REMARKS BY
THE
HON. FRED MITCHELL, M.P.
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
11th
September 2003
Christ Church Cathedral
MARKING
EVENTS SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001
This morning we all awoke to hear the sad news that the Foreign
Minister of Sweden was murdered while shopping in a department store. I have expressed my condolences officially to the Swedish
Government on this matter. It is a sign of the kind of price one pays
for public service and political life. It does not excuse or explain it
or make it acceptable but that is a sign of the times.
It makes this occasion today doubly sad. Last night on our
television screens, we saw again played out in slow motion, almost video
game like horror, the events of 11th September.
It has taken on a macabre fascination that if we are not careful
will trivialize the fact that almost three thousand families lost their
lives in New York, hundreds more in Washington and Pennsylvania. That
means that tens of thousands more have lost husbands, wives, brothers,
sisters, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers.
What The Bahamas shares with the civilized world is a common set
of values. Amongst the
values we believe and support are a political system where there is
pluralism of views, open, fierce and often argumentative competition,
division of the spoils and benefits of the society amongst all on a
rational and fair basis, without racial or religious or other
discrimination. We do not
support irrational, blind hatred. Our
recourse for change is our political system and our political system
must remain open and flexible to be able to accommodate both the need
for change and the changes themselves. We support the freedom of speech
and the freedom of movement, and the right of peaceful assembly.
Our countries have been able to survive because at the center of
the process of governance is a civil society, a civil polity that
subscribes to the view that each man or woman of mature age has his or
her say. That was the message that our country sent to your country
this same time last year. It
is a message that we have been sending; a creed in which we have
believed since the time our countries came into their existence.
I have, therefore, come this afternoon to repeat the message of
the past but also to reaffirm our commitment to those shared values for
the future. One thing that you should rest assured did not go up in the
smoke of the 11th September 2001 was those values.
We stand strong and committed to them, and to the survival of our
societies, as we know them today and as they have been known. Please
convey these sentiments to your President.
As we remember the tragic events of this day, I pray that
Almighty God will bring peace and comfort to those who mourn the loss of
loved ones, and that he will continue to bless the United States of
America and the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
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