The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, while giving one of his weird incoherent campaign rants, threatened to “Flatten the Bahamas”. He made this statement while attempting to compare the Commonwealth of the Bahamas to what is happening in Gaza.

“And I think to myself as Governor of Florida, if we had, if someone in the Bahamas was launching missiles into Fort Lauderdale, we would not accept that for a minute, we would go in and flatten them in no time certain”.

As a Bahamian citizen of the Bahamas, I find those words quite disturbing. It may appear to some that this small individual may have been speaking hypothetically, but having a good grasp on the character of the person he has convinced me. I understand there’s nothing hypothetical about them. To speak such violent rhetoric about a nation of people whose history is woven throughout the history of America, is repulsive. Therefore, it is my moral responsibility to address what appears to be the mental sickness of Mr. DeSantis.

Mr. DeSantis: “The Racists no longer think you are a racist”; they’ve since become convinced. And, as the racist I accept you to be, I understand your words were coded language for how you view a predominantly-dark skinned nation of people, for which, you have no issue exterminating, if that power rested with you. Perhaps; it is descriptive language for how you view a people without considering the thousands of teenagers, toddlers, women, and babies that reside there. It is a language spoken in arrogance by a bullish agent of the American government who assumes that he has the authority, due to his size, strength, and military apparatus to trample on those he considers to be weak. It is the language of one who considers himself tall, while others are on their knees. It is the language, Mr. DeSantis, of a devil speaking his quiet thoughts out loud.

Mr. DeSantis; with all of your ivy-league education, I understand your willingness to suppress knowledge and truth, because to accept things as they are would attempt to compel people, such as yourself, to change. And, I’m aware of how comfortably-racist you are, with your stubborn unwillingness to become better. Therefore, for you, it defeats the purpose of even trying. However; if you knew your history, or study them, rather than banning them, you will learn that the people of the Bahamas, and the wider Caribbean, had built the state of Florida for people like you to enjoy. Just as it was for the United States; from the labour of “Black” Caribbean bodies, the State of Florida came.

The people of the Bahamas are not the Ku Klux Klan, or any of the barbaric savage groups that are responsible for the destruction of humanity. We are not a people that sit around plotting genocides of innocent people. We share no disdain, or hatred, nor grudge for the people of Florida. Practically $0.85 cents of every tourist dollar that enters our shores, is returned to the economy of the State of Florida.

To imagine within your limited ability to think rationally, the Bahamas, with a total population of less than 400k people, with practically no military apparatus to wage war, waging war on a monstrous super power such as America, of which she is an ally, is grotesque at best.

But, more importantly, Ron, what does it say about a nation that takes great comfort in its willingness to commit genocide by “flattening” tiny harmless countries like the Bahamas?

That speaks volumes to the abhorrence of America as a nation than it says about you the person!

Deno P ELLIS

Nassau, Bahamas

November 30, 2023