Dear Editor,
When you read the print media or listen to news reports on the TV, you cannot escape noticing the increasing negatives engaged in by the young in our society: robbery, rape, possession of narcotics, break and enter and larceny, murder, dangerous driving etc, etc. Many of these offenders came from economically sound homes, even bordering on affluence. A large number, of course, are issues of depressed communities and poor homes.
Thus, those who restrict their argument that crime is directly related to poverty must reconcile themselves to the fact that offenders straddle the economic spectrum. It is my feeling that those who adamantly lock into the poverty/crime theory do so more out of partisan consideration or they wish to be politically correct. How many persons the world over have not risen above very poor circumstances to become celebrated icons?
It has to do with choice.
The crass disregard for law and order, the attraction to what is distasteful and destructive to society, come from within us, moulded and nurtured by what goes on at home, more than it has to do with what goes on in society.
Circumstances can be used as a crutch to lean on as an excuse to attract the pity of others, or as a tool to support you to be stronger and become a better member of society. That is a matter of choice.
The vehicle driver who runs the red light does so by choice.
The businessman, who parks his truck and takes over half the roadway, does so by choice.
The student, who sacrifices and ultimately becomes successful, does so by choice.
The parent/spouse who receives blood money from children/ partner(s) who just robbed and killed someone, does so by choice.
The drug lord who distributes narcotics and the users of the narcotics do so by choice.
The law-abiding citizen who works hard for what he wants does so by choice.
Parents have the choice to inculcate good or bad in their offspring. They cannot escape that fact or pass the responsibility to others. What parents discuss or encourage in the presence of their impressionable children is a matter of choice, not accident. It follows, therefore, that the product of that home is a matter of choice.
Our home is the birthplace of attitudes which we inculcate and which shape what we become. As a child, our parent(s) make(s) the choice of the attitude we will have. Thus, what we have in society today – good, bad or ugly – is reflective of what the home has produced.
Many should therefore ask if they deserve to be parents – because that also is a matter of choice.
Where does society fit into all of this? The slide that we are witnessing and about which we collectively do nothing, is also a matter of choice.
I end this contribution by relating an incident I witnessed two Saturdays ago. A donkey was eating from a heap of garbage thrown by some uncouth member of the public (by choice) on the Railway Embankment at Enterprise next to a sign which says: ‘No Dumping.’ The donkey was being attacked by four dogs who apparently wanted to partake of something from the same heap. All the dogs continued to circle and attack the donkey until it abandoned the heap. The dogs took possession of the heap.
I saw in that incident unity of purpose among the dogs and I wish that people would have the same sense of unity and purpose to achieve the common good. Instead, we let a few do the work so that the many can benefit. The dogs showed on that day what can be achieved by going it together. A lesson to us humans perhaps!
But that, also, is a matter of choice.
Yours faithfully,
T Jadunauth
