A Glorious Opportunity

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I have undying faith in the people of Bermuda to find a better way to live together, to overcome obstacles and prevail.

The arc of our history is one that continues to bend toward a fairer, more just, more equitable society.

2009 is a glorious opportunity for us to move further along that arc, to recognize our success as a people, to take pride in the things we have done right, to affirm the values we share and use the lessons of our history to continue building toward that better Bermuda.

Ultimately, the goal for the celebration of 400 years should be to bring us closer together as one people.

If we can say at year end that we sharpened our sense of who we are as Bermudians; if we can see that we constitute an extraordinary family of people living together in a tough world, we will have done well.

But it will take responsible leadership to get us there; leadership that embraces our diversity; nurtures what unites us and recognises there is much to celebrate.

This will be a year in which we look at 400 years of our story as a people. It is very important that we be honest about that history and constructive in how we use it. It does no good to dwell on the past in a way that keeps us in the past. I want our history to be seen as a story that helps us be better. 2009 should be about the future, where we use the lessons of our past to help us move forward together.

There is much to be proud of, much that unites us. All of us can take pride in the fact that Bermudians have shown throughout our history that we are a resilient and resourceful people. All of us can be proud that we succeeded over time against isolating power of geography and limited natural resources to build a distinct culture and one of the most successful societies in the world today.

But we cannot leave the success of 2009 up to others. Each of us has a role to play, to be the best we can be. Each of us has it within our hearts to be better, to give real meaning to being a good neighbour, a better parent, a Good Samaritan, a more productive worker; to give expression to the best of ourselves as Bermudians.
All of us love our island home. Let us use the year ahead to make it even better.