THE EDITOR, Sir:I AM usually a caring person, I love my country and the Jamaican people with all of my heart, but I have finally reached a place in my life where I am forced to make a harsh decision. I will no longer give a listening ear or waste the slightest of sympathy on the violence in our land.
As carried in your own newspapers several times, the police have continually said many of the incidents of violence are direct reprisals, gang or drug-related.
I am now convinced that the level of crime and violence is a product of our own doing. Many persons who are the victims of drug and gang violence have themselves planted the seeds of their own fate.
Many have been knowledgeable of criminality around them and have chosen to remain silent, of course, unless they are directly affected. Many have taken part in roadblocks, defending persons who are well-known to be criminals. Some are, themselves, directly involved in criminal activities, even as they profess to be good upstanding citizens.
When these persons were busy taking their decisions to get involved in the drug trade, they did not consult with the rest of us. As a matter of fact, they were too busy dreaming of how much wealth they would accumulate to think of the impact their actions would have on the rest of us. Those who decided to participate in gangs made such decisions in order to improve their own positions through turf rule, extorting from many who were trying legitimate ways to earn a living.
Some of our women have sat over wash pans with blood-soaked clothes and did not even feel a tinge of regret for the victims of their sons and grandsons.
I will no longer go suffer any empathy with them. I will block my mind from the violent upsurges, especially in particular communities, and will continue to live, one day at a time and put my energies into enjoying my life. I wish that the media would stop trying to fill the air with such information and allow the dead to bury their dead.
I am, etc.,
No longer concerned
