March 31, 2004

Dear Sir,

I read your article “ Gays want human rights, not marriage” in today's paper with interest.

Because of legislation that is already in place, all people are entitled to human rights regardless of one's sexual preference, consequently I do not understand what lawyer Elizabeth Christopher is talking about.

We live in a world where heterosexual people are discriminated against for whatever reason, so if one is living an alternative lifestyle, they should be aware that there are people in society who will discriminate against them.

I am wondering if these gays are sure that it is because they are gay that this discrimination occurs, or is it because of the way they conduct themselves, or are they just being paranoid because of their alternative lifestyle?

I remember when gays were asking for “gay rights”, and in my estimation, there is no such thing as “gay rights” - just as there are no “rapists' rights”, “child molester's rights”, “peeping tom's rights”, “husband and wife beater's”, and all of the other degenerates that make up our society. There are only human rights!

I do not believe that everyone who considers himself or herself gay was born that way. I believe that as children or young adults, many of them, because of environment, indoctrination, association, seduction, and others factors have turned to a life of homosexuality or lesbianism. Also, I believe that if caught in time, counselling could have helped many, therefore, saving them from a lifestyle that is not accepted by the greater majority of society.

One thing that bothers me is that we hear little from our spiritual leaders on this subject. Are they not the ones who are suppose to be spreading the Word of God and saving souls from hell and damnation? I have heard the Rev. Leonard Santucci speak out but he is only one and that is not enough. I am inclined to believe that this subject hits too close to home for some people, therefore, are very uncomfortable with this issue.

In the same RG article, Ms Nicky Bowes, spokesperson for the Bermuda Rainbow Alliance, said and I quote, “While we have this warm and fuzzy language in the Human Rights Act about the human rights family, gays are left out,” end quote.

When I last checked, a family consisted of a mother, a father, their children and extended family members. Two men or two women sleeping together does not and will never make a “family”.

Minister Patrice Minors was absolutely correct in her statement that she did not believe a family with two gay parents was representative of a family based on moral values. As a society, we have to be very careful in accepting things that seem to be the “norm” just because the United States, Canada and England say it's okay.

There are times when certain things or lifestyles are accepted because most of the time, we do not want to give these things any thought or discussion - and because we are uncomfortable with certain issues, we just let it go. Life is a huge challenge and we should be prepared to stand up to these challenges.

As I said before, life is hard enough as a heterosexual so I can imagine how hard it is to be a homosexual or lesbian and want to be accepted in a society which to a large degree, is against the gay lifestyle.

PAT FERGUSON

Warwick

Website is misleading

April 1, 2004

Dear Sir,

I hope I may be permitted to respond to today's correspondent, Mrs. Dorothy C. Woolgar of Paget who, quite rightly, takes exception to the description of our little Waterloo House on the website www.luxurylink.com.

The description is inaccurate because it has been taken from another source which is, in itself, inaccurate. We have tried, in vain so far, to discover the source of this romanticized version of Waterloo House's location but it has remained stubbornly elusive. We suspect that it is the result of a transposed translation from a European publication. Our efforts to have it changed have been, until now anyway, quite futile and frustrating.

To make matters worse, we seem to be the subject of other kinds of mischief, which your readers can discover on their own by searching for hotel rooms in Bermuda, on sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com etc. Waterloo House is advertising a “troglodyte room” and Horizons & Cottages boasts a “round bed”.

Needless to say, we have neither.

We shall continue our efforts to present Waterloo House and Horizons & Cottages in the best, truest light and redouble our determination to correct the inexplicable rubbish that keeps appearing.

Yours faithfully,

GEORGE A. WARDMAN

President, Horizons Ltd.

Facing up to the truth

April 5, 2004

Dear Sir,

The violence at the Wellington Oval yesterday makes it clear beyond a doubt that Bermuda has gangs and we as Bermudians need to acknowledge that fact.

Once we acknowledge the gang presence then we will be in a better position to identify the underlying root causes of this anti-social activity, and come up with solutions to the problem.

I have been hearing stories for years about young men from Somerset not being able to travel to Hamilton and vice versa, but after getting over my initial scepticism, I realised that in Bermuda, animosity among young men born and raised in different parishes is not a new phenomenon.

I remember being at family gatherings and hearing older men in my family reminiscing about the good old days, and picking up inferences that there was sometimes tension between guys as a result of their living in different parishes.

Even in my younger days, when pack racing was the thing to do, guys from Warwick and town had issues, although it rarely resulted in outright violence. It appears that over the years this animosity has degraded into outright hatred that has resulted in the deaths of an unfortunate few, and continues to plague events such as soccer matches, dances and other events that draw these young men from different parishes into one location.

Instead of talking about increased police presence and increased security and so on, we need to sit down with these warring factions and address the underlying issues that they have with one another.

This will take professionally trained gang mediators. The police, government etc. are obviously out of their depths on this issue. We must take this approach otherwise we will continue to be reactive whenever one of these gang wars occur.

The obvious fact is that Bermuda is too small a country to have these warring gangs trying to kill one another whenever they get together.

SYLVAN RICHARDS JR.

Paget

Still in a poor condition

March 26, 2004

Dear Sir,

Last year I wrote you a letter about the poor air-conditioning at the hospital.

Nothing has changed and summer is almost here, a whole year. The problem there is the nurses are supposed to pay attention to the patients' concerns and report the matter to.

The problem with the laundry is where one machine is broken, have it fixed, not wait till three go. We are not stupid and the persons responsible is not doing their job. Excuses. all the time. It's just poor management.

The hospital inside is depressing and I felt very apprehensive that sooner or later I will have to go there. As a worker I see dirty walls, mould, window shades all broken and this is not a nice place. The doctors and nurses do their best and that's the only good thing.

Mr. Brewin says the hospital is in the black, why the increase?

I believe management is at fault and each department must be accountable for their part and not want days, weeks if the Hospital was checked regularity. These things would not be so big now. If it was not for the W.H.A donated they would not have a ambulance and some equipment management pull up their socks they get very well paid.

VOLUNTEER WORKER

Devonshire

What does Alex want?

April 1, 2004

Dear Sir,

I see Alex Scott has a new tactic for making Bermuda independent. As he is scared of a referendum, he is planning to tick off the UK enough that they force us to become independent. Talking about independence, does he want us to be come independent or does he want us to have a new master (Caricom)?

CURIOUS

Pembroke

Let's get it fixed

April 1, 2004

Dear Sir,

I refer to the letter in today's paper regarding courtesy on the roads.

The letter writer refers to people letting drivers access The Lane from Strawberry Hill during rush hours. That junction - accidents or not - could probably use some thinking from a road planner - it really needs a solution.

I would mention the people who use Corkscrew Hill, particularly during the evening rush hour, as a shortcut to get to the west via either Harbour Road or over Trimingham Hill. Those drivers - and the people travelling along East Broadway who let them in - cause traffic jams stretching as far back as Front Street.

That junction needs some sort of traffic control because if you do the obvious thing - close the road - those drivers will just have to access western routes some other place (either roundabout !) and the problem is just moved somewhere else.

The other traffic nightmare is entering the north and south Trimingham Hill roundabouts at peak traffic times. If we had an understood system of filtering, this problem would go away with no need for any other solutions. I have seen this work in the Channel Islands and in England and it's just a case of people being courteous and allowing other drivers to filter into traffic in a certain way.

Mr. Editor, who is responsible for looking at problems like this? It always seems that people bring these issues up but, unless there's a murder involved or the situation becomes intolerable, nothing ever happens. I would have thought that the Planning Department or Transport Control must have road experts who can look at these relatively simple issues and fix them fairly easily.

JOHN FAIELLA

Southampton