THE EDITOR, Sir:
I HAD two experiences today (15/6/04) that left me numb -- nay incontrovertibly sick. The first was reading a letter on page 10 of Youth Link. This was written by a 15-year-old girl who had been made pregnant and there was uncertainty as to who the father was. Frighteningly, it could have been any one of four.
The experience endured by this child starting from age nine was to say the least horrifying.
The second experience which came minutes later was hearing the principal of the Trench Town Comprehensive High School (on a radio talk show) respond to what seemed like an edict from the local "sheriffs" (read gunmen) that schools in the community must be closed on a given day.
The principal, obviously committed, long-suffering, and caring, made a valiant effort to detail the daily trauma that both students and staff experience but more importantly indicated the strategies being employed to rescue the afflicted.
The question I ask is, how do we as a people collectively respond. The letter from the 15-year-old, I suggest, should cover the front page of one of your publications. That may cause some of us to be shocked as I was and maybe, just maybe, awaken in us something, which is decent, and which will cause us to rise with one voice and say "no more".
How much longer are we going to allow the "dons" to determine who goes to school and when? How much longer are we going to allow some bus drivers and taxi-men to exploit our young girls (a free ride for a free ride)? How much longer are we going to look askance as immature ladies produce children to be abandoned to the perils which await them in divers places?
When are we going to say to the politicians stop "hugging up" (thanks Ms. Robinson) the so-called community leaders by negotiating agreements for "peace" which last only as long as their whims last.
When are we going to say to our leaders State, Church, Civic that we have had enough and that something positive must be done.
Come Jamaicans, rise up, let our voices be heard. We certainly can do better than we are currently doing.
I am etc,
R.G. STERLING
VOUCH - Voluntary Organisation
for Uplifting Children
