June 29, 2012Dear Sir,I would like to comment on the issue raised by Cecil Whitecross and Reginald West (Royal Gazette, June 25): Mandatory Retirement. Of course I know only too well that exceptions have been made when it suited the decision maker. But I am far more concerned about the policy itself than that unfairness and injustice. It disturbs me greatly that a Progressive Labour Party Government has not recognised or accepted that ageism is just as evil and destructive as is racism. To terminate an individual for no other reason than their age is just as inexcusable as refusing to hire someone for no other reason than their colour. The fact that there is a rule or regulation is no more justification than the rules and regulations that justified racism. An individual cannot control their age any more than they can control their colour.Many of us anticipated change from the PLP that would be more humane and just than the policies and regulations that we suffered under the United Bermuda Party. But this is one more occasion when the PLP has blindly, mechanically and robot-like followed the regulation they found in place under the UBP. There is no excuse, no justification for this policy when we are continually being told that we have to import labour because there are not enough Bermudians to fill our needs, yet we trash our own who are competent and capable to perform. It is a policy that is both absurd and obscene.What is really sad is that it is one more unnecessary occasion for PLP supporters to feel disillusioned and disenchanted and to publicly threaten not to support them and for everyone that goes public there is an unknown number who, silently, feel the same way. That is not the answer: To give our power back to those who have treated us no better. We who have had a common experience and a common history must recognise that it has not been enough to simply expect a higher standard. We need to recognise our collective responsibility to be far more proactive in our demand that those we elect to represent us live up to our expectations. We have not been proactive in this demand. But we cannot give our power back to those who insisted on imposing a racial divide on this society that has been so economically and psychologically destructive to us, a racial divide that is responsible for 90 percent of the social problems that we, as a black community, still face.EVA N HODGSONHamilton Parish