Launch Speech

Speech Delivered by Mr. Ed Fields at the Launch of We The People Bahamas

First I want to thank everyone. You simply won’t believe the outpouring of support when you start to talk of change. But there are a few people I have to highlight.

Edward, Andrew, Kay and Kay-Andra and the folks from Zamar for what you see in this room. The media for listening. Natalie Appleyard and Wildflowers. Kim Gibson, Scott Farrington and Dionne Benjamin-Smith for all of our WTP stuff. Kimily Glover, Quinton Brennen and George Markantonis from Kerzner International. Conray Rolle and the folks at Kerzner Landscaping. Peter Bates and The Signman. Burton Wallace from Movi and Shanda Lightbourne, the Office Manager for We The People. Candilaria Thompson and Eula Hamilton, my personal assistants for just putting up with me. Phil Simon our Executive Director. Phil, we have come a long way my friend. Gilbert Lloyd for his unwavering support. My wife Michele for her unending and immeasurable support and my daughter Candace for backing me up on this endeavor, and for making sure that I used skin lotion tonight.

I would also like to thank Dame Marguerite Pindling and Sir Orville Turnquest for honouring our cause by their presence.

I want to thank my friend Bishop Neil Ellis for those kind words. I cannot express how much I have been enriched by your association and by the associations I have come to make during this process over the past year and some days.

I cannot express how grateful I am to The First Thirty for the time they have allocated, the discussions that they have raised and the effort they have put into this cause. Without their support, their ownership and partnership, tonight would have merely been wishful thinking.

What I have learned and what has given me the inspiration to carry on is the realization of how we have thwarted our national development by our unwillingness to know one another. If we took the time to talk to each other, there is one thing we would surely come to understand. That the cliché which states “we have more in common than not” does not do justice to our cause.


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