Real Change is About Building Walls

In a room bedecked with red, blue and white balloons, 'Obama cocktails' and fancy place-settings, a large lunch crowds gathered at the Elbow Beach Hotel to watch the presidential inauguration yesterday.

U.S. Consul Gregory Slayton was one of the many faces looking up at the projectors mounted around the Ocean Suite to watch as President Obama raised his right hand and took the oath of office.

Lessons for all of us

In a speech to the room following the inauguration, Mr. Slayton said that history will "take note" of the swearing in of Barack Obama "perhaps more than any other President in recent memory."

He added: "His election has many lessons for all of us, and they are good ones too.

"Perhaps President Obama's most important message is that positive change requires partnership non-partisanship, and that real leadership is about building bridges instead of walls. Those are lessons that all of us would be wise to heed."

Referring to relations between Bermuda and the United States over the past 400 years Mr. Slayton said:

"Our two countries have been allies throughout most of that period, and that is something to commemorate.

"There is every reason to expect that that relationship will continue, despite any foreign policy or tax changes that might be forthcoming under a new administration."

Courtesy of Bermuda Sun reporter Helen Jardine