It is a brutally painful week for the country. The nation is grappling with the tragic loss of Pastor Myles Munroe; his wife, Ruth, and seven others. The number of those killed in the air crash and the sheer tragedy of it beggars our imagination.
So much loss of life and potential. Grief beyond measure for many, especially the children, families and congregations who have lost spouses, parents, loved ones and spiritual leaders. Grief which no words can easily comfort.
This week we also lost another national hero. Warren J. Levarity was a physically sleight, gentle man with a wide grin. His gentle manner did not fully portray his larger disposition of intellect, conviction and courage. He was a brilliant man with a passion for social justice.
As the Colony of the Bahama Islands entered the first year of the new decade of the 1960s, the United Bahamian Party (UBP), the political wing of the white oligarchic economic elite, was at the height of its power.
The largely merchant class gerrymandered and corrupted the political and governmental process to maintain social, economic, political and racial dominance.
In 1960, a young Warren Levarity, a son of Grand Bahama, challenged the UBP on that island in a hotly contested by-election. He was David! Goliath never knew what hit them. Before the end of the decade, Levarity helped to usher in the first majority rule government.
Initially it seemed that the UBP had won the 1960 by-election, though quite unfairly and through various schemes. However, the courts eventually declared Levarity the winner.
Many in the hierarchy of the PLP had been convinced that the seat was unwinnable. The UBP never imagined that it could lose the seat. But Levarity, possessed of a shrewd analytical and political mind, knew that things were changing in the country. His victory emboldened and bolstered the PLP.

Committed
Levarity was a committed progressive and was committed to the struggle for racial and economic equality. Having returned home as a trained accountant he could easily have worked as a professional with the Bay Street elite, eschewing any involvement in the struggle for majority rule or playing it safe like others who only ran for the PLP after it became easier to do so.
But Levarity's mixture of idealism and conscience propelled him to join the struggle quite early. He was a founding member of the National Committee for Positive Action (NCPA) along with Sir Arthur Foulkes, Jeffrey Thompson, Eugene Newry and others.
The NCPA was an advocacy and activist group which helped to radicalize the PLP, providing the party with ideas, strategy and a program of nonviolent direct action.
It was said of Levarity's political mind, that he could "see the play", like a chess master watching the various strategies and movements of allies and opponents alike.
Following the 1967 victory, Levarity became minister of Out Island affairs in the first PLP Cabinet. He spearheaded efforts to bring an array of basic infrastructure to many of the Out Islands. His efforts significantly contributed to the PLP winning many of those seats as a part of its 1968 landslide.
Levarity, like Sir Arthur Foulkes, was dismissed quite early from Sir Lynden's Cabinet. The ostensible reasons for the firings masked Pindling's more likely reasons, including to appease backbenchers hungry for Cabinet appointment and to rid himself of colleagues pressing for action.
Quite early in the PLP's tenure in office there were mounting concerns about the increasing lack of collegiality and the growing cult of personality surrounding Sir Lynden Pindling. There was alarm over a number of policy decisions at odds with the party's progressive philosophy.
There were originally more dissidents than the eight who finally left to form the Free PLP and then the Free National Movement. But when the vote of no confidence came, some of the more insistent critics of Sir Lynden and the direction of the PLP, buckled in their convictions and their courage, absenting themselves from the House chamber with dubious excuses.
Warren Levarity, along with the seven other dissidents, courageously opposed Sir Lynden at the height of his power. He was to pay a heavy price for his convictions. Like many others, Sir Lynden set out to destroy him.
Those who opposed Sir Lynden were branded and targeted as traitors. Sir Lynden's court and cult of personality, greed and power include some who are still alive and who were among the most vicious.

Outcasts
The brothers who helped secure the Second Emancipation were treated as outcasts and enemies, one of the greater shames of the PLP and of that era. It is a shame and a disgrace which the PLP and certain others have never fully acknowledged.
While entreaties were made to various dissidents to return to the PLP, with promises of favors and financial rewards, none of the Dissident Eight returned. Sir Lynden and his political hatchet men made it impossible for a number of the dissidents to find work, to access scholarships for their children or to receive various private or government contracts.
Still, they did not buckle. One dissident captured the convictions of some of the others: "We were prepared to die rather than return to Pindling's PLP." Because of this brand of courage and sacrifice, our democracy is secured through a vibrant two-party system. The country owes much to national heroes like Warren Levarity.
He agitated early against the marginalization of Bahamians at Freeport by the Grand Bahama Port Authority. He battled in opposition and in government to secure various rights for Bahamians at Freeport.
He was a man of vision, issuing as early as 1967 a white paper on local government. Like many other progressive measures to deepen and broaden Bahamian democracy, the idea was scuttled by Sir Lynden and the PLP. It would take decades, until the advent of an FNM government, for local government to be introduced.
In paying tribute to Levarity, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham noted: "His challenge of his party's leadership and direction cut short his political career but contributed in great measure to the creation of the democratic system we enjoy today. For this reason alone, The Bahamas owes Warren Levarity a tremendous debt of gratitude."
Deputy FNM Leader Loretta Butler-Turner offered: "Warren Levarity was a man of enormous courage who sacrificed much and early for the cause of freedom and democracy. He championed inclusiveness and collegiality within the FNM and within government, a cause that endures.
"Our greatest acknowledgement of his legacy is to continue his good work within the FNM and within the country. The great work that he undertook and accomplished lives on..."
As the nation mourns its great losses this week, we might remember the good work of those we have lost, including others like Yvonne Isaacs, a meritorious council member of the FNM, a strong advocate of women's rights and another of those early freedom fighters who stood against the abuse of democracy. May they all rest in peace.

o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian