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Time passes and things change. But it is not so often that in something as nebulous as a community, that change - or the effect of change - can actually be easily and clearly seen.

Coming out of the double shooting at Southside, we had a precise, almost measurable, sign of change.

Fifteen or even 10 years ago, the Monday morning headline in the daily paper that announced the double shooting would have been written right across the whole front page in big, black, three-inch high letters. But on Monday, November 16, the top left headline was no different than any other low-key headline on any other normal Monday morning.  

That subconscious editorial choice was the measure.

Clearly, very clearly, drive-by shootings and shootings generally are no longer massively major news. They are now common occurrences.

That is borne out by the fact this double shooting was about the twelfth in the past twelve months AND that it was the third consecutive weekend in which shootings had occurred.  

It is also a fact that the St. David's MP who claimed St. David's was a peaceful place was ignoring the fact that my fellow ex-soldier and friend, Corporal 'Maxie' Brangman and his mate, were brutally  murdered in St. David's. Short memories or wilfully blinded eyes?

Bermuda has changed. That small headline is measurable proof.

Go back over the front pages and see what last attracted a three-inch headline.

That incredibly simple exercise will show and tell you, precisely, how much Bermuda has changed and what our new national tolerance levels are.

If you check back, you will learn our national tolerance for violence and anti-social behaviour has risen.

Yes, we fume and fulminate and the politicians go into a national flurry - but the underlying facts and factors, many of which are in the purview of the politicians, are always left unchanged.

But fussing and fuming and oh-my-goshing are good community safety valves.

After a good fuss and a good round of wailing and gnashing of teeth, most of us go back to business as usual - and the factors that drive anti-social behaviour keep building.

Education, for instance, is still in meltdown and has been for more than 10 years.

Consider this - the 18-year-old whom the police held for questioning was a child in primary three in 2000.

The other guy, the 28-year-old, was a teenager in 2000, either one or two years out of high school as a graduate, non-graduate or dropout.  

Both men have fathers and mothers - a biological necessity. Both have two sets of biological grandparents. That's at least 12 other people who are their biological creators and natural carers.

So what do we do now?

First, raise our national tolerance levels. Demand higher standards of all public aand private behaviour and severely punish all those who breach our new standards.

Second, be personally honest and see Bermuda as it is, not through the rose-tinted glasses that, for the time being, the politicians would have us see through.

See fact as fact, fiction as fiction and lies as lies. And publicly call it the way you see it.

But if you don't want to do those two things, then invest in a good bullet-proof vest. I'm told that a Kevlar-ceramic combination works best.[[In-content Ad]]

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