The best times of our lives as Bahamians are just ahead. We are a blink away from thinking that the world is crashing in on us to seeing that all things are bright and fair. We are one deep breath away from that moment in history when a sigh of frustration becomes a national song of inspiration. We are on the last lap of a journey which began so seemingly difficult and impossible that the magnitude of the victories thus far burst even beyond the chests of those who fell into the dust of time along the way.For those who possess those visionary eyes to see and are attentive to ears which truly hear, the message of this time in our history is louder than any obstacle, dilemma or crisis which looms large upon the horizon. It is a message of substance, an evidential argument for a better world, of a hopeful people, of a new day, even as economies threaten to crash and individuals in every nation around the world struggle to hold on to timeless pursuits of peace, prosperity and the ability to dream.
For The Bahamas, it is a Country and a people who though ravaged by natural disasters and economic hardship will go on to great wealth and a loftier existence because circumstance forced us to. There in the Spirit and ability of ordinary Bahamians to readjust and overcome adversity lay the creativity and wherewithal to usher in an even better way of life.
There can be no doubt that shifting possibilities in wealth creation the world over, will lead to the shifting of the energies and mindsets of a people forced by time to now own more of a beautiful Bahamas. Just a blink, a sigh, a lap away there is a restored, energy independent people who can feed ourselves, owners of hotels in this Country and not mere employees to be fired, artists and entrepreneurs with a winning formula to success, greater percentage owners and stakeholders of our economy - an ordinary majority inspired to do extraordinary things.
Similarly, just a heart beat away, though mired in seeming defeat, there is a fifty-five year old Progressive Liberal Party, ready to lead the charge. Still defined by those qualities which gave way to its genesis, your PLP is readying itself to usher in again and again realities which before hand remained impossible. We must never forget that even from the shadows of defeat, the PLP won countless constitutional battles, universal suffrage - the women’s right to vote, and found the formula to stir the Bahamian people to Majority Rule and Independence. No great achievement from that day to this has occurred without the influence and ‘on the ground’ leadership of this noble institution.
Yes, these are perilous times and very many persons are hurting in very many ways. We find ourselves adrift in angry seas. Our over-dependence on foreign oil, foreign food, foreign visitors, and foreign investors has left us vulnerable and in crisis. Petty divisions, apathy, selfishness, violence, and the sinister agenda of special interests may even have further handicapped our efforts as a people.
Yet, the story of The Bahamas and its people is as the story of the PLP, is as the story of the Leader of the PLP, the Rt. Hon., Perry Christie: that the more we get knocked down the higher we rise, the more formidable the odds, the stronger, more courageous, and more defiant we become in the face of them until at last the story reads, we overcame again.
And so, celebration has given way to preparation as the Progressive Liberal Party records its 55th Birthday. It finds itself in another defining moment in Bahamian history, staring down danger, impossibility and unbelief. It is a time when it must unite again to stir within the Bahamian people that special thing which only needs be awakened to RISE to this occasion and find the will again to make it - just ahead.
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