Dear Sir,

The irony of what I am about to write, and how I am expressing it, is not lost on me.

The past few weeks in Bermuda have been extremely sad to watch and it is becoming increasingly more so as each day passes. The tension levels and frustration continue to mount and are being intensified by misguided anger based upon race.

A huge part of this is being intensified by the online bloggers who deem it appropriate to spend their day commenting and creating opinion on articles. I had a look this morning (March 15) and one article has almost 900 comments, and I can categorically say that the majority of these had an undertone of race and hatred throughout them.

It increased as the comments became more active. This is not outside the norm, either; this is a constant theme throughout these forums and it is something that Bermuda is too small to have and is detrimental to our small population.

The comments sections in The Royal Gazette and other news outlets need to be stopped. It is not healthy for Bermuda and serves only to dredge up and fuel hatred, anger and racial issues.

We live in a social-media age and that comes with significant advantages, but it also comes with significant responsibilities.

We have seen disgusting posts on Facebook in recent days, stemming from frustration and anger. We can’t stop people from posting messages on their own Facebook or Twitter pages, but what we can do is stop those messages from reaching audiences farther afield. By having these further thrust into the public spotlight is only going to antagonise the public more and thereby create more anger and upheaval.

This is extremely irresponsible and we need to be addressing this in the proper manner, rather than pandering to the few haters out there and spreading their negativity and anger. This goes all the way up to our leaders, as they are not exempt from this, either, by their actions.

I was appalled to see schoolchildren thrust into the recent protests. That was no environment for children to be surrounded by; it is ingraining a level of hatred into an “us versus them” scenario, thereby setting Bermuda back another generation.

The adults and politicians need to stop acting like schoolchildren with their tit-for-tat responses and sort this mess out themselves; leave the children out of it.

I understand that the comments section in the RG and other outlets is a forum where people can share their opinions; that is what freedom of speech is all about. However, Bermuda is too small a country and the division that a lot of these comments create is causing a serious problem in our day-to-day lives. No matter what the article relates to, the comments thread eventually turns into the same old argument with back-and-forth retaliations, which in turn is creating a nasty divide.

It’s time we put an end to allowing comments on articles in media outlets in Bermuda, as this would be a huge step in eliminating a large part of where the anger originates from.

This isn’t a suggestion to sweep these problems under the carpet by not allowing the comments sections and pretend they do not occur. There are clearly issues that need to be addressed. However, they need to be dealt with appropriately and responsibly. A public forum that descends into personal, racial and political attacks is only creating a bigger problem.

Again, the irony of how this opinion is being distributed is not lost on me and I am hopeful the inevitable comments thread will not descend into the usual tirade.

RK