My fellow Anguillians, as the sun, rose this morning above the rugged coastline of Island Harbour, and as the sweet tranquil breeze from our turquoise waters kissed my face, my heart felt so grateful to be a partaker of Tranquillity wrapped in blue. This is indeed a great treasure that is ours, a land blessed with such beauty and serenity, a land which we must cherish and protect.
I am even more grateful to see the bright smiles and to hear the laughter of our children as we gather on this important occasion; a reminder to all of us that the work we do, the advances that we make, the examples that we set and the legacy that we leave behind is for them; they are the promise, our children are the hope of this nation.
On this day we remember the Anguilla Revolution, we remember Ronald Webster, the father of the nation, we remember the many sacrifices made by the revolutionaries who paved the way for an Anguilla that is free, an Anguilla that is self-governed and an Anguilla that is poised for better days.
In order for us to chart a course to prosperity for our people, we must lay aside every weight that so easily besets us. We must put aside hatred, malice, envy and jealousy and in the true Anguillian spirit – embrace each other in love, with respect and humility. Where are the days when we offered a helping hand to a fallen brother or sister? Where are the days when we showed genuine love and concern for our neighbours and our communities? These are the intrinsic values that we have lost over the years. We have allowed individuals and personalities to divide us along political lines to such an extent that we no longer see people anymore, but partisan political affiliations. We have allowed social status to dictate how we view our fellow citizens – through a lens of material wealth and the prominence of a family name; through the lens of the Haves and Have Nots. Indeed we have forsaken our first love. This is not Anguilla that our forefathers foretold. A nation divided against itself cannot stand. We are indeed our brother’s keeper and we must practice this in every area of our society.
Today, we see the potential of this great nation, and we know that to achieve the vision of an Anguilla that is peaceful and prosperous we must do our part to make this a reality. To maintain the status quo would be a betrayal of the hopes and dreams of the revolution. To maintain the status quo would be to neglect cancer eating away at the once strong bonds between us. Where there is unity, there is strength; where there is a will, there is a way. We must begin to rebuild the walls as Nehemiah did – one brick at a time, to restore the gates of our beloved society, one beam at a time. The vision of One Anguilla is not a cliché, it is our pathway to a better nation, a stronger nation, a nation that recognizes that the spiritual and moral values that have served us well in the past, will do so again.
And so, on this Anguilla day, I make a clarion call to every Anguillian to Let Love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. My prayer today is that our Heavenly Father will bless our nation, that He would reignite the love between our people and the values upon which our nation was founded. That God will grant us the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to take this country forward in the spirit of One Love, One Family, One Destiny, One Anguilla.
