Dear Sir,

I read with interest your comment on October 2, 2019 about racial hatred and about an individual supporter of Vasco Da Gama who abused a black referee.

I also read recently a very virulent attack on Walker Zupp, whom Cheryl Gibbons believed to be a racist because he poked some fun at some folks in a pro-independence rally.

I thought that she was the racist person, but it did not end there; worse was to come.

On October 3, there was an article in the Opinion pages by Michele Norris about lynching in the United States; it was powerfully written and it also had a large picture of two black kids being hanged with a white throng observing.

The article distressed me. It appalled me. I have stewed about it since and considered never buying The Royal Gazette again.

A day later, Thomas Chatterton Williams, a black writer speaking as a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO said: “I am tired of people mining the past” to cause “outrage in the present”.

He is a US citizen. As far as I know, he was not speaking about Michele Norris. I doubt that Bermuda has had any lynchings; I am sure it would have been mentioned by someone by now. I know we had one burning at the stake — ostensibly for attempted murder.

Perhaps the inclusion of the Michele Norris article may be regarded as historically educational; if so, surely a note from yourself Mr Editor that no such thing has happened here as far as you know.

On the Sally Bassett matter, it may have occurred to Ewart Brown that in the 18th century in Hanoverian England, there were by 1799 almost 100 capital offences, usually aimed at the poor. For example, the punishment for clipping a coin of the realm — petty treason was the offence — was death by burning at the stake for women. Hanging was good enough for men.

Educationally, that would have balanced the books of hatred a little better if it had been mentioned in the press at the time of the statue’s unveiling.

But back to Thomas Chatterton Williams. He was speaking about fuelling outrage in his own country; The Royal Gazette was fuelling outrage from the history of another country; the picture was definitely worth a thousand words to the pro-hatred people. If this letter gets printed, maybe 200 people will read it; I am sure several thousand saw the picture and as a result of seeing it, half would read the exuberant and vibrant prose of Ms Norris, resulting in more hatred.

Lastly, Mr Editor, Mitch Landreau, in talking about Trumpian politics, recently said that it is “divide by design” and that it is time “to put the country before party politics”. How appropriate.

We are far better off than most of the world and we do have some problems, but as my greatest hero, Margaret Mead, once said: “We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.”

As the Premier, David Burt, has indicated in his speech regarding the new national holiday, we should unite as a nation; I do not believe that we can do that if we continue to mine the past to cause outrage in the present, which can only further divide us.

JOE WAKEFIELD

Smith’s