Time for vision and hope

THE EDITOR, Madam:

AS CITIZENS of this beautiful island indeed we are all in mourning. We are besieged by crime and violence on all sides. What has gone wrong? Our immediate reaction and gut feeling is to blame everyone, except ourselves. Yes, we blame the political leaders, and probably rightly so to a great extent. Are they not the policy-makers, and implementers thereof? But it is foolhardy if we are going to blame only political leaders. Where is the will of the ordinary Jamaican? Is it not true that many of us give up too easily? If we should go back to the days of Isaiah, "all have sinned".

It would be very negative if I should say that we are all doomed to a life of total defeat. We would be forgetting the Marcus Garvey vision "If we have no confidence in self we are twice defeated in the race of life". We have to begin to recognise the sacrifice of many of our founding fathers. Jamaica was won by sweat, blood and tears. The legacy that we have inherited did not come about by a life of ease.

We are here and it is my opinion that we will have to ask a few serious questions. What can I do to make where I stand a better place? What is my role in the rebuilding of this beautiful country? Should I take the next flight out of the country? How can I foster a better relationship with my neighbour? What example am I setting for the youths? These are fundamental questions that need answers, and the answers must be honest. If we think we are going to ride through this situation without each of us making a concerted effort to create a country where all of us can live peaceably; we are only fooling ourselves. I am positive that our first National Hero would say to us today, "Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will".

I am, etc.,

HOWARD SUMMERBELL

Blackstonedge

St. Ann

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