I am angry and disappointed, and I’ll tell you why. Many years ago, a very bright and impressionable young man, a cousin by the way, named Atlin Harrigan, impressed by what he had learned in a distant land – and being a very smart and intelligent young fellow – decided that, based on what he had seen and learned abroad, the conditions under which his people back in Anguilla lived were horrendous and therefore totally unacceptable. Never one to settle, Atlin would set out on an odyssey – one that would lead to better living for his people, not just for some, but for all.
It was at this time that he and members of my and several other families of Island Harbour, in the living room of my father Walter Hodge’s house at Junks Hole, set in motion the seeds that would eventually sprout our revolution. Now just about everyone knows about the series of letters that Atlin wrote to the then editor of The Democrat newspaper, Nathaniel Hodge – letters which chronicled the harsh, almost inhumane, conditions under which we as Anguillians lived. Everyone knows that Ronald Webster is credited with being the Father of the Nation, but as Colville Petty pointed out in his book, Bless Our Forebears, if Ronald is the Father of the Nation, then Atlin is its mother, for it was Atlin who gave birth to the idea.
I know right now, on the eve of our upcoming election, that a lot of animosity exists among our people, especially in my home village of Island Harbour, and I’d like to think that none of it was politically motivated but, unfortunately, that is not the case. When you see and hear what has taken place, the fact that a few selfish individuals threatened to wreck our village’s Festival Del Mar, was simply shameful. Fellows, what you did was low – about as low as you can go. It showed a lack of class and you will never live this one down. The very same thing that you said you didn’t want to happen is exactly what you wound up doing. What this says about us in Island Harbour is that we’re selfish. I can understand that this being an election year, why you may not want any particular individual to gain an advantage, but what you did was nothing short of political brinkmanship. You took a boat race intended to honor one of our local heroes, Mr. Elliot Webster, a stalwart in the revolution and in the community, and turned it into a political football.
I was very impressed by the actions of Mrs. Elliot Webster (Sylvia Webster) when she stood up and refused to let the lot of you embarrass the memory of her loving husband for political gain. Othlyn and Lorenzo, it would have been very statesmanlike had both of you intervened and stopped what was going on from happening. It showed a lack of leadership skills on both your parts. What all of you allegedly did, or conspired to do, was wrong and none of you will ever live this one down. You took an event which celebrated our way of life and our culture in Island Harbour and you used it for political gain and we’ll never forgive you for that. Why don’t all of you who tried to bury Palmavon Webster, who has been the sole sponsor of this event even when she wasn’t in politics, do the decent thing and apologize for the shabby and cunning manner in which you went about this. Or maybe you all should sponsor a new boat race and call it the Nick and Maclean Webster Memorial Race. How about that? Again, hats off to Sylvia and her boys, my cousins too by the way, for standing up and doing the right thing. To the rest of you, I say shame. Every last one of you ganged up on Pam and I guarantee you that this episode will long be remembered and will see the lot of you for what you truly are, opportunists. Political gadflies!!!
What has happened to us? Did we forget from whence we came? Did we forget those days when we went to school on some days with empty stomachs? Did we forget when we went to school barefooted, walking on roads that weren’t paved, walking on rocks and in potholes the size of a neighboring village? Did we forget the cracked and broken toes? Did we forget that we had latrines – and no toilet paper that was a luxury afforded to our teachers only? Did we forget that the Public Works Department would come by and scoop out the excreta at the beginning of every school year in plain sight of the classrooms? Did we forget that we prepared the Klim milk not very far from there and, for most of us, that was all we had in our stomachs till we could get back home.
We seem to have forgotten those days. We seem to have forgotten those people who lent a helping hand because it was the neighborly thing to do. But back to Atlin and the transformation that he brought about, for without his tenacity, his bull doggedness, our revolution would never have come to fruition. Did he do this all by himself? He’d be the first one to tell you no. Did Ronald achieve all that was done all by himself? He would also be the first one to tell you no. Has he come forward to credit those who stood shoulder to shoulder with him? Not in so many words. Now I know that Mr. Webster hasn’t been feeling very well of late, and in his own special way has offered an olive branch to those who fought the good fight, and no matter what he says or does, will not satisfy everyone – and, in light of everything that has gone on in Island Harbour, now is as good a time as any to set the record straight but, as the saying goes, you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of them all of the time.
While Atlin did not cash in on his celebrity, like many of the others did, he was truly an Anguillian patriot of the highest order, and was so recognized by Her Majesty, the Queen of England with an OBE, an award that I believe did not do him justice. And while he fought for a better Anguilla, there were those in his village who opposed him tooth and nail in much the same way that they are treating Ms.Palmavon Webster right now. Mr. Harrigan did go on to become the Speaker of the House, a job, I might add, that he performed with great pride. Atlin may not have been given the accolades that he so earnestly deserved, but when the history of Anguilla is told he will be front and center with Mandela-type praise for his contributions, along with the other greats of that chain of islands we so lovingly refer to as the British West Indies.
Today, we barely stand on the threshold of the twenty first century in which, if we are to move forward, our way of doing things must undergo a dramatic transformation. No longer can we expect it to be business as usual. No longer can we expect to have committees stacked with cronies – just collecting gratuities without a clue of why the hell they are getting them. No longer can we hire our friends and family members when there are qualified applicants out there who can do the jobs. We have to change the way in which we approach things. We simply cannot go on without a plan. Colin Powell, the retired four star general, who served his country with distinction, has said, referring to battle, that you can’t start a war without having an exit strategy. I say that to say that we cannot, as a government, approach any project without being able to answer any questions that may arise. Just about everyone faulted Mr. Webster for his administrative style. Some even went as far as calling him dictatorial. In retrospect now, it is easy to see why he may have adopted that style of governance for, in light of all that has happened in our homeland, it was probably the only way to get anything done. Someone made the comment that trying to get anything done in Anguilla is tantamount to herding cats – and one knows that that’s simply not done.
Today, we have reverted back to just being ordinary folk. The once proud standard by which our Caribbean brothers and sisters were once measured has lost some its sheen. The entrepreneurial spirit that we exhibited in the early days has trickled down to a whimper. We were known for our boat building and navigational skills, our aviation boldness… I could go on and on. We were an exceptional breed of people and we can be that way again. The question that now arises is, where do we go from here? What is it that we are going to do? What we cannot continue to do is continue on the same path, for it is fraught with dangers and without a leader who can navigate the treacherous waters, we’ll never find a safe harbour, one that will allow us to replenish that Anguillian spirit, the “Spirit of ’67,” when we came together as one.
To those of you who are contesting the right of certain individuals to cast a ballot, who ordained you as such? Who gave you the right? Are you that desperate that you feel that the only way you can win is by limiting the votes of your opponents? How did we get to this? Sam, you and the others who hatched up this scheme, ought to be ashamed of yourselves that you would try to disenfranchise our people – that you would even have the balls to entertain such harebrained idea. That you would stop an Anguillian from exercising his or her constitutional right. Shame on all of you. Sam, your brother who is my cousin, on both mother and father’s side, disqualified himself when he teamed up with Hubert Hughes and the AUM. Now some may say that Hubert isn’t running again – and that may be so – but the fact of the matter is that this man referred to our revolution as a “skirmish,” and has said at numerous times that Robert Bradshaw was a great man, and that he learned his politics at Bradshaw’s feet. This is the philosophy that you want to carry forward Lorenzo, seriously?
You seem to have forgotten that this is the very same man who signed off on the local banks being taken over by ECCB. Are you OK with that? Are you OK with the fact that our shares now are probably not worth the paper that they’re printed on? Does that sit well with you, Lorenzo? Did you forget how they treated both your and my cousin Starry Benjamin, and even though she’s won her case and the appeal, they continue to drag it out? How do you feel about that, Mr. Webster? I don’t care what you have to say. The fact remains that you have kicked sand in the face of every person in Island Harbour who had anything to do with our revolution. Tell Wilkin Smith that it was a skirmish, tell Todville and Mitch Harrigan that it was a skirmish, tell that to Bull and all the others, who put their lives on the line that it was just a skirmish.
True, the CM may be not contesting a seat in the upcoming election but his philosophy, or rather that of Robert Bradshaw, is being carried forward by his AUM of which you are the titular head. So do you think that by donating a few laptops to the local schools, and by bringing in a cadre of doctors with cameras in tow, is enough to make you a winner?
Why didn’t you do this a long time ago? You do not enter a marathon at the halfway mark, like Rosie Ruiz in the New York marathon, and then streak to the finish line. That is not the way we were brought up. I’d like to think that chivalry is still alive and well.
So when the dust has cleared, the people of Island Harbour will remember how a few selfish individuals almost blew up their Festival Del Mar and all for purely selfish reasons, and just as God challenges Job when he asks in Chapter 38:4 “Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth? Declare if thou hast understanding?” – so I say unto you selfish gentlemen, who used our festival, held on the holiest of days to celebrate our culture and way of life for political gain: Where was thou when Pam Webster was the lone sponsor for the last six or seven years of the Elliot Webster Memorial Race? I ask again, of you carpetbaggers, where were you? Gentlemen, you have politicized our festival and for purely selfish reasons, in much the same way as the moneychangers used and abused Jesus’ temple to conduct their business. Maybe there’s some truth to the rumor that the new race will be called the “Nick and Maclean Webster’s Memorial Race.” To all of you, I say you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
We should never forget from whence we came for, if you know that, then you will have no trouble going forward – the possibilities according to American Laureate James Baldwin, are endless. We’ve braved some of the most difficult times that anyone should have had to face. We suffered through just about every conceivable hardship, and we survived. Every time we got knocked down we got up even more determined than the last. When the hurricanes knocked down our wooden homes we rebuilt them, this time, from concrete. When those were knocked down, we made the walls thicker and stronger, and we even changed our designs. We adapted something that we’ve been very good at. When Bradshaw impounded our mail we made alternate arrangements to guarantee that we’d still receive it. We’re a strong and resilient people and, later on this month, let us exercise our constitutional right and elect those people who we feel are best qualified to take this place forward.
Let us rekindle the “Spirit of ’67” and show the world what we’re made of. Vote your conscience and remember who has been there for you all along. Vote because you truly believe that the person you’re selecting is eminently qualified to do the job. So till next time, may God bless us all and may God Bless Anguilla.
