A wise young man once told me that if you want to know the purpose of a thing, check the results. He further opined that whatever the result was, you checked it against what is or should have been the priority.
As I look at the results of the June 7th, Referendum it is obvious to me that those who claim to be concerned about the Bahamas are either misguided, misinformed or just out of touch. I listen to what is coming out of the mouths of supposedly "learned persons", and in the words of the late Jackson Burnside, I want to know if they really " know what they are looking at".
Common sense should have told us that the only issue of citizenship we should have dealt with is the one related to the stateless multitude among us who have been without citizenship or passport for more than forty tears. Why spend all of that money on persons who have one or more passports and are able to more than adequately fend for themselves? It should not be difficult for these "learned persons" among us to realize that the bedrock of our current crime situation has its main foundation within in this stateless multitude. And, if you look closely at the results of the Referendum you do not have to be a genius to see where the "Yes" did extremely well. Maybe all of those nice communities are made up of persons who just want what is best for their children, just like the communities who voted "No"; but their " No" was based on the fact that they had a problem voting "Yes" for those who have enough privilege already.
We seemed not to have learnt much in our first half-century of nationhood and those among us who have sense seems to have taken leave of theirs. Prime Minister Perry Christie, Bishop Gomez, Minister Fred Mitchell, Justice Anita Allen, Professor Ruby Nottage, the Yes Campaign, Sean McWeeney, Ed Fields, Wayne Munroe and many others have written themselves into a page of history, where we will not see much editing in the future; just additions, as the people they claim to serve realize that this very " class oriented" grouping only care for friends and family. Their failure to see their national responsibility may just be an indication that "we" who are being led will have to take our citizenship responsibilities more seriously.
Like the first Prime Minister said, "If you are not prepared to fight for your country, you do not deserve to have it". Our present Prime Minister may not be remembered with any such distinction of being able to stand up for anything as the leader of the Opposition was able to call him out on the floor of the house, being caught in an obvious lie about what he claims the leader of the Opposition said or promised about his support for the Referendum. House records show the since 2014 the leader of the Opposition is on record stating the Bahamians should vote their conscience.
Perhaps this is a good place for us to begin, let us fight to get a sense of our conscience back, too many of those who want to lead us do not seem to have any.
Sincerely,
Edward Hutcheson
June 23, 2016
