"Don't Tread On Me" — patriotic American slogan dating from the Revolutionary War period indicating a willingness to fight and defend the country from those who would oppress it.ONE of the reactions I have had in the wake of the recent act of violence that occurred between a Portuguese-Bermudian and a group of black Bermudians — which resulted in the former being seriously injured — was one of ambivalence. This ambivalence doesn't stem from the beating itself — clearly an unprovoked criminal assault — but rather from our collective reluctance to call the attack what it really is.

For even though the assault outside the Docksiders bar had all the appearance of a racial attack, what we seem to be afraid to look at is the nationalist element involved and the factors that brought this frenzied nationalism to the fore.

The burning of the Portuguese flag by the criminals who mugged Rui Medeiros on Front Street was a desecration that proves Bermuda is a torn country with conflicting national identities. It means that national flags and those who identify with them are more than what a Bermuda Sun columnist called — "pieces of coloured cloth" — symbols that carry little or no weight in the mind of the man on the street.

The attack on Mr. Medeiros could have potentially grave ramifications for Bermuda as a country. For despite the constant call from successive Governments and community leaders that we must all act as one and that we are all Bermudians, the reality is we as a country have no common focus of national identity. And this will result in all such calls for us to forget our ethnic and cultural differences and come together as Bermudians to ring entirely hollow.

Many will choose not to see that the recent assault on Mr. Medeiros was coloured by frustrated nationalism and prefer to describe the incident as a racial assault — that's clearly what the organisers of the recent so-called war on racism rally attempted to portray the attack at City Hall last week.

And if we are going to be honest, the concern of many at that rally was all about a perceived manifestation of black racism (or so-called "reverse racism" given the victim was white).

Ever since the Progressive Labour Party won the Government in 1998, there has been a growing feeling among many whites living in this country that they have become the victims of a new form of racism.

How does this assault qualify as a nationalist clash? Well, the answer to that is easy. For a while Bermudians could have been forgiven for thinking that their country was being invaded by the advance guards of foreign armies such was the potency of the nationalist outpourings prompted by the World Cup football competition.

There were particularly potent manifestations of national support for the national football teams of England and Portugal. The national flags of those two countries were waving in Bermudian faces all over the island to the extent I was prompted to wonder if Bermuda was at war with either the United Kingdom or Portugal, then whose side would these expatriate nationals and their Bermudian supporters be on?

Could we trust them to do their duty in the Bermuda Regiment to defend this country? I know many Bermudians were taken aback at these quite literal demonstrations of nationalist flag-waving during the World Cup which focused on other countries — not Bermuda.

As a Bermudian faced with these demonstrations of foreign nationalism, I reacted not in a hostile or violent way but by putting my Cup Match colours on my car early — the only sporting symbol that I consider to be wholly Bermudian and that I could completely identify with.

For the first time I put my team colours on my car not for their intended use, a manifestation of the friendly rivalry between Somerset and St. George's in our annual cricket classic, but as a deliberate act of Bermudian nationalism and an attempt to reclaim my country given the wholesale eruption of foreign nationalism taking place here.

It is not that I am saying that foreigners living in Bermuda should not embrace their own national identities. I, too, have a cultural identity is not entirely rooted in Bermuda — Caribbean and African blood runs through my veins.

But I know that my Bermudian identity has not yet been fully realised and won't be until Bermuda becomes an Independent nation in its own right. That will foster a loyalty and feeling of patriotic identity I cannot fully have as long as Bermuda remains someone else's Overseas Territory.

[bul] The letter writer Observer (Mid-Ocean News, July 14) attempted to compare my Bermudian nationalism to the extreme Zionist nationalism which has resulted in Israel keeping its foot upon the neck of the Palestinian people and has now brought forth more war and suffering in the Middle East.

In no way can my call for the creation of an Independent Bermudian nation be compared to that situation. I have not called for an Independent black Bermudian nation; I do not subscribe to the old school "black nationalism" which does, in fact, equate to black separatism.

I have consistently said that an Independent Bermuda will be made up of black Bermudians, white Bermudians, Portuguese-Bermudians and even Asians or any other nationalities who would have a claim to Bermudian citizenship. IN regard to the Mau Mau in Kenya in the struggle for that country's Independence — yes, that struggle was in part a civil war, just like America's struggle for Independence was a civil war between those English settlers who wanted a new nation and those who wanted to remain under Britain's rule.It is unfortunate that human beings have not found peaceful ways to settle such conflicts. But just because I have written about war, conflict and nationalist struggles between men does not mean that I glorify the paths we have too often chosen to settle our differences.