Dear Editor,
The tragic death of former Commissioner of Police Henry Greene has brought home in no uncertain terms the different times in which we live. The social media was inundated on Friday with images of Greene being taken from the vehicle, at the side of the road being doused with water and lying in the hospital. That was just the beginning.
One of the newspapers carried a photograph of Greene clearly in a state of distress shortly after the accident on their front page. The reaction to his was death was celebratory in some quarters. Though nothing should surprise me in Guyana in 2012, this was unexpected.
I was not a friend of Greene. I knew him. When the issue of the allegation of rape was levelled against him, I was very vocal in my condemnation of his decision not to resign and of the government’s retention of him as Commissioner of Police.
Maybe the fact that my parents were taught Latin at school and that my mother taught it as a teacher at Tutorial and they may have been familiar with the Latin phrase De mortuis nihil nisi bonum (Of the dead, nothing unless good), I was brought up to not speak ill of the dead. It has been a strong social taboo clearly rejected in these days when anything goes.
I assume one of the reasons for this taboo was that the dead person isn’t here to defend him or herself.
There are many who will not agree with my views and I can only hope that they or some loved one are not exposed to the vulgarity that the former Commissioner has been exposed to at the time of his death. It is a reasonable gesture towards those who mourn any loved one to be able to do so in peace and privacy.
To his grieving relatives I extend my condolences. May his soul rest in peace.
Yours faithfully,
Dawn A Holder
