Sitting ducks
published: Monday | March 27, 2006

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THE DEBATE about allowing more citizens to bear firearms is good as to purpose, but worrying as to process. Now the gun-toter needs not buy a gun. He can take it from his neighbour. The preoccupation with doing wrong is never matched by a preoccupation with defending the self. That preoccupation is focused on self-improvement, leaving us sitting ducks for the wrongdoer.

We should not try to out-sting a forty-leg, nor out-fly a rat-bat (ask our SSP who has and was tried). Just as the U.S. cannot out-terrorise terrorists, we must be smart and channel our energies in the direction of our strengths. Let us build a society of law and order even as we strive to fight crime. How? Firstly, the framers and enforcers of law must submit to the same laws. Then we must strengthen community gover-nance, reward good deeds and punish bad ones. If we attack the nexus between need and greed, we reduce the vulnerability of the needy to the motives of the greedy.

Our MPs need to take an inventory of their constituencies and stop trying to build the macro-economy (rather than the micro-economy) first.

I am, etc.,

WALDEMAR SCOTT

waldemarscott@yahoo.com

Stockbridge, Georgia

Via Go-Jamaica