“…an era’s errors…”

And for the life of me, I also find myself wondering why so very many Bahamian people who happen to be members of the Church Universal are not saying more as to why they are opposed to capital punishment, abortion and euthanasia; and why Bahamians who say they are Christians should try being a tad more hospitable to people who are poor and black

And for sure, I am also trying to understanding what part of NO some monster-men and their so-called spiritual advisers do not or cannot understand.

In this regard, take note that just the other day - and here I suspect that it just might have been last Saturday in the early afternoon, for as much as I could now care - I spent some time talking to a bishop.

For as much as I know or care, this dude is the husband of one wife; and for what it is worth, he always has a lot to say about a lot of what is going on in our country.

To make this sad story short, I discovered that this brother of mine is mired in a world view where fear reigns supreme/ and so it was that when we talked about the so-called ÔHaitian problem' in the Bahamas, his immediate response that some of these people had to be taught the lesson that the law was there to be obeyed/ and something else to the effect that if you don't listen/ you would be made to feel the full force of the law.

Put simply, the law - to him- was something like a tire-iron put to good use/ to bust your head open and then you would think twice before even thinking about coming to the Bahamas.

Evidently, these Haitians - these dreaded ones - do not include the ones who are this good bishop's Haitians.

And so as to make that story come to an end, I agreed with him that all the Haitians in the Bahamas should be rounded up and sent back to Haiti/ and I said to him that I accepted his bishop's wisdom that told him that the problems these people face have something or the other to do with the facts that they are both black and that they have a religion that is known as vodun/ and that they are - for that reason- to be despised.

And while I thought these thoughts, it dawned on me that some of our brothers and sisters are still braving the seas, and are making it safely to shore, thanks be to God.

But even here I am not hearing a peep - at least not publicly- from some clerics and religious who do know better and who do know that - as Christians - we are enjoined to welcome the stranger.

Instead, the arena is left to the vultures, jackals and hyenas who are always somewhere near when people are hurting, suffering and dying.

As I have previously suggested, "Despite their full and complete knowledge that most of the strangers who are fleeing Haiti and arriving on Bahamian shores are people who are escaping some of the most wretched conditions imaginable, today's newly - empowered and newly - voiced fascists are shouting it out loud and clear that there is no space in this inn for the wretched of the earth Haitian people.

"This in itself is sad enough. There should always be space enough in this Christian society for those who come in search of freedom, and who ask of their brothers and sisters fire, water, and food.

"This Haitian thing is bringing out the worst in some of our people. One man talks ominously about sitting on a time bomb.

Another puffs himself up to the highest volume and lets loose with the dreadful prediction that in twenty years they - meaning The Dreadful Black Haitians - will outnumber us!

"Now that you know the truth, be reminded about what Jesus Christ had to say about the fact that the Haitians are coming. As the scriptures tell us:

"For the Lord, your God, is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt" (Dt 10:17-19).

Jesus echoes this tradition when he proclaims prophetically, "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me" (Mt 25:35).

As Pope John Paul II noted, "In many regions of the world today people live in tragic situations of instability and uncertainty. It does not come as a surprise that in such contexts the poor and the destitute make plans to escape, to seek a new land that can offer them bread, dignity and peace. This is the migration of the desperate . . ."

This great migration will continue as it should and as it must.

And for sure, I know it for a clear and clean certainty, if Bahamians fail to do justice; the day will come when we shall surely call out to the rock to hide us from the vengeance of our immortal ancestors.

Sadly, none of this need be the case.

We can repent of errors made in a past era; and once and for all appease our immortal ancestors whose wrath will fall upon us all if we fail to do right.

Here I remember that while Pindling is gone, the residue of some of his great failures continue to echo and reverberate.

This is so because some of those who now carry on are doing so in a manner that is simply slavish. For fear of having to think about doing anything new, these men and women continue some of Sir Lynden's more egregious errors.

Two of these now come to mind; with the first and most egregious are policies put in place that have had the effect of alienating people born in this land from this land, its cherished values and from God's own word.

My reference here is to the fate and current condition of children born to undocumented [Haitian] migrants.

To this date, no change has been made to a policy that is demonstrably inefficient, morally suspect and shabbily counter-productive in a modern Bahamas.

The second error made in the Pindling era had to do with his administration's utter failure as regards land policy, particularly when it had to with land for the landless.

And for sure, Pindling's failure to put capital punishment to sleep or [better still] to death, remains a nightmare in a land where the rich and the powerful can and do routinely get away with some of the crimes they commit.

Of course, Pindling made a number of other sad mistakes.

Another big bundle of mistakes that he made had to do with how he dealt with any and all who had any potential of ever upstaging or standing up to him.

As I recall, he cut them all down to size; thus explaining how some tall men [like you know who] who always seemed so short whenever they were anywhere near the Chief.

And so the political story of the seventies and eighties and nineties and into this twenty first century is a story redolent of smallness, pettiness, spite, greed, puffery and the purest foolishness about some quiet revolution that was so quiet, the poor people woke up to discover that it had come and gone.

I am still waiting for the arrival of the real revolution.