Ignorance is Bermuda's public enemy number one, Hamilton Rotarians heard.

Canon James Francis of Christ Church in Devonshire spoke to Rotarians at the Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday, and called on Bermudians of all ages, genders and races to come together to fight the common enemy of ignorance.

Citing the defeat of General Custer at Little Big Horn in 1876, Canon Francis said the General and his small band of men would have survived had they known what they were riding into ? the largest assembly of Native Americans ever coming together on the plains.

"Their enemy was not loneliness, they were not ill-equipped, they did not suffer a failure of nerves. He was defeated long before the first shot was fired. They didn't know what they were up against."

Quoting well-known philosophers such as Creto and Socrates, Canon Francis added: "There is no virtue in ignorance about racism, about our relationships with each other."

Adding that there was a real difference between ignorance and stupidity, he said education and the banishing of ignorance leads to "a breakthrough in limitations".

"Everyone has the constitutional right to be a jackass," he added, "so long as he or she knows when the statute of limitations runs out."

Bermudians can no longer blame Government, he added.

"We have to listen. We don't know how to listen to anybody, we must learn to all kinds of people, all types of people."

Opinions are never facts, he said, despite what many say on the radio talk shows: "Now I'm going to tell you something and this is a fact."

The same is true for much of what elected officials say in the House of Assembly and the Senate, he added.

However, "God has never created a piece of junk yet," he said.

"Every individual has something to offer to make Bermuda a better place."

It will take planning, a willingness to listen to both the old and the new, fiscal responsibility and a willingness to put laws in place "even if we are caught by them", he said.

"This is my commitment. I hope that it's yours."