Patrick Rogers has put me in a predicament, and I will explain.
First of all, Patrick has lived at the corner of Vernon and Partridge Streets for as long as I can remember. This is just three, four houses down from Kremandala, so Patrick has been our neighbor from his childhood.
Patrick’s late father, James “Poly” Rogers, was an insurance executive who was a ranking official in the People’s United Party. In fact, when I ran in electoral politics for the first time, as a member of the NIP/UBAD coalition ticket in the December 1971 Belize City Council elections, Poly Rogers was one of the victorious PUP CitCo 9. So was Poly Rogers’ business partner and brother-in-law, Alvan Fuller. (And so was Peter “Ducho” Thomas, whose energy remains amazing for his age.)
Poly Rogers died in the early 1990’s, and left a nice legacy in charge of Patrick and his brothers. So it was that in 1994 or so, Patrick Rogers, on behalf of his family, donated $6,000 towards the financing of the Kremandala Raiders semi-pro basketball team. The Raiders were a kind of neighborhood team. Four of their biggest stars had grown up folding newspapers at Amandala during the early and middle 1980’s.
At the time when Patrick made his gesture of neighborhood solidarity, I did not recognize how deep was the young man’s community commitment. For sure, in the Raiders’ management we were totally grateful for his support, but I thought it was just a one time gesture from a young man who had inherited some money.
Today, there are times when Patrick Rogers sounds so much like me in my youth, I become uncomfortable. The discomfort derives from the fact that I walked away from my activist youth in December of 1977, after I was humiliated in the Belize City Council elections that month. The trauma of those elections convinced me to concentrate on winning elections instead of expressing my beliefs. Since that time, I have not been on the losing side in any general election, even though the UDP believe that I was a part of the defeated PUP effort in June 1993. Not so, but if they insist, it’s no big thing.
Now when I listen to Patrick Rogers, I am listening to my youthful self, and I don’t want to return to being a political loser. But I know Patrick is right, and if I were following my conscience, then I would be supporting him. Do you see the personal predicament?
When Patrick came on the scene with his “Commoners” thing and contested the Lake Independence constituency as an independent in the March 2003 general elections, I was skeptical. Please understand. In the world of politics, a man believes none of what he hears and only half of what he sees. I think that’s the way the saying goes.
I explained my 2003 thinking to Patrick earlier this year. First of all, I am a student of Leroy Taegar’s. I am aware of the hand of the local Roman Catholic Church at all times. Patrick’s family has a solidly Roman reputation. I therefore thought someone Roman was trying to position Patrick to challenge Cordel in a PUP constituency convention, Carlos Diaz having failed twice – in 1994 and 1996.
Remember now, that if Patrick Rogers ever chose to go mainstream, so to speak, he would be a classic Belizean political candidate – young, educated, good looking, and light skinned. If Patrick ever chose to go with the oligarchy, the sky would be the limit for him, politically speaking.
I am battling with my conscience as I look at Patrick Rogers’ 2007/2008 general election candidacy. I owe this man my support, because he stands for things I believe in.
But if I go with Patrick, then I have to return to a reality I rejected thirty years ago – political loser. How can Patrick defeat the financing the oligarchs will throw behind the major political party candidates?
But, I am glad there is Patrick. Patrick is real. He’s not looking to hustle. I know he has his faults, but Patrick Rogers is making it very, very difficult for me not to support him. That support, cherie, would be at my own peril.
Power to the people.