The Editor, Sir:

The poor Jamaican citizen is buffeted everyday living in a country which everyday becomes more and more out of control.

A generation of young Jamaicans have been so socialised that they live among themselves like brute beasts without reason. When the time comes for them to leave their urns of history, will it be a legacy of crime and a sad song in their hearts?

I have read a book entitled say 'Yes to Life' written by Rabbi Sidney Greenberg - A book of Thoughts For Better Living. I have included here an extract from his article "Say Yes to Life" in the hope that it may - help some lost and battered soul.

First of all he quotes from Edwin Markham, the American poet.

"I will leave man to make the fateful guess.

Will leave him torn between No and Yes.

Leave him in the tragic loneliness to choose with all in life to win or lose."

Then from Rabbi Greenberg himself.

"In the valley of decision, we stand alone, accompanied only by our haunting fears and our stubborn hopes by dread, despair or guilty faith.

Yet, though we appear to stand solitary, in truth we are accompanied by the tall and brave spirits who have stood where we stand and who, when torn between 'Yes and No' have said "Yes" to life and its infinite possibilities; by those who have had the wisdom to focus not on what they had lost but on what they had left: by those who understood that fate is what life gives to us and that destiny is what we do with what's given; and by those who therefore, grasped the liberating truth that while we have no control over our fate, we do have an astonishing amount of control over destiny.

Let's hope that Jamaicans will one day say "Yes" to life and their country will be an oasis of peace and prosperity.

I am, etc.,

P. LOGAN

Duncans P.O.

Trelawny