A top Bahamian scholar who heads the Department of Government and Law at a well-known U.S. educational facility said Bahamians must be educated about their national heroes.
At a two-day forum held by the College of The Bahamas under the title, ‘Sir Milo Butler Centennial Symposium’ Dr. John T. McCartney, chairperson for the Depart-ment of Government and Law at Lafayette College in Easton Pennsylvania spoke about ‘The impact of Sir Milo Butler on Bahamian Politics.’ Dr. McCartney highlighted that Sir Milo Butler like Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey saw the importance of invoking in black people a sense of pride and consciousness.
He explained that Sir Milo Butler realized that without these qualities, black people would never realize they deserved equal rights.
“I have always admired Sir Milo Butler. He was one of the consistent politicians here in The Bahamas. He was always for equal opportunity and he always worked in the interest of the majority of Black people who were left out,” said Dr. McCartney. “We need to reinvigorate his consistency in politics today. If we look at Sir Milo’s life, we would see that he always stood for justice and for the right of all Bahamians to share in all of the opportunities in the country.
Moreover, he wanted all Bahamians to have an opportunity to share in the task of building the country. This is why we have to be educated on the work of people like Sir Milo, because we need to see how we can apply what he has done in the past to today’s society.”
The two-day symposium, which was open to all members of the public honoured the life and work of the first Bahamian Governor General and National Hero.
Franklyn Butler, son of Sir Milo Butler, attended the symposium and highlighted that the work of his father should not be forgotten. He emphasized that it is only by taking a look at the work done by Bahamians like Sir Milo Butler that today’s generation would be able to appreciate the liberties that they take for granted.
“People look up to him as a national hero. If you are going to give this person that kind of honour, it is important that the country know a fair amount about what this individual stood for. The things that he has done are so important. And if you want people to emulate them, you would want to be able to understand their difficulties and see that everything that they were able to accomplish was not given to them on a silver platter, or because of some kind of favouritism,” he said. “We as a people need to be educated on his achievements, and some how recognize that some of the things we now enjoy today is because of the hard work and difficulties people like Sir Milo were willing to face to achieve equal rights for all Bahamians.”
By LaShonne Outten, Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter
