Vexed Bermoothes

I want to highlight some positive comments that have been lost in Dr. Brown’s petty fights about race in Parliament.

The first are from PLP backbencher Wayne Perinchief on race being used as a political tool:

“I believe that as time goes on and as more and more members, individually and collectively, recognise that people are more concerned on issues than they are on race and colour, then this House, and the governance of this country, will change.

“I’m going to give a caveat to my own party, which I love dearly. I will say to my party and my Government: there are vestiges of racism. The use of the race card, the manipulation of people, their fears; not only against whites — but being slightly anti-gay and being slightly against people who are seen as not black enough…

“What I would like to see is that we stop acting with a sense of homogeneity, start acting collectively, stand up as individuals, and start acting for what we stand for.

“Not enough of us speak truthfully. Not enough of us speak up. Not enough of us are convinced that race isn’t something that we can use.

“We all fall into the trap sometimes of pandering to racism, pandering to racists, because it suits our own political ends.

“When we stop it at our level, it will stop at other ends. When we start speaking and supporting high ideals as a group of people … they are crying out for us to take a stand.

“Stop maintaining the status quo. Step up, step out, stop the rhetoric.”

The next are from PLP backbencher Ashfield DeVent, who spoke forcefully against Bermuda’s tolerance for drugs in our community.

“The society is suffering. We have a sickness in a sense. The first road to recovery is admission; is to get up and say: ‘We are Bermuda. We have a problem. We have a drugs problem. We have a gun problem…’

“For a small nation we have lost far too many productive, intelligent people to this scourge, from those in the medical profession, lawyers, the guy on the street. We can’t afford to continue to lose people.”

Wouldn’t it be a good start if our MPs set the example by undergoing drug testing?

My hats off to both these gentlemen.