...We need a change in mindset – Gordon Webley
JOAN GORDON Webley, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) caretaker for the East Rural St Andrew constituency, challenged residents to ensure that the overall objective of community renewal, for which the Kintyre Citizens’ Association Community Resource Centre was built, would be achieved.
Speaking last Thursday at the official opening ceremony, Gordon Webley offered a blueprint for success.
“Today’s celebration has to be about a change in mindset, a change in your attitude, a change in our values because this is ours. It belongs to us,” she said.
“Community executive members, you have to be strong and steadfast in your administration of this building and its programmes. You must be seen as fair and constructive, and you must lead with compassion. You must involve, wherever possible, as many of the community members. You must not allow community or national politics to tarnish the good name of what you have received today.”
Member of Parliament Juliet Holness, who won the constituency seat on a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) ticket, also spoke to the issue of political unity.
“I was just so happy when I was announced as the MP and nothing else because guess what? One family. From here on out, one family – no PNP, no JLP. We are one family in Kintyre!” she declared.
Holness alluded to a time gone by when political tensions ran high in the area but noted that that was no longer true.
“Kintyre used to be hot, hot, hot. Now when we hot, hot, hot, is the heat of the Sun, and we prefer it that way,” she said to loud, sustained applause, before charging the residents to value the $16 million investment.
“So ladies and gentlemen, I don’t have to tell you, if the centre is kept clean, pretty, and empty, we have not achieved what we want out of this centre. If we don’t use it, we have lost it even if it is here.”