Mr Timothy Hodge, Director of Social Security, and an ardent supporter of the just-launched National Anti-Violence Campaign, has joined the increasing number of voices calling for an end to violence in Anguilla.
He was a speaker during the rally at the Rodney MacArthur Rey Auditorium which preceded the launch there of the National Anti-Violence Campaign on Friday, January 24.
Mr Hodge spoke against the backdrop of a violent fight that day on the school’s premises, and the series of violent acts that occurred on the island over a period of time.
“We need to stop the violence and return to being a disciplined society where our people had respect and love and cared for each other,” he stated in part. “Our young people must get away from this violence. We have to find alternative ways of dealing with our anger.
“I paid a visit to the prison recently and just about everybody in there was under 26 years old. One is left to wonder what kind of future our island is going to have. A little island like Anguilla is basically like a village in any larger country but has all of this violence. Our young people are being killed, paralysed and locked up due to this violence. We have to stop it otherwise Anguilla will be in big trouble.”
Mr Hodge continued: “Our young people need to think what would happen to them if their fathers were in a jail or in wheelchair or in the burial ground as a result of violence. Our young people must think about what they are doing to themselves, their families and other families before they commit this violence.
“The slogan for this anti-violence rally is ‘Be the Change’ and each of us needs to be that change; be the catalyst for change and the instrument for change. When this change comes about, we can return to being the peaceful society that we in Anguilla were always known to be.”
