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Forde: Now is the right time to do the right thing

by Barbados Today
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Christ Church West Central MP Adrian Forde on Tuesday told young people, especially men, that now is the “right time to do the right thing” as he paid tribute to a predecessor parliamentarian and mentor, Joseph Edghill.

Edghill, the prominent Oistins pharmacist who died on April 20, 2020, aged 73, represented the Barbados Labour Party in the riding from 1994 to 2008.

Hailed as the “Father of Gall Hill”, he was credited for his work in Christ Church West Central, particularly for being a founding member of the Pride of Gall Hill football club.   

Forde told House of Assembly: “The first time Joe met me when I started canvassing the Christ Church West Central constituency, he gave me a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson stating, “You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. There is no right time to do the right thing”, and I am sure that were he alive today, he would share that with the young men of my constituency, who based on the two shooting incidents… have picked the wrong time to do the wrong thing.

“This is not the time to be picking up weapons of destruction. Instead, take up the tools of empowerment. For example, if you are good at football, get involved in the sporting discipline, and it is called a discipline in terms of the values you derive from it. Let us pay tribute to Joe by doing the right things – I am speaking to all the young men who are taking up guns to resolve issues, and mundane ones at that – that is not the Joe Edghill way!”

Forde spoke of how Edghill used sports, primarily football through the Bayer Pride of Gall Hill football team which did exceptionally well in the 1980s, to make a difference in the lives of young men throughout the parish of Christ Church.

He told the House: “Joe saw sports as a social development tool; we had young impressionable men whose energies had to be channelled in a positive direction so they did not go astray, and whenever the Pride of Gall Hill team played a game at the National Stadium, the whole of Christ Church came out to see them.

“He was a father figure to many of the young men who played for the team, and he was elected President of the club, unopposed, from 1985 until his passing late last year.”

Edghill encouraged Forde to take the pharmacy course at the Barbados Community College when he finished school, and he worked with him at his pharmacy for a while after completing his studies, he told fellow parliamentarians.

It was there that Forde said he saw another charitable side of his character. He said: “When he was at Parliament and I was working at the pharmacy, and someone came in with a prescription, he would tell me, ‘Just give them the medication. They don’t have the money, we are here to serve them; there is a social aspect to pharmacy’.

“Many a day, I went home without any money because we were supposed to pay ourselves out of the proceeds for the day, but we gave away a lot of medication.”

“He also made sure he carefully counselled every patient that came in, sometimes for hours, to ensure that they would do the right thing where their medication was concerned.” (DH)

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