My family went to dinner at L’Oriental in the first week of 2017 and next to us was a table of what looked like 18 to 20-year-olds eating, drinking and talking. Six of them were black and six of them were white, having a good time. In contrast to that age group, my peers that same week were bickering over the airport debacle, the Reverend Nicholas Tweed and the threat of labour withdrawal during the America’s Cup.

This is election year. My generation and your generation need to decide what we want out of life, what we want for our future generations and how we can achieve a better Bermuda where the economic divide is narrowed.

Our colour, our religion, our roots and our political ideologies can only be secondary if we want to turn around our country and make it a better place than what we inherited.

If we continue to step back and give free rein to the politicians, we get what we vote for. It seems evident that tunnel vision occurs in the back rooms of politics, and the drum of one-sided views beats a rhythm of divisiveness that does not address real issues such as education, tax reform, social services reform, crime, seniors homes, community centres, growing small businesses and reinventing Bermuda’s business model so that its gross national product is not 80 per cent reliant on international business. Maybe we need to get off the fence and become involved in steering our future.

All Bermudians need to support Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda as it moves forward with addressing the issues of discrimination through its “truth and reconciliation” proposal. It would be beneficial for churches to preach in the house of God and leave the pulpit out of the politics. It would stabilise us if Bermuda’s labour leaders would stick to the business of unionism. There is much work to be done and, like a needle that is stuck in the groove of a scratched record, we need to move the parameters of politics so that we stop repeating the words and instead action the solutions that lie in printed pages of research reports and commissions of inquiries that have gathered dust over the decades.

A unified Bermuda is the only way forward; this much I know is true. So my generation and your generation need to visit the Alaska Hall, where the Progressive Labour Party is located, and visit the offices on Reid Street of the One Bermuda Alliance.

Do you see a party that represents business, capitalism and growth? Do you see a party that represents the social needs of the people and can effectively run the country financially without cronyism? Is there a political party that does not see your colour, religion, roots, sexual identity or economic background; but sees you first and foremost as a Bermudian and is a party that is not deaf to public opinion, is not on a pedestal of self-worship?

It takes courage to get actively involved in politics, even if working behind the scenes.

The millions of protesters in the United States as a result of Donald Trump becoming president is too little, too late. Americans are stuck with how they voted for the next four years. And what a vicious campaign it was.

I have been sitting on the fence for a long time and enjoying the freedom of neutrality that comes with it, but this is the year that I will step down and make a choice.

I will choose to join a political party and work within to be a part of the Bermudian mass that wishes to steer our island off its course of self-destruction and bring it on a course that will make us unified, educated, economically sound and socially conscious.

I hope my generation and your generation will do the same. Whichever political party you choose, I will respect you because that is what democracy should be about.