Thank you for allowing us the space to express our gratitude.

The Physical Abuse Centre is a charitable organisation, committed to providing safe refuge for women and children who are experiencing domestic violence. We also provide short-term counselling, education and intervention.

On behalf of the Directors, Staff and Clients of The Physical Abuse Centre, I wish to extend thanks and congratulations to the Bermuda community for once again, making our Annual Tag Day a success. The total amount collected on Thursday and Friday October 6 and 7 was $19,987.82.

We appreciate the co-operation of the many business who allowed us to distribute tags outside their premises on those days, as well as the store owners who collected donations at their place of business on our behalf.

We also take this time to acknowledge those individuals and organisations that year after year unselfishly volunteer their time to tag for us. It is only with the support received from businesses and individuals like you that we are able to effectively carry out our mission each year.

Again, thank you for your interest in our cause. We value the part you play in our success as we all work together to make this a safer and healthier community.

JUNE AUGUSTUS, J.P. (MRS) Chairperson The Physical Abuse Centre Test not so random November 21, 2000 Dear Sir, I used to play softball; commercial league slow-pitch softball, get-some-exercise, have-some-fun, softball.

Not any more.

Why not? Government has locked the softball diamond at Bernard Park. Why? Because the softball players refused to sign up to random drug testing. Not testing for performance enhancing drugs, but marijuana and cocaine.

Not a test for cause, but a random test. A test that vehicle drivers do not have to take. A test that politicians (at least one Government MP has publicly stated that he would refuse) do not have to take.

A test that the civil servants who enforce it do not have to take. A test that child-care givers do not have to take. A test that lawyers, accountants, businessmen and women, blue collar workers, do not have to take. Why? Because we want to play softball.

Over a thousand people used to play. Why has it stopped? Because we refused to submit to the randomly enforced indignity of a drug test. A test that allows officials to turn up at your residence or place of business, unannounced, and insist that you, in their full view, strip from the waist down and pee into a cup. Why? Because we want to play softball.

Why are they doing this? To make Bermuda residents healthier. By taking away sports.

PAS City of Hamilton P.s. Commercial Slow Pitch Softball is not funded by Government. It is self-funded and pays for the use of the softball facilities.

Improve PLP standards November 23, 2000 Dear Sir, I am appalled that we are now told to respect the MP's. One has respect for others not because of their title in life, but for the simple fact that they are respected, having obviously earned that respect for their caring of others, their respect of others, their professionalism and for their general good nature and intelligence.

One in a public position must at all times be professional and behave in a manner that will automatically earn them respect.

If Miss Webb continues in this highly unprofessional behavioural pattern, she will continue to lose what little respect she may somehow have earned in the past.

Dr. Brown should certainly not defend or support this type of behaviour.

Come on PLP, improve your standards as you are the teachers for Bermuda's children and their future.

KATHY A. LIGHTBOURN St. George's Hard to respect November 23, 2000 Dear Sir, Minister Ewart Brown seems to have lost sight of the fact that respect has to be earned.

It is hard to respect anyone who breaks the law of the land by speeding at twice the speed limit, imports cars larger than the legal size, expects an automatic upgrade from independent airlines, and abuses the Police for doing their duty.

It is also disturbing that Mr. Brown cites the West Indies as a role model for Government behaviour. We all know what a shambles the respective governments have made of their countries down there. Can anyone name a country in Africa or the West Indies that has benefited from independence? I think not.

PISCES Paget Equality's not harmony November 27, 2000 Dear Sir, I was quite amused at the high level of ignorance in your editorial today (Monday, November 27), so much so that I feel compelled to write about it.

It's quite obvious that you are not happy with comments made by Rev. Dr.

Goodwin Smith at the last forum on Constitutional change, but that is not what took the proverbial cake.

I quote: "By the same token, anyone who sees single-seat constituencies without regard to parish boundaries as the next great leap towards racial equality is going to be sorely disappointed; that day will come when hearts, not laws, are changed.'' Clearly you are confused about, or seek to mislead your readers on, the difference between racial equality and racial harmony.

I say this because I am sure that the vast majority of those affected by racism would love to have both, but would be more than happy to settle for equality under the law, even in the absence of harmony.

Had you not been so myopic in your thinking, you would have realised that as long as people are denied such equality, that change of heart you write about is nothing more than a grand fantasy and ultimately destructive illusion.

You should also take note that the public notices your publication's selective positioning of articles on this matter. Judging by the printing of numerous letters, full-page editorials in the Mid-Ocean News and your numerous calls for consultation, I was under the impression that this was the most important issue facing Bermuda's future.

Why then was the report on the second Government forum covered so briefly on Page 8, while angry reaction to PLP MP Renee Webb's claims of Police corruption received the newspaper headline of the day? Then, on Saturday, the Rev. Dr. Goodwin Smith's comments at the forum gets shuffled to Page 2, while UBP MP John Barritt's highly-speculative "concern'' on a single comment made at the forum gets the headline in the first newspaper of the week! Are we to really believe that there is no method to the madness evident in your biased reporting of the country's news? I suggest that if it is racial harmony that you are after, then perhaps you should start with affecting racial equality within the reporting of your own newspapers! Whether you want to admit it or not...through agenda, ignorance, or incompetence, your publications have done more damage to achieving racial harmony in this community than you can possibly imagine.

WATCHFUL EYE Somerset Editor's Note: There is a distinction between racial harmony and racial equality and it would have been better to use the former phrase and to state that whether single-seat constituencies constitute the next great leap towards racial equality remains to be seen.

Elections through single-seat constituencies are not the most representative form of democracy for reasons which have been gone into ad nauseum.

Our will be done November 21, 2000 The following was sent to Pamela F. Gordon, Opposition Leader and copied to The Royal Gazette .

Dear Ms. Gordon, I address you as a Bermudian -- one with great concern about our country! Before I address my concerns, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for conducting a conference, (November 21) for concerned Bermudians, with total aplomb, class and truth.

I specifically and personally appreciated the conduct of the entire panel in the manner in which each questioner was treated -- with respect, honour and enlightenment! You and your panel are to be commended for your patience, candor, and concern for us -- each of us -- your fellow Bermudians! My specific concerns center, not with just today, but generations to come, whether we are a dependent territory or an independent jurisdiction.

Whichever we are, or will be, there is one first basic right, and that is humanity, and from that we may extrapolate one's individual comfort that their elected representatives care to include each and every one of us in something as basic as "OUR RIGHTS''.

I agree we naturally assume those rights on a daily basis, ie, my right to vote, my right for justice, my right to live as I choose (within our laws).

But, my most important right is my representation of all of the above -- without that, I have no WILL!! That is as basic as anything and everything I hold dear and cherish, my WILL! I implore you and every member of our community, our Bermudian brothers and sisters, to wield whatever is necessary to ensure that each of us retain OUR WILL! With respect and admiration for your continued concern, and all Bermudians, who expected and honour our WILL!! NORMAL M. CROSS Hamilton Parish