The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

“Dad changed the world!” shouted a happy, innocent 6-year-old child as she rode on her uncle’s back while he plowed through crowds of demonstrators, shouting her father’s name in protest to his death at the hands of the Houston police.

Although she did not know that her father was dead, she realized from the crowds that somehow it was her father who had brought out so many people. And she only had to watch TV to know that people around the world were chanting his name and shouting for change. As she grows older, she will understand.

Yes, little one, your dad, George Floyd, in death has changed the world!

No one can dispute this fact. He had an almost all-day funeral that brought out thousands, sparked many eulogies and will result in court cases that will reign in the police in their handling of citizens, especially blacks, because, yes, black lives do matter.

Here in Nassau, there is a report that there is a small group of Bahamians who want the statue of Christopher Columbus removed from the entrance to Government House. Columbus discovered these islands in 1492, thus starting the history of the Bahamas. Like it or not it was Columbus who put our islands on the map and into our history books. Like it or not he is the beginning of our history, and it is most appropriate that the adventurer, who officially put our islands on the map of the world should remain where he stands.

His discovery opened these islands to the world. It was claimed, without historical proof, that he took some of the first Bahamians to Spain as part of his adventures, thus leading to the slave trade many generations later.

Yes, little Gionna, your Dad has changed the world. One day a statue will be erected to him for forcing the world to accept, that regardless of colour or nationality, all men (and women) are born equal and should have equal rights and opportunities.

Is George Floyd, who was a basketball champion at high school, only later to stray from the path of righteousness with a string of arrests in Houston, Texas, to be ignored because of a fall from grace? One arrest in his early twenties was for a $10 drug deal that cost him 10 months in jail. Four years later he was found guilty of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and spent four years in prison. Released in 2013, he returned to his home in an attempt to turn his life around.

On the day of his death he was alleged to have used a forged $20 note to buy cigarettes. The police were called. And what happened next, resulted in his death at the hands of the police as he called for his dead mother and cried for police to release their choke hold because he could not breathe.

His death resulted in demonstrations around the world to the cry that “black lives do matter” resulting in the determination to change people’s attitude, one to the other regardless of skin pigmentation.

Is he to be denied his hour of glory, and, obviously his place in future history books, because at some period in his life he strayed from the path of righteousness? Of course not – in death he achieved what he had not been given time to do in life.

And so for Christopher Columbus. He too has earned his place in front of Government House. Like it or not he is part of our history, and there he should stand. He belongs to us.

A TRUE BAHAMIAN

Nassau,

June 10, 2020