THE EDITOR, Sir:
TO FULLY comprehend and rationalise why seven young men may have died so violently, we cannot ignore how they lived. Children live what they learn and a child's first institution of learning is the home.
Parents therefore are expected to establish the ground rules for their child's orientation and development from that foundation at home.
By the age of 10 years the average child would have developed and exhibited all the distinguishing features of the person he will be as an adult. The parents too would see all the traits and behaviour patterns of the child in whose life they have played a pivotal role. Admittedly there has to be an alliance between the home and the community to enhance the development but it is nonetheless the home that is entrusted with the ultimate responsibilities to train the child.
More than anyone else the 14 parents of those young people who died at Braeton, would be familiar with the culture they had inculcated in their children from their birth to the time of their death, and any rational analysis of the issues and circumstances relating to the deaths must include the factors from home. It is most unfortunate that so many of our children have 'absentee parents' who for one reason or another have abdicated their parental roles and have left their children on their own to 'run things'.
Unfortunately, too, the old golden rule has long been abandoned or forgotten and so, as neighbours we no longer love anybody's children as we do our own. It is often times after the fact that we are prepared to block roads and bawl for justice or shed copious tears at funerals.
What we should learn from this unfortunate tragedy at Braeton is that we should collaborate our efforts to rescue the perishing before we care for the dead.
I am, etc.,
SONIA CHRISTIE
Stewart Town,
Trelawny
