March 17, 2013Dear Sir,Although I had missed the original letter from ‘Lets Move On’ (The Royal Gazette March 14) and only read it after reading about the debate in the House of Assembly, I was rather surprised to find that the vast majority of the letter was hardly worth being discussed by our politicians. As a white person I too have heard on more than one occasion the type of facetious argument used by Lets Move On suggesting that black people should count themselves as lucky to have been taken out of Africa. It is a ridiculous argument and easily countered, which any right-thinking person should do without hesitation. That sentiment was clearly expressed by our politicians in the House and I commend them for doing so.But I would like to emphasise one point that it raises. If we stop people from freely expressing their opinions, whether through anonymous letters or otherwise, we would not be aware of their twisted thinking. It is precisely the same with some of the vile, hateful letters that have recently been published locally on the issue of extending equal rights to gays in Bermuda. Again, I totally disagree with their ignorant misguided comments but we need to know how such people are thinking because we are made acutely aware of their bigotry which, in turn, strengthens the argument for amending the Human Rights Act. I recently had a conversation with a well intentioned staunchly Christian lady about the extermination of Jews by the Nazis and she stated quite categorically “Well, the Jews killed Jesus didn’t they?” So, an entire ethnic group can be hated for eternity simply because our Saviour died on the cross to save us all?It is impossible to stop people from expressing such outrageously ignorant views, but if they remain silent we say nothing to them and they retain their bigotry. Denying free speech will not stop people from holding hateful bigoted views, but will simply keep the cancer hidden where it will breed without treatment. People have been writing anonymous Letters to the Editors of Bermuda newspapers for generations. Many have done so to protect themselves from the power structure when they challenge it. This applied when whites were seen to be in complete control, and more recently when a predominantly black Government ruled our country. Some write anonymously because their views may upset their employer, their church, their family, their neighbours, their peers, their community or their Government. By all means stop personal attacks by anonymous letters writers, but to deny people the right to express their views without having to identify themselves is a dangerous path to follow and will cause far more harm than good.COMMON SENSEFlatts