SALUTATIONS…

Occasions such as the one we share in tonight are important for a variety of reasons; not the least of which is that it causes us to pause and reflect on the struggles and the sacrifices of the many warriors who have fought the good fight for our party over these many long years.

This is an occasion for celebration and rejoicing; an occasion for praise and appreciation of the many stalwart men and women of our party who have contributed so much for so long to this great party that binds us together as one.

Some of the individuals upon whom the party’s highest honour is bestowed tonight are very well known by reason of the lofty positions they have attained in the echelons of national life.

The great majority of the honourees tonight, however, are in every sense of the term truly among the unsung heroes of our land.

They have struggled long and hard with little recognition or reward.

They have borne the heat of the day on the political battlefield and have fought valiantly for their party and their nation.  Not because they were seeking something in return, but rather because they were inspired to step forward and play a courageous part in the struggle for a better Bahamas.

Make no mistake about it; the unsung heroes of whom I speak collectively constitute the very backbone of the Progressive Liberal Party.  That is why we are called tonight, to focus the spotlight of recognition in a very special way on those honourees who have never achieved widespread fame out there in our country…

I also believe that ceremonies of this kind are important because they focus our minds in a spirit of gratitude and sacred remembrance of those great stalwarts of our party who have now gone to claim a higher reward in the bosom of the Almighty.

This is a time when we should remember the great and illustrious champions who in their day, invested all their time and energies in the noble cause for which this party has always stood.

We must never forget their struggles and their sacrifices.

We must never forget that the successes which we claim today have their genesis in the pioneering efforts of those who have gone before us.

Let us therefore use occasions such as this to remember with undying gratitude the achievement of those who bore the mantle of leadership and the pain of struggle in a time that has now past, but yet inspires us still with its spirit of heroism.

That is why our party continues to grow from strength to strength from one generation to the next.

We are the heirs to a legacy of struggle that now spans more than fifty years.

We are a party of the faithful.

Our roots are deeply imbedded in Bahamian history.  We are not an organization that has been slapped together overnight, but rather we are a mighty congress of the people; held together by an enduring commitment to the struggle for economic and social justice for all the people of The Bahamas.

So tonight, I congratulate each of the honourees and in extending congratulations to them, I also thank them on behalf of all of our party members and indeed Bahamians generally; because the struggles waged by these honourees have reaped a harvest the blessings of which have been shared all across our nation.

I also thank the families of the honourees, because I am painfully aware of the many sacrifices that they themselves had to endure so that these honourees could give so extraordinarily of their time and energy to the building of our party and our nation.

Let me close, however, by exhorting the honourees as indeed I exhort you all, not to rest on the laurels that accompany the elevation to the highest realm of honour within our party.

There is still much ground to be covered.  Our work is not yet done.  Our struggle is far from over.

Indeed the time is not too far off when we shall once again have to come together to march on another range of mountains looming up before us.  We cannot afford, therefore, to become lazy or slack.

Instead, we must begin now to put ourselves in fighting form so that when the bell is rung and the call is sounded, we shall be ready once again to march in triumph and in victory into another glorious chapter in our party’s long and wonderful history of service to the Bahamian people.

Let us therefore bind ourselves in unity, in fellowship and in a common resolve to continue with the great struggle that forms our glorious past and drives us forward still, to meet the challenges of the future.

Congratulations may God bless you all.