We all need healing

May 28, 2004

Dear Sir,

As a citizen by birth by both parents and grandparents of Bermuda, I find it amazing about the increase of violence and hate in this small Island. I am always hearing about blacks fighting one another, where is all this coming from? The black man is the most powerful man on this earth; some don't even know their potential. They are suffering from not knowing their identity. This is where the anger comes from, not knowing where they belong or being afraid to find out. They then act out in anger and confusion. What is this society doing to help these men? A blind man needs direction until he knows his steps from memory.

The people in the position or authority who are tired of this behaviour and have decided “we will keep the black man in control” need to realise that keeping their feet on the growth of any man because they are afraid of their power, they themselves can't move to their real power either. Standing together is the key, not on top. If you stand on top whenever you try to move forward, and the one you are trying to hold back moves in any direction you will have to realign your self to keep your feet on them. Keeping them under control is very exhausting.

Then there are officers in place to handle that controlling station. We keep hearing about these outbreaks of violence in the community. A lot of angry people out there, hey? What is keeping it going we can go on and on about that. Every so often we hear about the officers arresting the black man. They take them to jail and beat the black man. That seems to be going on a lot at the station but no one talks about it or does much because these officers cover for each other. It's like fun to them. Can they be honest about their intentions? This is part of the problem to the outburst. How can violence stop violence? Their victims protect these officers because they are to embarrassed or can't be bothered to go to the extreme. Then there is not much support at home for the victim or at home may not know which direction to take. Which will leave any man black or white angry, and that anger has to be vented out if it is not redirected.

This Island needs God in the worst way, not religion, but God. To all you angry men out there whether you are in a position for correction or just angry, there is hope. We all need each other. Do you realise how far you can go if you got together in a positive way. To those of you who don't know your daddy, why not get to know your real father? The one who is waiting for you to comfort your fears and rejections. He is waiting for you to make the move to get to know your real power. The power to know yourself and your goals. Not the power to take over the world for bad but for good.

Who will stand up and say “I was part of the problem but now I want to be a part of the recovery and be the man God wants me to be.”

To you women get yourselves lined up straight, get to know, respect and love yourself. With that you can help to redirect any man. Don't let any man in our lust or his lust throw you off your true direction. It's not about being alone so will do as company. Spending time to get to know yourself is a blessing. You can help to remodel the world by giving your male members the help that is needed.

Remember it is one human race we all need a healing. God bless this Island.

CITIZEN WITH HOPE

Misinforms the public

May 31, 2004

Dear Sir,

Calvin Smith in his latest challenge to my ‘tirade' concerning Independence misinforms the Bermuda public concerning the voting at a referendum. His ‘tirade' suggests that 7,878 out of 39,381 registered voters is enough to get a ‘yes' vote, a 20 percent vote in favour.

What he does not say is that in a General Election if only one person in each of the 36 constituencies voted and 19 voted PLP and 17 voted UBP we should in fact vote for Independence based on the choice of three people out of 39,381, a 0.008 percent vote in favour.

I like my odds better.

PHIL CRACKNELL

St. George's

Proud of CedarBridge

June 1, 2004

Dear Sir,

I have been delayed in writing this letter but I did not want the school year to go by without me recognising some students of the CedarBridge Senior Secondary School.

I was travelling to Orlando on April 1 via Philadelphia on US Airways. The CedarBridge School Band was travelling, if I remember, to New York. I have never seen such well-behaved teenagers. I never heard any teacher speak to any student and where I was sitting in row 21 I was surrounded by them.

The only time I really heard them make a loud noise was when the plane dropped. One teacher asked all the students to remain seated to let other passengers disembark first. There was one student, a handsome young man sitting in front of my mom, who retrieved my bags from the overhead and my mother, who is 76, was telling him what she would use her cane for coming from the old school and they seemed to have a great chuckle. I left that plane and I remembered telling them to do us proud as they represent Bermuda.

We hear so much negative news on CedarBridge and our young people and I wanted the public to know we have some great young people to take care of us as we approach an elderly age.

Press on CedarBridge Academy and Band - be proud of yourselves.

A FORMER BERKELEYITE

Warwick

Ridiculous dog ban

June 1, 2004

Dear Sir,

Breed specific legislation is pointless. It is presently not working and will continue to be a waste of taxpayers' hard-earned money.

Firstly it is very strange how this all came about. I don't recall an overwhelming public demand to ban dangerous dogs. It's all very strange and extremely cruel and inhumane! There are people wanting to adopt lovely, perfectly good and healthy pups and dogs from the SPCA but cannot because they are on death row, not to mention all the pups that are euthanised immediately following confiscation!

Secondly you are only affecting the responsible dog owners and breeders. All the dishonest and irresponsible people will continue to breed illegally and fight dogs etc. I think the public would be shocked if they knew how many people continue to breed their dogs and have even gone out of their way to breed just to spite the Government and this ridiculous dog ban.

Is this controlling the problem? No! As of now the authorities are barely policing ten percent of the illegal breeding going on in this Island. It clearly is not working. There are many breeders that have for years bred and sold dogs legitimately, (The breeding permits, puppy distribution lists, licensing and micro chipping all their pups before they are sold etc.) That was a good start to controlling and monitoring the situation, now everyone is breeding on the down low and pups are going anywhere and everywhere. The bottom line is that you cannot and are not policing this properly nor controlling the situation. You are in fact creating a far worse problem than you ever had before.

If the Government could possibly increase their animal warden force by 500 percent they might just partially control the ban, and if so the irresponsible people will just choose another breed, or start crossbreeding which could possibly create an even more aggressive and dangerous dog! And just for the record, one could easily take a giant poodle and train it to kill a human being; any dog can be potentially dangerous, so how far are you going to take it? If there were no irresponsible owners there would not be a problem! Target the real problem, this easy escape method will not work!

I have grown up with dogs and owned dogs my whole life. I have been breeding dogs for over ten years and I have never seen a well bred and properly cared for and socialised dog that is uncontrollably aggressive toward people. Protective of its owner or keeper yes. I have however on countless occasions seen poorly bred and poorly cared for animals extremely aggressive and uncontrollable. And unfortunately I have also seen many irresponsible owners try everything to make their animals as aggressive and uncontrollably insane as possible, for what reasons I am not sure. That is what we should be trying to stop. Let's tackle the real problem!

Look at the road fatalities over the past years. Should we ban everyone from driving cars and bikes because of a few freak accidents or a few reckless or careless drivers? Heck, maybe we should ban motocross, boat racing, horseback riding, pony racing and Lord knows what other potentially dangerous activities. Look at all the violence at football games lately, let's ban that too. I would be heart broken if a loved one got mauled by a dog (any dog), just as if I would be heart broken if a love one got killed or maimed in a horse back riding accident or by a reckless driver, but let's fight the problem not the animals. The problem is the irresponsible owners and breeders, owners that make their dogs aggressive and don't contain them properly, owners that make their dogs potentially dangerous.

Provide our community with legislation that is competent to regulate the irresponsible owners and protect those who maintain their dogs safely and humanely.

Provide definitions for vicious and/or potentially dangerous dogs, with measurable actions which cannot be questioned or misinterpreted due to bias. Maybe there was and is a problem regarding this matter but don't just ban these dogs because you do not know how to police the problem or can't be bothered to spend the time to rectify the problem!

Let's spend our tax dollars on a strategy that will work!

DOG LOVER

Paget

Dangerous play area

The following letter was sent to Dr. Joseph Christopher, chief education officer, and copied to The Royal Gazette.

May 31, 2004

Dear Sir,

Again we write due to the dangerous conditions which surrounds the playground at St. George's Pre-school (you may recall our previous correspondence dated September 22, 2003 and November 19, 2003 from concerned parents and teachers).

Last week another pre-schooler fell off the monkey bars in the playground and broke his arm. In our humble opinion four broken arms and one sprained arm suffered by our pre-schoolers is extremely disheartening! The teachers and parents have repeatedly requested (via School Improvement Plan, Learning through Landscape proposals, letters to the Minister and other Government officials) if appropriate age play equipment cannot be provided then the area under the existing equipment be improved for safety. There are various ways this could be accomplished, i.e. rubber matting, mulching, sanding. Any of these ways would certainly lessen the impact of a child's fall.

Won't you please address this very important issue before another child is senselessly injured?

WENDY PERCY

St. David's