Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
( L - R ) SMALL AND MURRAY
INSIDE THE National Arena in Kingston yesterday morning, People's National Party (PNP) President-elect Portia Simpson Miller graciously accepted a brief moment on-stage at the 156th General Assembly of the Jamaica Baptist Union.
The optimism of the woman who will be Jamaica's first female Prime Minister seemed to be shared by those present.
"My point of view," said Gladstone Small of Constant Spring, St. Andrew, "is that she was second to P.J. when she run before so this time she should have the whole of it. We wanted a change and quite rightly. In England, you had a woman there, so why not here?"
Standing by Mr. Small at the refresh-ment stalls was El-more Briscoe, a resident of nearby Vine-yard Town. "I feel good for a woman. Mek a woman get a chance. I feel crime is going to reduce be-cause she's a woman, she knows how to deal with things and she's down to earth," he said.
OPTIMISTIC ABOUT CHANGE
"She have my vote next election, she good to go ... she one of the best. Things are going to change!" said one vendor who preferred to remain anonymous.
"I feel normal," said a more prosaic 17-year-old Brenvon Sharpe of Spanish Town, when asked by The Gleaner for his reaction while standing in the entrance to the arena. "I feel like it was a change for the better," he added, although sure that things would generally remain the same.
Inside the arena, Andrea Murray from Chatham, St. James, cautiously welcomed Mrs. Simpson Miller's election: "I hear she said she is going after the children and they are her number one priority so I hope she means it when she says she wants children to be OK."
