Dear Editor,

With reference to your editorial of March 4 about being proactive, so many tragedies could be avoided if people would be more concerned and disciplined.

Take the case of Brianna Dover, the cesspit into which she fell was fenced; however, the people of the area broke the fence to get a short-cut to their homes. They were not concerned about the money spent to put up the fence, or who would fall into the pit once the fence that protected it was broken; they wanted to get home by the short way.

Then there is the case of the boy who was shot by the police in a house in Berbice. As reported in your newspaper the house was unoccupied, and the people of the area felt that a bandit was in the house since they heard or saw movements. So the neighbours called the police, and when they entered the house they reportedly saw a leg coming out of a closet and shot at it. Editor, you know what followed. Mind you, the boy had no valid reason to be in the house since he did not live there and should have been at school that day.

Now we come to Akeem Denny. Your newspaper reported that Akeem could not swim, yet he allowed himself to be taken to the backwash lagoon to swim. Of course Akeem should have been old enough to know the danger of drowning when he could not swim, yet he went.

Editor, all three of these cases of injury and death could have been avoided if only concern and discipline had been exercised. Lessons are sometimes so painful.

Yours faithfully,
Wendell P George