THE EDITOR, Sir:SOMEHOW I can remember when reading the newspaper was refreshing, the choice of language was different and words were used to paint the pictures that would form in our minds. But now instead I feel depressed when I peruse your papers.
I don't react in horror to the deaths of the three children in St. Mary as I should, for my mind has become numb to the persistent killings. Nor do I become melancholic when I read of the two children burnt to death in a locked house, for such is what we have descended to. But my shame comes to the fore when I read of the 12-year-old dying in a country ghetto because the Child Development Agency did not carry out the functions entrusted to them, or when that same agency doesn't respond to neighbours' demands for help for brutalised and abused children before they are killed.
When whole cadres of policemen have nothing to do but watch street lights and write revenue-generating tickets, when battalions of special constables serve only to walk and issue silly tickets for seatbelts, when on the next road murders are being committed and worse when a judge can be so callous and arrogant that a man protesting his innocence can be deprived of his freedom, so that there could be sufficient time to find out information.
When we are afraid to leave our homes because of the gunman, when we are afraid to speak out for fear of police reprisal, when we are too timid to cry out for fear that the next judge will remember, when the church is silent, when hypocrisy reigns, when truth is silent, when the rich pontificate, when we have stopped loving each other, it is then your paper is exposing these ills, bringing about a depression and I can only pray... God help us all.
I am, etc.,
DR. JEPHTHAH FORD
Vanford Medical Centre
Kingston 19
