Dear Editor,
Please permit me the privilege of offering my congratulations to all of the people who were recipients of National Honours on the 49th commemoration of our status as an independent nation. The two most familiar names on the list, for me at least, were Hamilton Green the Mayor of our capital city, and Mitzy Gaynor Campbell, a FB friend whose selfless dedication to the service of people and her emerging leadership qualities was evident as far back as her high school days at Mabaruma North West District. So kudos to all of those whose contributions in their professional or charitable capacities were justifiably recognized on this auspicious occasion.
I have always been of the firm conviction that the names of heroes must be first on any country’s national honours list. Those who have demonstrated the integrity, courage and perseverance to speak out, to stand up, to risk professional and personal punitive consequences by doing the right thing when the well-being of a society or individual is at stake, offer to us the best examples of what citizenship and patriotism should represent. To quote the martyred American civil rights leader Doctor Martin Luther King Jr, “We should never, never be afraid to do what is right, especially when the well-being of a person or an animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our souls when we choose to look the other way.” And there are many from our citizenship midst whose positions and activisms over the past several decades, some gone from us, others who are still with us, whose lives and service represent a total embodiment of that sage moral and ethical principle.
If I had any disappointment with the list, it is because of the absence of some names that I believe were more than worthy of recognition at the first national celebratory ceremony coming after the end of an era, and the beginning of another. Because in my humble opinion, but for the contributions of these names, the joy and sense of looking forward to a new dawn that was manifested by the masses who gathered to celebrate the occasion on a rain filled day, would not have been possible. I fully understand and am appreciative of the fact that this does not represent the totality of opinions and perspective on the subject, and the views of those who might see things differently still form an intrinsic and important part of our national narrative. Mine is not an admonition of anyone with such views and opinions, and certainly not a proposition that they are wrong to have them.
Although those I believe that were worthy of mention had missed the cut, in a manner of speaking, I sincerely hope that such omission was a product of administrative expediency and not wilful neglect or convenient amnesia. Because we cannot afford to ignore that the fact George Bacchus, a childhood friend with whom I traipsed around the then woodlands behind Lodge, flawed character notwithstanding, demonstrated a moral threshold for wrong when he chose to become a whistle blower on vigilante killings, and exposed the powerful elements involved, fully conscious at the time that his life and well-being would be at great risk for so doing. We cannot ignore the fact that Ronald Waddell became a martyr for speaking out publicly in the same context, during that era. We cannot ignore the fact that Courtney Crum-Ewing also paid the ultimate cost for daring to protest against attitudes and behaviours that rent asunder the myth that our society had not descended into a state of social administrative dystopia.
But those aforementioned names just represent three who did not survive society’s ultimate punishments for not looking the other way. We must not forget the heroic positions taken by so many who are still with us today. The Glen Lalls, Freddie Kissoons, Mark Benschops, Ruel Johnsons, the print publications of Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, independent informational sources for the rank and file of the society, and so many more too numerous to mention, who ignored professional and personal risks, and social and political ostracizing, and instead courageously and unconditionally chose to speak truth to power in times of great moral conflict and controversy. And last but certainly not least, we should never forget the Sherlina Nageers and Vanessa Kissoons, women from our Guyanese demographic whose voices, for me, became reminiscent of the biblical story of Rachel crying in the wilderness for her children, and refusing to be comforted when they were not.
There is a saying with which we are all familiar that goes, “to whom much is given, much is required.” But this should also have the converse principle that to whom much is given, at least some recognition of the sacrifices made should be granted. For what lessons will we be providing to our population in general, and our youths in particular, when we treat as innocuous or ‘no big thing’ the contributions of those who bravely answered the call to service, when they could have simply taken the safe position and thus skirted the vicissitudes their responses brought down heavily upon their lives and well-being.
Yours faithfully,
Keith R Williams
