Dear Sir,

On the second day of January 2020, you published a Rolfe Commissiong opinion called “The Bermuda I live in”.

Maybe it was his turn in the roster of hate mail and he could not resist the urge to spread some hatred. Whether the two simple stories he told were cock-and-bull stories or Hansel and Gretel stories, or even, true does not matter; he was spreading hatred.

Previously, I have complained of The Royal Gazette importing stories from another country which mine foreign past history to cause hatred in the present on our island. So now the hatred gang are inventing new ways to cause hatred and keep the disgraceful “Cabinet and friends” in power, and high salaries and pensions for cronies.

I do hate; I hate politicians who do not put the people of this country first.

Hate is rampant from them to continue doing that. Also I firmly believe Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda creates hatred; so did the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality before it.

When did you see a picture from either of them which gave a positive image?

The usual pictures are negative — ie, of two white cops on big motorbikes taken at the Belco confrontation in 1967. Cure published it in the Nineties. From Curb and many others, there were pictures of desperate police trying to allow the elected Parliament to meet. Such pictures were for political gain and do not encourage harmony among homo sapiens.

In many sports and endeavours particularly at charitable events, we have had positive images to promote racial harmony. Quite frankly, is it not about time that we grew up? Why not print pictures of positive events? The great majority of people in Bermuda get on well. Negative experiences may still happen.

I was shocked when recently I went to a funeral of a longtime Progressive Labour Party friend and bridge partner, and I was the only white person there.

I was greeted graciously by his widow and others, but as I left with another bridge player to whom I had given a lift, she stopped to speak to a reverend and I waited in line. As I turned to speak to him, he turned away; I am not used to that from anybody at a funeral and I was upset.

I hope he was distracted or had to run to the restroom, and I was therefore mistaken that it was racial; let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

The danger, Mr Editor, is that more of my friends of all stripes will increasingly say, “Why bother trying to get The Royal Gazette to change?”

Christopher Famous wants them not to bother. Again he has written negatively about bloggers, but that is all the opposition Bermuda has left.

There is very little to combat hatred, although Vic Ball and Nick Kempe try; Bryant Trew rarely writes any more. My friends with some African heritage battle privately for some sanity to give a hope for the future, but do not risk the wrath of the powers that be, especially if they have a job and more so if they are civil servants. Who can blame them? Stash enough away to get out of here.

A weak opposition in Parliament and a coterie of PLP supporters in all the media cause people to say negative things such as “Why bother? Our children are going abroad anyway if they have any talent.”

Pensions are gone except for the politicians and, to a lesser extent, civil servants. Healthcare is under attack, to whose benefit no one knows, and monies are disappearing again. There is no chance of any politician in power being prosecuted for misuse of funds; even the Proceeds of Crime Act is subject to PLP oversight.

JOE WAKEFIELD

Smith’s