June 23, 2012Dear Sir,I have a question for Dr Eva Hodgson. With all of your higher education and degrees, do you honestly feel that you are a lesser person than the next person as a direct result of 400 years of segregation and psychological diminution that told us that we were inferior to everyone else in the universe? If anyone feels this way in 2012, the problem is not the 400 years of segregation and oppression, the problem lies within that person. There is no one better than I am except for God Almighty. There is no way that any self-respecting person with an educated, logically thinking mind can tell me otherwise. As a child (because of the cowboys and Indian films) I used to think the Native Americans were the bad guys, but when I was able to think for myself, I realised they were not. So anyone, black, white and other, who blames slavery for their feelings of inferiority for the rest of their lives, deserves to feel inferior.Slavery, segregation, and demeaning people were all tools used for profit and control. These same tools are still used today in slightly different ways. Take the Progressive Labour Party’s last two election strategies. The racecard was used to win votes and there is no doubt about it. You can have the shackles taken off your ankles but when you let someone put those same shackles on your mind, you might as well be back on that slave ship heading for the Americas. If you want to be free, the first thing you have to do is free your mind. That goes for anyone who thinks they are inferior. To those who think they are better than anyone else, you need to free your mind also. No man is an island. Dr Hodgson, I admire the fact that you made a lot of Bermudians aware of the race issue, and that your heart is in the right place but, you must bring your mind into the 21st century because this is the world we live in. We don’t forget the past and we should learn from the past, but we cannot live in it.As far as the rest of your letter in reference to the PLP is concerned, I agree with most of it. I quote: “Our real tragedy is that from its inception the PLP government has given too much attention to what the United Bermuda Party did. Worse, at the same time, continuing the financially profitable contracts which whites held under the UBP, without making any serious efforts to change the financial patterns which prevailed, often because of the jealousies and hostility which prevails within the black community. They would often prefer to support wealthy whites of whom they were not jealous than a struggling black of whom they were.”And I say the PLP will never make a good Government because of their nepotism, cronyism, jealousy of each other, distrust of each other, back stabbing, infighting, hostility and incompetence. Mr Editor, education is the key. Education is the key that is going to open the mind to get people seeing past black and white. Do you think for one moment our grandchildren think on the same lines as you, me or Dr Hodgson? Heavens no! They are far ahead of us. My granddaughter is ending a six-month stay at the University of Pretoria in South Africa with eight other exchange students from Fordham University in New York. She created a website where she kept a journal of the group’s activities and not once will you read where she has mentioned the word race.This group of nine are diversified ie one African American, two Asian and six European American. Do you think these young people go through life constantly reminding themselves of what happened 400 years ago? I don’t think so. These young people are focused on today and the future. I am not saying they know nothing about the past, but they are forward thinking, which is why they opted to go to South Africa to expand their minds even more. Some people have to get out of this God forsaken box that we have put themselves in as time waits for no one!PAT FERGUSONWarwick