Nat Hodge and David Carty have been close friends and associates for years. This week, David penned a few words in personal tribute to Nat and the contribution he has made to the principles and freedom of expression:
Nat Hodge is not just a dear friend; he is a genuine Anguillian hero and I am blessed to have known him for the past forty-eight years.
It is not uncommon to read stories or look at documentaries of people in more developed countries who have been recognised highly for overcoming personal setbacks in their lives – and rising to heights of personal and professional achievement.
Media, both in print and film, revel in these human-interest stories, in part because they simply make good stories and because they inspire. After all, the power to inspire rests in a good story, especially if it is true.
We here in Anguilla, need not go overseas to find those stories. We can just as easily look to Nat. Perhaps we have known him for so long, and he has always been there with us, covering the news, taking pictures at every function and keeping us informed, we have not stopped to consider deeply the heavy cross he has had to bear for all of his long life with his impediment of speech.
For the vast majority of us, communication through normal conversation, through speeches or talks – formal or informal – is as ordinary as brushing our teeth or tying a shoe lace. We take it for granted, and never stop to think how essential that ability is for the smooth functioning of our lives and society where easy communication is the lifeblood of commerce and community. But we should stop for a minute and think about what our lives would be like if we had to struggle to utter every word of conversation, every word of instruction and every word of love.
This has been Nat’s reality and struggle for seventy-eight years, a struggle he has risen above in heroic humility to make a lasting impression on his community. We should pause to remember that as a young educated Anguillian in the 1960s very few professions were available in the colony of St Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla for someone like Nat.
For obvious reasons, he could not become a teacher and failed for the same reasons to become a policeman. But although almost every door was closed to him because of his condition, Nat knew one thing. He knew that he could write.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. If this is true, we need to remember that as a young Nat Hodge wrote for the St Kitts Democrat newspaper in the early 1960s when it was the sole opposition voice to Robert Bradshaw who was then at the height of his power. We cannot imagine the political pressure and hot coals of vile attack heaped on that paper and on Nat not just for his dissenting views, but also because he was Anguillian. In the face of enormous abuse, Nat never waivered or compromised his principled points of opposition to a very popular and powerful St Kitts Labour Party.
We need to remember his alacrity to serve the revolution and his pioneering work in Radio Anguilla, when it was located in an old storeroom of the Agricultural Station, and how he wrote news stories which were at the time critical of public policy- and drew the ire of H.M. Commissioner and the British overseer of the young Radio Anguilla – Mr Roy Dunlop.
We should remember that along with myself, a high school teacher at the time, we were given special dispensation, under General Orders, to edit and write for the Anguilla Times, Anguilla’s second and short-lived newspaper which tried to speak truth to power at a time when Government controlled all media save for that paper.
I can personally attest to witnessing withering verbal abuse heaped on Nat by some politicians, one of whom became a Chief Minister, simply because Nat could not defend himself orally. I cannot describe here how infuriating that was to see.
We need to remember the landmark decision of the “Talk Your Mind” case where a Putin-style Chief Minister tried to stifle freedom of expression in Anguilla – and was halted in doing so by the Privy Council in a ruling that has now allowed a plethora of views to be freely aired on radio.
Nat may not have made the case in oral argument to the highest court simply because he couldn’t, but it was Nat’s idea to introduce the Talk Your Mind show ably hosted by Mr John Benjamin. It was Nat’s idea to give a voice to dissent. It was his commitment to the fundamental principle of freedom of speech which helped deepen our democracy.
But above all, it was Nat’s relentless, dedicated and unswerving duty to his brainchild,“The Anguillian” newspaper, that will forever secure his legacy. Even in today’s world where social media dominates the “News” (if one can call it that), and the ubiquity of cell phones deludes some of us into believing we are the sole custodians of the truth, “The Anguillian” still remains a pillar of accurate information and balanced opinion that has helped our development as good as any Government or private enterprise. And this cornerstone of our island home is due to the work and dedication of one man – Nat Hodge.
Now that he is contemplating retiring from full-time service at the newspaper, others will have to step up and fill his very big shoes. But even in semi-retirement, I expect that Nat will be rooting for his successors, for all those who will help to keep The Anguillian alive and well and who like Nat, a true hero, remain true to the democratic principles and freedom of expression.
