Letter to the Editor
The right to fight for what'syour own
Dear Sir:
I reply to Mr. Gardon Barlow's letter inthe Cayman Net News publication and also to his follow-up letterin the November 28 and 30, 2000 publication where he mentionedthat "Some native Caymanians are unfriendly to non-Caymanians(foreigners)".
It is my personal conviction that the few people in the CaymanIslands who write letters bickering Caymanians, obviously havenothing much to do. I envy you because your life must be so simpleif you have all the time in a day to cause such uproar.
Is this the ground upon which we now stand? Will there continueto be constant letters like yours? All our rights of citizenshipand navigation are to begin anew, and that with loss of characterto begin with. If there is sense enough left in the heart to calla blush into the cheek, you must be ashamed to appear.
And as to the writers of letters like yours, the hypocrites inpublic life, the Cayman Islands will be puzzled to decide whetheryou are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandonedgood principles, or whether you ever had any.
There was a time when the fame of Caymanians, moral and political,stood fair and high in the Cayman Islands. The luster of CaymanIslands progression extended itself to every individual; and tobe a citizen of the Cayman Islands gave a title to respect inthe public forum.
Neither meanness nor ingratitude had been mingled in the compositionof our character. Since that time new schemes of politics, andnew distinctions of people, have arisen. Caymanians are lost inthe midst of this era. Where are we now? How do we illuminatethe society again?
Some suggest that we must fight for our country. But I ask, howdo we possibly conquer what was once ours in a society where weare so few?
I declare myself opposed to several views regarding Caymanians,particularly on point of popular belief that Caymanians are alazy breed of people, and not just because I am a Caymanian, butbecause I am a man of morals.
I believe that all Caymanians have the right to live in theseislands without having to read the constant slander regardingthem.
The proposal in this letter I allude to, is to get over the wholedifficulty at once, by annexing respect for Caymanians and appreciationto be able to share our island with us; in order for everyoneliving here to be able to stand on firm ground and call this ourhome.
Why make mention that there are good and bad people everywhere?We know this, but there is no reason for us to continue to employthis notion, for if we do, we will only continue to rule out thepossibilities. Lets try to make Cayman a better place for everyoneto live. Whether it takes 10 or 25 years to do so.
Impressed, as I was, with publications like that by J Robert Bodden,who had Caymanians constantly in his mind it seems, I must disagreewith a couple of his observations about what Caymanians must doto "heal our scars".
Having a new motto or a new flag are not going to give Caymaniansthe gear needed to give us hope for the future. The first andstill more the second part bear evident marks of this watchfulness;getting a first class education (whether it be here or aboard)goes more directly to the point than either of the former.
I have always considered that a foreigner might be a member ofa society, and a citizen of our country; and I have uniformlyacted upon this distinction. To be a citizen of our country, sucha person must be in allegiance to this country and to the peoplelocally.
If foreigners have any resentment, the public acknowledges thatthey have been hasty in declaring it when they have done so; neithershould it now be declared (for what are private resentments tothe public) if the cause of it did not unite you with the Caymaniansas well as with the public but just with your private character.
I accede with Carley E Ebanks when he said that he appeals toCaymanians to stand up and be counted in their own country.
Carson H. Bush