This week marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, the summer when young college students of all races from around the country descended on Mississippi in an unprecedented move to register the black citizens of that state. The events of that summer set in motion a fight that would be long remembered as a defining moment in a country long scarred by the oppression of one group of people by another. But perhaps what was most remarkable was the fact that whites and blacks came together to right the injustices being perpetrated on the black citizens of the South. The brutal murder of three civil rights workers was the catalyst that set in motion the boiling point which was later chronicled in the movie Mississippi Burning. Ironically, the gains achieved from the blood, sweat and tears of all those volunteers from that fateful summer were reversed by the conservative stacked John Roberts Supreme Court, when it struck down Article Five of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. No sooner had the Supreme Court handed down their decision, which deemed Article Five to be unconstitutional, those Southern States, like Texas and Mississippi, put in place their restrictions on voting: things such as ID cards, less early voting days, less polling places and the list goes on. So the things that were hard fought for were gradually being lost, all because they neglected their democracy.
It has also been almost 50 years since we fought for our own self-determination and it’s amazing to see how we have also lost quite a bit of what we earned. Like our brothers and sisters in the Southern part of the United States, we too have slowly seen that which we aggressively fought for, slowly erode over the years. I don’t mean that in the sense that we had to fight for the right to vote, but our history suggests that we were susceptible to much harsher treatment than our black brothers and sisters. While we were an enslaved people, it was not on the scale as in other Caribbean nations, but slavery by any other name is still slavery. We had to endure a fate worse than slavery. We were abandoned as a people by those who were tasked to guarantee our welfare. Our history of benign neglect should be a slap in the face of our British protectors, but because we’re a passive people we let too much go without voicing our opinions. We have mastered the art of learned helplessness in which we tell ourselves this is our lot in life.
So having an idea of from whence we came makes it easier to understand what is happening as we go forward. Given what has happened to us in the past leads one to ask the question, why is it happening to us all over again? This time the perpetrators are the same as us. Why is that? One could possibly understand why someone else might ill-treat us, but when it’s our very own then it defies reasoning. When we see what is happening to us the blood of all of us should start to boil. We find ourselves some fifty years after that fateful day – when we decided with the help of some very brave souls, among them Atlin Harrigan, Ronald Webster, Walter Hodge, Jeremiah Gumbs, Wallace Rey, Bob Rogers, Collins Hodge, Peter Adams, John Webster and many others who, without much thought about themselves, lowered the longboats and rowed ashore to what became known as a new Anguilla – still struggling to find our way.
While our forefathers had great intentions, somewhere along the way the message has gotten very muddled. We have become a people who are now second guessing ourselves. We are asking for what did we fight? Were we not tired of being treated like second class citizens? Were we not tired of having to do without the bare necessities of decent living? Were we not tired of existing by the mere pittance from a central government who could care less? Were we not tired of seeing our mothers and fathers having to go away in search of a better way of life? Why then did we allow those who can best be described as carpetbaggers, with no skin in the game, to be the ones to determine our destiny? Did we not fight this fight once before? I’m reminded by Colville Petty’s book “Bless Our Forebears” in which he recalls that despite various constitutional changes, we remained powerless both socially and economically. He goes on to say that those conditions prompted a 1958 petition to Governor Alexander Williams to bring about the “dissolution of the political and administrative association of Anguilla with St. Kitts. The 3546 signatories warned the Governor that “a people cannot live without hope for long without erupting socially.” So here we are many years later, and the only thing that’s different are the players.
For far too long we have stood on the sidelines – as though paralyzed the way that a lizard becomes when it sees a snake – and accept as gospel the political quackery of our politicians. Are we not more sophisticated than that? Are we not independent thinkers? It is embarrassing to see us, a British Overseas Territory, in this day and age, suffering the way we are. Rome burns while Nero fiddles. Last week some sixty candidates graduated from the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School, and while it was impressive to see our young people who, as the principal Mrs. Ingrid Lake said, decided to follow the rules and regulations and came through with flying colors, it was disheartening to read the drivel of the CM. He had the temerity to tell them that “due to the difficult economic situation in Anguilla, the Government will be unable to provide jobs for endless school children.” He, however, urged them to prepare themselves professionally to take jobs on the island when they were created. Can you believe it? We don’t have money to provide scholarships, but we have it for the administration’s globe trekking. How in all decency can you with a straight face talk such nonsense? We are a democracy and we have the power to make change. Where are the jobs, what’s happening to our banks, our hotels? We have a lot of unanswered questions and given that elections are right around the corner, ne-er-do-well politicians are usually clamoring to make themselves look good. We tend to, as a people, to not want to get involved out of fear – fear of what those political hacks in power might do to us and, as a consequence, become complicit in our own failures. The Turks have a proverb that says: “It’s not only the fault of the axe, but the tree as well.” When we refuse to participate in our democracy, we become complicit in our own demise. We, in a sense, provide the wooden handle for the axe.
We can no longer blame Mr. Bradshaw. We can no longer blame the British, though they’ve been derelict in their duties as our protector. They’ve stood idly by and allowed us be bullied by one administration after another, some more than others. The question now becomes, what are we going to do about this? We’ve suffered first at the hands of an Empire which either didn’t know, didn’t want to know, or just didn’t care about a few thousand black people out in the middle of nowhere – despite our cries for help that were largely unheeded, and, in spite of it all, managed to survive. We’ve been tempered by famine, drought, slavery, and pestilence of every conceivable sort but, like the Phoenix, rose from the ashes more determined to succeed.
While we’ve made much progress, we tend to rest on our laurels. We’re only as good as our last achievement. It is sad to see that a people who once had such great potential, being reduced to such low status. When we have leaders who don’t believe in us as a people, who refer to us as beggars, and just plain stupid, what do we expect? When we have leaders who have lined their own pockets and have left the crumbs for the rest of us, what do we truly expect? We have the wherewithal to be an extremely successful people, if only we would work together. When we invest in our young, the returns are immeasurable. If we don’t help them today, we’ll have to take care of them tomorrow. This is a no-brainer. All one has to do is to look in the papers every year, around graduation time, to see the number of young Anguillians who have matriculated from some of the most prestigious institutes of tertiary learning in the US, Canada, the UK and, of course, our own UWI. We produce some of the brightest people in the Western Hemisphere, so why is it that we can’t seem to get our little thirty-five square mile rock up and running?
A reading of retired Justice Don Mitchell’s letter to the Father of the Nation, Mr. James Ronald Webster, might shed some much needed light. At the former Chief Minister’s request, Justice Mitchell’s letter addresses the need for checks and balances before even contemplating independence from Great Britain. The Judge has written extensively about Anguilla and was a former Chairman of a Constitutional and Electoral Reform Commission. Others, including myself, have argued that until such time as we have the infrastructure, the checks and balances of an equal and just society, and most importantly, the transparent art of good governance, then we’re doing nothing but running on the same spot. And given the adversarial nature of the party system, with the impending election just around the corner, we may very well have to take a page out of the UK’s playbook, and be forced into a coalition government which, in a sense, guarantees that everyone will have to work together – the alternative of which would be a dissolution of the House. And I honestly think all involved will avoid brinkmanship at all costs. This would be a way of keeping everyone’s feet to the fire. It rids the House of narcissistic politicians, not to mention the bad behavior on the House floor.
It has been fifty years since Freedom Summer, fifty plus years since the independence of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, fifty plus years since the collapse of the West Indies Federation and, last but not least, 50 years since we, as Anguillians, took that giant step of self-determination , but we can’t stop there. The world has become global and if we’re to compete, then we need to make the necessary sacrifices to educate and prepare our young
so that they are able to assume their rightful place on the global stage. In the coming years, our true test will be our ability to identify and participate in finding solutions to local as well as global problems concerning the environment, poverty, terrorism, drugs and gun running, illegal banking and an array of other issues. If we’re to do this, teamwork is of the essence. All hands need to be on deck, no exceptions. A recent survey has shown that in some countries women now earn more than men. Women are beginning to outperform men in education and, given that we’ve always stressed education as a way out of poverty, that is welcomed news. In 2011, Her Majesty, the Queen, gave a speech at the Commonwealth Conference highlighting the role of women in the future. Her Majesty said: “The theme of this year is ‘Women as Agents of Change.’ It reminds us of the potential in our societies that is yet to be fully unlocked, and it encourages us to find ways to allow girls and women to play their full part. We must continue to strive in our own countries and across the Commonwealth together to promote that theme in a lasting way beyond this year.”
Not only should women assume their rightful places, front and center, in the governing of our beloved country – our women have always been the bedrock of our nation and it’s time that they are given the opportunity to show what they’re capable of. We need women who still speak the truth, in power – women who are unafraid, who have the ability to think outside of the box and has that the “Wow” factor, the ability to get things done. Until that special someone steps up to the plate and hits one out of the park, to use a baseball analogy, let us keep looking. This upcoming election, let’s make it count. Until then, may God bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
