‘Some cause happiness…’

Dear Editor,

It is fitting that President David Arthur Granger should inaugurate this new era of “national unity” with a reminder from the Holy Bible to all the people of Guyana:

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

That reference marks the breaching of the years that have shrouded the nation. The accompanying euphoria, at home and in the diaspora, is not distant from that of another cataclysmic age that prompted Wordsworth to write in his enthusiastic poem:

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, /But to be young was very heaven.”

With malice towards none, with charity for all, to borrow from Abraham Lincoln, we are encouraged together to commence again in deep humility the arduous task of healing, reconciling, enforcing the rule of law and upholding our humanity and dignity as a nation.

Facing this summons, I am not unmindful of that trenchant observation from Oscar Wilde:

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”

Yours faithfully,
Cedric L Joseph