Dear Editor,

I was amused recently by those who have said the actions in the House regarding the mace were an affront to us African-descended people, as the mace is a relic of our colonial past and should not be respected, but instead be derided.

I am not saying nay, but, as I have got so cynical over time, I am now asking us all which one of the relics, symbols, or traditions of this history are we going to throw away and which ones are we going to keep?

The problem is that there are so many of these things that have made us stable that, were we to throw them away without having anything to replace them with, we would be courting chaos, disunity, and failure.

To start with, our first and most defining relic is our English language and also our Patois.

Then it’s our names, our court system, our democracy, our parliamentary system, our education system, our family structure, and myriad other things, including maybe our very country as we know it.

So, until they can tell me which ones are the baby and which ones are the bathwater, I say keep the mace until we know what we will be replacing it with. Until such time, it’s roll on Britannia!

Darolyn Henry-Cross

Canada

hdaro36@yahoo.com