opportunities to truly learn about and celebrate the lives of our national heroes, and lumping them all together like you are doing this year limits those opportunities even more. We would like to see a more interactive and accessible chances to celebrate a life of heroic acts, and doing this three at a time is not as productive as a National Heroes observation could or should be. There is still time enough to rectify this potential injustice. Thank you for the opportunity to express our concerns.LUCINDA WORRELL STOWEOn behalf of Batho Pele (People First)