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 afternoon.
On National Heroes Day, we honour men and women whose names are written into the story of this nation.
But I want to begin with a hero whose name you will not find in any history book. My father.
He was an ordinary man. He was a firefighter. He never held high office, and he never asked for recognition. He simply did all that he could to provide for his family, and to raise his children to be the best they could be, for their family and for their country.
I was a Cat Island boy. My father would send things to me on the mailboat. I did not know what ice cream was until my father gave it to me.
From Cat Island to Nassau, and to this podium. What a journey it has been.
So you will forgive me if I am emotional this afternoon. As we celebrate those being honoured, I am also remembering my own hero.
When I was growing up in Old Bight, my grandparents taught me a lesson I have never forgotten. Whatever you do in life, leave something good behind. My father lived that lesson every day.
I believe every person in this room has a hero like that.
Some of you are here to receive an honour. Some of you are here for a loved one who has gone on before us. And some of you are here simply to celebrate someone you love. But all of us are here because of someone who did their part.
So today, as we celebrate national heroes, we also celebrate personal heroes. Ordinary Bahamians who may never have held a prestigious office, but who moved this country forward, inch by inch by inch, into a better version of itself.
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.
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 were heroes to you long before today. Now the nation honours them too.
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. Sir Sidney Poitier, another 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.
I thank 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. I thank the production team and all who worked behind the scenes for a ceremony worthy of those it celebrates.
There is something endearing about family. The people who raised us often gave us more than they ever had themselves. I believe we owe it to them to live with the same passion they lived with.
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.
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. My father understood that. So do the men and women we honour today.
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 father did, and what my grandparents asked of me in Old Bight all those years ago. Let us leave something good behind.
To my father, and to every personal hero represented in this room, thank you.
May God bless our honourees, and may God continue to bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Thank you.