Dear Editor,
A few days ago, I stated that we should continue to pen our pain in response to Lusignan and Bartica. Sadly, there is no ink -it has all gone dry. Nothing flows.
I am unable to appeal to (or damn) our leaders. I am unprepared as to how to truly relate to the survivors of the killing fields. And I am unknowing in terms of what to offer. So now I resort to sharing the writings of others, in an attempt to grace our circumstances with tiny flickers of illumination.
For those who lead, there is George Bernard Shaw: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
To the nation, hear Dante: In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark wood, where the straight way was lost.
To those citizens who flinch, I say let us be strong enough to recognize when we are weak, and brave enough to understand our fears. May we always choose the harder right, instead of submitting to the easier wrong.
To the dead, I write softly for fear of disturbing your dreams; to the grieving, I still write if only to soothe your nightmares.
In this brief moment of sharing, most of the thoughts and words are of others not Guyanese. Perhaps that too is a healing thing.
Yours faithfully,
G.H.K. Lall
