Homeless are humans too

October 24, 2005

Dear Sir,

Please allow me the space to comment on a letter posted recently with contents in reference to the ?homeless? man that graces the bench along Crow Lane Park neighbouring East Broadway. I too have noticed this man, with his shirt on and off at times, that has evidently made this bench his home.

I take no offence to the fact that this man is there, continuously. Let me be the one who apologises on behalf of this sector of society who unlike the majority of us Bermudians have no home to go to (are we not all aware that there is a housing crisis), get hot and want to unbutton or take their shirt off (many employed male workers are guilty of this habit also), want to enjoy a public park (keyword: ?public?, indicates that these places are available for all to enjoy), and for providing a visual impact on morning commuters (is it because we all pass jolly old Johnny Barnes, and then have to see this forgotten group of human beings?).

Are not the homeless and unemployed entitled as citizens to the use of public places? Some of them probably helped to pay for such places with their taxes when they were employed. I feel no angst because the down and out want to enjoy these places with me. Shame on all of us for any other view of what public landscapes should be! Regardless of who enjoys them.

Why are we so quick to cast aside to the point of wanting to quarantine these individuals? Do we fail to realise that some of these people were most likely active members of society, who contributed to society through some form of employment. Do we even take the time to wonder if they once had a home, a spouse, and children? And what circumstances or incident lead them to the fate of their present existence? We truly do not know, therefore we truly cannot judge them, and want them to be cast aside and hidden.

Why don?t we stop judging them and assist in the task of rehabilitating them back to accepted members of society. Each one reach one! Maybe the subtle message that the man that sits along East Broadway is trying to get us all aware of is that we need to be aware of people like himself, and in some way offer a simple acknowledgement that we care about them, as all human beings should care for each other, whether we are ?well-off? or ?down and out?. AKILI

Smith?s Parish

Be the man, Mr. Scott

October 12, 2005

Dear Sir,

I really would like Mr. Scott to address the following...

If his remarks in his infamous misdirected e-mail were not meant to be derogatory and racist please address just two things...

1. If he says ?I am fed up of taking crap from people who look and sound like Brannon?. The ?look like? is obviously a racist remark which can only be interpreted to be the fact that Mr. Brannon is white. However he tries to justify that statement it does not wash.

2. Lastly, Mr. Scott needs to be ?the man? as he likes to remind us that he is, and stand tall (a little difficult when you have one foot in your mouth) and admit he is wrong and apologise.

(who by the way, knowingly signed the petition on the Referendum)

City of Hamilton

P.s. please don?t insult our intelligence once again...use of the word ?crap ? is NOT the issue. Now that?s a bunch of crap .

Bring on the Smart Car

October 25, 2005

Dear Sir,

As the father of two children that have gone to a private school in the Hamilton area, I have been getting a bit angry at the comments about us causing the traffic problems in the morning.

Just the other week, I had the occasion to travel from Town to the West End. To say the least, it was a real eye opener. It was quite mind boggling to see how many cars were occupied by one person and most of those were smartly dressed women on their way to work for 9 a.m. Quite clearly their children had taken a bus to school and most likely it was a public school. I say this because a lot were driving those new larger cars and with the price of them, they certainly couldn?t afford to send their children to a private school.

Maybe we should be demanding, that, if you have no more than two people in a car, you have to park it and take a bus. I really don?t think that that will happen though. So, may be the Minister of Transport should require that all cars be as small as possible, say something like the Smart Car. There is no need for the Honda CRV or similar to be on our roads. Come on now, remember this is not the USA but just a little island. It would certainly make the roads a lot less congested and would also cut down on our foreign exchange.

Hey, do you think the Government Ministers might look smarter if they were driving, say, a Smart Car? A PRIVATE SCHOOL PARENT

Paget

Insults carry a price

October 11, 2005

Dear Sir,

Sen. Roban is reported as saying ?We all certainly agree that this quality (direct access to Government Ministers) should be preserved and not ruined by some persons and organisations that cultivate venomous and contemptuous language about those who have been given the responsibility to work in our interest?.

If 90 percent of the voters had put their X in the PLP box on the ballot paper there would probably not be any opposition to their ideas to speak of, and come to that there would have been no Opposition either. What the PLP do not accept, to their peril, is that in the 1998 election only 54% voted PLP and in the 2003 election only 52% voted PLP. It is also claimed that the PLP would have lost the 2003 election but for 80 voters in their favour out of an electorate of approximately 38,000 (less than one quarter of one per cent)., The Westminster electoral system, has now given them a lop-sided majority compared to the popular vote. They seem to hold the view as a result that they have supreme power to do what they like, when they like, say what they like, whether the electorate like it or not, and certainly not be opposed or scrutinised, a bully in the political playground.

With an electoral landscape of this nature it was to be expected that the 48% who did not vote PLP would become frustrated and angry if they felt that they were not respected by the incumbent party. Many believe this indeed is one of the reasons that caused the downfall of the UBP. It is the PLP who have ?fostered and cultivated the venomous and contemptuous language?, and it is the following types of behaviour that has brought us to the current position, and created a hugely negative environment that swamps anything positive.

* David Burch told the 46% who did not vote PLP in 1998 that the PLP were not interested in what they thought. Apparently this attitude continues toward the 48% who did not vote for the PLP in 2003.

* Ewart Brown told us that he deceived us to get back into power in 2003. That of itself angers those that did not vote PLP, and rightly so.

* Alex Scott told 14,000 voters that ?they didn?t know what they were talking about? just recently. What a monstrous insult.

* 70% of the electorate made it known, and very emphatically, that they do not want independence and yet Alex Scott marches on the forms the BIC who produce a biased and flawed report effectively recommending that we go independent. Then we are mind blowingly told that it was not in the remit of the BIC to investigate who else had used referenda to decide on independence.

* Alex Scott makes a clearly racist remark and claims it was not. Had someone who looked and sounded like Tony Brannon made the same remark about Alex Scott all hell would have broken loose. Remember the hotelier, who in frustration at the mistreatment of his hotel foyer, make a remark about frying chicken on the front step and who was subsequently run off the island. Remember the IT Instructor at the college who lied about his qualifications and in the process had one of the finest lecturers in the college fired for using an expression that the whole world knows refers to a motor mechanic, except Bermuda.

* Racism is worse now than in 1998. This is not because any of us want it that way. It is because the PLP have fostered the divisions in our society rather than mend them.

* We are now threatened with censorship because Alex Scott wants to shoot the messenger rather than listen to the people.

This is not divisive language, this is not rumour and innuendo (something Alex Scott is a master at), this is not a diatribe, this is what the voters see and talk about every day, and it angers a significant section of the electorate that expect far better from our Government and for Bermuda. Many of these people admit to being frightened to say anything because they do not want to be targeted by the Government. It is the PLP that continue to poke the electorate in the eye with a hot poker, and the electorate keeps on saying ?enough already? but the PLP are not listening.

Alex Scott is perfectly right in saying that freedom of speech is not free, but he is not right to expect that he can bully and throw insults at the voters and that they cannot respond.

The PLP ?have been given the responsibility to work in OUR interest? twice, but in the last seven years that wording seems to have changed to ?have been given the responsibility to work in THEIR interest only?. They are reaping what they have sown and if they believe they should be shown more respect they need to earn it. If they keep on insulting the electorate, and backing them into a corner, the PLP will have to continue to accept that there will be a backlash, and it will be venomous and contemptuous.