Dear Editor,
House Speaker Dr. Kendal Major probably saved The Bahamas from any severe reprisal it might have received from the government of President Barack Obama and the United States Congress when he brought to an abrupt end the reckless anti-American rant by South Beach MP Cleola Hamilton in Parliament during the debate on the Persons with Disabilities Bill.
Her anti-American tirade wasn't germane to the debate. She was out of order and should have been reprimanded by her superiors. Congress is made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Of the 435 members in the House of Representatives, 234 are Republicans and 199 are Democrats. There are two vacancies.
Of the 100 members of the Senate, 53 are Democrats, 45 are Republicans and two are Independents. Based on the make-up of Congress, the two major political parties which have dominated the American political landscape since 1854 and 1792, respectively, are nearly evenly divided in the Capitol.
Hamilton's broad-brush criticism wasn't only aimed at Obama and Democratic legislators; it was also aimed at Republicans. And while Republicans and Democrats are not seeing eye-to-eye on Obama's healthcare and amnesty policies, they would most certainly become galvanized in the face of any hostile and irrational criticism by a foreign government. Hamilton was probably anxious to show to Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Progressive Liberal Party her rabid devotion to the government and the party by attacking the U.S. government.
This nascent anti-Americanism may have been unwittingly spawned by Christie when he took a swipe at the U.S. government for its State Department investment report on The Bahamas. Whatever the case might be, the U.S. is this country's number one ally and this is something which even Hamilton cannot deny. The U.S. can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the U.S.
More than 80 percent of our visitors hail from the U.S. Without America, our tourism sector, which currently employs more Bahamians than any other sector, would crumble, resulting in an unemployment rate probably near 60 percent if not higher.
We owe our prosperity to the U.S. Most of what this country consumes comes from the U.S. Thousands of Bahamians are educated in U.S. colleges. It is the U.S. that offers this country military protection, as it did in the tragic HMBS Flamingo incident in 1980. Had it not been for the intervention of the U.S., we would have probably been completely overtaken by the foreign aggressors. Our defense force, with all due respect, is no match for even Haiti's military.
Without the U.S., The Bahamas would be another backward, third world nation struggling with hunger, high unemployment and disease. Hamilton's decision to criticize the U.S. was reckless and dangerous. The U.S. government is not the Free National Movement that members of the PLP love to pick on. Hamilton was swinging at the most powerful nation in the world with a military that could crush this country the way an elephant can crush a gnat. She was barking up the wrong tree. She should be reprimanded by Christie.
- Kevin Evans

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