THE EDITOR, Sir:
REGARDLESS OF the dia-bolical behaviour of many Jamaicans, the respect for mothers is still very high, and the appointment of Portia Simpson Miller as People's National Party (PNP) president and Prime Minister is indicative of the respect and admiration of women and mothers nationwide.
So much has been said about mothers over all these years, but I would like to focus on the immense influence of mothers and how women in general can significantly help to channel our society in a more positive direction.
DANGEROUS SILENCE
The dangerous silence from most Jamaicans and an influential army as our mothers is in my opinion one of the most proximate causes of our present moral demise.
It was Martin Luther King Jr., in his address to the American Jewish Committee, who quoted Albert Einstein as saying "the world is in greater peril from those who tolerate evil, than from those who actively commit it" and President Kennedy who warned that "those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence."
I have no doubt that many of our mothers act as accessories to crime because of their fear to see their sons or daughters go to prison.
It is critical that we quit living the illusion and admit the fact that many of the criminal elements in our society will ruthlessly murder an average civilian, but would not dare do the same to his mother. What is this saying?
On an individual basis it is the civil obligation of all mothers to discourage criminality and rechannel our youth toward conventional values of integrity and hard work in accomplishing dreams.
It is my belief that if our mothers would spearhead community-based task forces that offered collective mentor-ship, counselling and advice to our delinquent youth, we could see better men and women emerging from our communities.
OFFER ASSISTANCE
Not only that, but mothers must, from this day onward, offer their unreserved assistance in helping security forces root out and convict criminals that lodge in the bleak crevices of our communities.
Mothers, if you know that you have a son or daughter who is a criminal, make no mistake about it, he or she is no more the cancer in our society than you are.
So revel in the well merited recognition of Mother's Day, but do so with a retrospective eye on the innocent lives that have been snuffed out and picture the dim future of this nation if you do not rise to the occasion and do something now!
I am, etc.,
LEON FERGUSON
the great1_9@yahoo.com
Cambridge, St. James
Via Go-Jamaica
