As we gather here today to mourn our earthly loss and celebrate God’s heavenly gain of Anthony Morris Rolle II, we must always be reminded that we come from God and we must return to God. We must also be comforted by the truth that whether in life or death, we belong to God and nothing can separate us from His love.
I wish to convey my deepest sympathies on behalf of the Bain Town Community to the family of Anthony Rolle II, he was a father, a son, a nephew, a cousin and a friend of many. Though I was not privileged to have intimately known Anthony, Rev. C. B. Moss informed me that Anthony spent New Year’s Eve Night, in the Watch Night Service at the Mount Olive Baptist Church. This alone tells me that he wanted to live. This also tells me that he had future plans for his life and plans for those he cared for in the New Year.
However, we do know that he left this earthly life, for the real life in God, shortly thereafter. This is a tragic fact and one not needing to be repeated more than necessary. However, we do know that though the mysteries of God are in fact mysterious, we also know that God’s mysteries are perfect in their making. Therefore when we see His face we can be assured that He will tell us why some leave this world when they do, while others remain. Until such time, we must trust God.
However, while we must and do trust God and while we recognize that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways, for sometime I have been asking myself many questions and mulling over many solutions. The questions I have asked myself for at least a decade, are when will the scatter-logical violence cease along with the senseless taking of lives?
When will all Bahamians recognize that violence affects everyone? When will all Bahamians recognize that when a person’s life is taken, that person loses and so do those who are related and connected to that person? When will perpetrators of crime recognize that justice causes them to also lose, including those who are also related and connected to the perpetrator? I ask these questions not in isolation because as a Member of the present Government, we are not only asking these questions but also actively seeking solutions. But in the meantime the carnage goes on and all Bahamians must decide that it must end.
I personally am of the view and have put to my Government Colleagues the reality of statistics every year telling us that so many violent acts have occurred. This is good to an extent, but has also become a stumbling block to the eradication of crime. Certainly, we must be aware of the statistics as well as the public should be also.
But I fear that Bahamians have become desensitized by these same statistics, for we seem to be comfortable if we have less murder this year than we had in 2002. I also fear that we will be likewise comfortable if we have less murder in 2004, then in 2003. I am of the view that we are now being held hostage by statistics and use them as a yardstick of how well we are doing in our fight against crime.
I am of the view and have expressed it in the appropriate places that we can never be satisfied with diminishing statistics and use them as a yardstick for success. We get caught up in statistics, while ignoring that we must go back to the basics. And now I express those same views to you this morning. Life is the most precious commodity to the human existence. For we know that when God gives us life, it is to complete an assignment. No one should be robbed of that assignment by another human being.
God gave Anthony an assignment and now he’s not here to fulfill that assignment which more surely included caring for his children and the children of his wife, whom he also embraced as his own. And from a human perspective, why is Anthony not here to complete his assignment? Anthony is not here because the wayward and shipwrecked of faith are allowing weapons to control them.
The gun and the knife is now telling the shipwrecked what to do. The gun says shoot and we shoot. The knife says stab and we stab. The availability of a weapon has mesmerized our people, where the weapon is controlling us and the better sense of judgment and the commands of God take second place.
This nonsensical reality must stop. We must return to the basics of life, which is to first value our life and the lives of others. We must recognize that anger will always cause us to sin. We must recognize and humble ourselves to the truth that if we show no mercy, we likewise will be shown none.
And as parents, we must also recognize that when God brings a child into the world, not only does the child have an assignment, but the parent does also, along with every citizen that God has given the gift of life to. We are our brother’s keeper and must conduct ourselves in that manner or suffer the wrath of God.
Therefore, we are gathered here today, not because we can do anything for Anthony, for I am persuaded that he is resting safely in the arms of Jesus. But we are here today to let Anthony’s life and his death remind us that life is not worthless. In fact it is so valuable, that God handles birth himself, leaving us to realize that it is not ours to give or take, only to be His vehicle by which birth comes.
So I admonish every Bahamian to decide that the violence must stop. I admonish every institution to take a proactive stance against crime. I can assure you that my government has strong views toward solutions and you know that I do not have a soft or shaking voice. The carnage must stop and if the life and death of Anthony Rolle II is to mean anything to us, we should speak to our hearts and say no more.
Again, I extend my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Anthony, and to the Bahamas as a nation, for again, we have lost another Bahamian life. Let us decide today that the loss of even one life is one too many. May his soul rest in peace.
