Your Excellency the Most Honourable Dame Cynthia Pratt, Governor-General and Chancellor of the Societies of Honour,
The Honourable Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Advisory Committee for National Honours,
Members of the Advisory Committee,
Cabinet and Parliamentary colleagues,
Honourees and your families,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
When I was a boy in Old Bight, Cat Island, my grandparents returned to one lesson more than any other. Whatever you do in life, leave something good behind.
We did not have much. There were no big houses. But in our home there was a premium on character, on a strong spirit, and on a good name. A good name was the one thing no one could take from you.
My grandparents measured a life not by what a person gathered, but by what a person gave. I have carried that measure with me ever since.
Today, The Bahamas applies that same measure.
Across these ceremonies, four hundred and twenty-five men and women receive the honours of this nation. They come from public service and private enterprise, from the arts and the professions, from the church and from the quiet work of community life.
Some are known across the country. Many are known only in the communities they have served. All of them saw work that needed doing, and chose to do it.
More than two hundred of them receive the Distinguished Service Medal. These are Bahamians who gave long and faithful service, often for decades, and rarely with thanks.
Two receive the Medal for Acts of Bravery. When danger came, Arnold Wilson and Rudolph Moxey put the lives of others ahead of their own.
And seventeen are honoured posthumously. To their families, I say this. Your loved ones are not forgotten. Today, the nation remembers them by name.
That is what today is about.
Her Excellency confers upon them the Order of The Bahamas, the Order of Excellence, the Order of Distinction, the Order of Merit, the Distinguished Service Medal and the Medal for Acts of Bravery. These honours say something about the men and women who receive them. They also say something about us. They tell every Bahamian what this country values.
Today’s honourees take their place in a proud tradition.
Sir Milo Butler spoke for working Bahamians when it was neither safe nor popular to do so, and he became the first Bahamian Governor-General of an independent Bahamas. Sir Sidney Poitier, a son of Cat Island, showed the world what a Bahamian could become.
Neither man waited for the path to be cleared. They cleared it for those who followed.
Those we honour today have done the same, each in their own field. Excellence in this country takes many forms. It comes from every island and every walk of life. And very often, it comes from people who never expected to be thanked.
So let me say thank you to those who made today possible. To Minister Mitchell and the Members of the Advisory Committee for National Honours: choosing among so many deserving Bahamians is not easy work, and you have done it with care and discernment. To the production team and all who worked behind the scenes: thank you for a ceremony worthy of those it celebrates.
Celebration is right. But an honour is not only a reward for the past. It is also a challenge to the future.
So I want to speak directly to the young people of this country. I have one question for you. What will you build on this foundation?
No one we honour today began with everything figured out. Each of them began somewhere. With a decision. With an opportunity taken. With the courage to try something worth doing, and the determination to keep going when the road got hard.
You do not need the perfect idea or the perfect moment. Begin where you are, with what you have.
Look at your community, your school, your church, your workplace. Ask what needs doing. Then ask what you can do about it.
My grandparents taught me that no choice we make stands alone. Each one adds something to the country we will leave behind. That is as true for a Prime Minister as it is for a student, a fisherman or a nurse.
The measure of a life is not how far we rise. It is how many others are better off because we were here.
Nation-building is not the work of government alone. It is not reserved for those with titles or positions. It is the work of every Bahamian who sees a chance to contribute and accepts the responsibility that comes with it.
To each of our honourees, congratulations. Thank you for what you have given to this country. Your achievements show what Bahamians can accomplish. Your service shows what we owe to one another.
And to the next generation, I leave you with this charge.
You have inherited a foundation that others have laid.
Now, build upon it.
Take the opportunities you have been given, and create opportunities for others. Pursue excellence, but never lose sight of your duty to your country. Let your ambition be matched by your willingness to serve.
The story of The Bahamas will not be written only by those we honour today. It will be written by the choices each of us makes when we leave this room.
So let us do what my grandparents asked of me in Old Bight all those years ago. Let us leave something good behind.
May God bless our honourees, and may God continue to bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Thank you.