We will soon forget unless…

Dear Editor,

I hate penning these words but it’s gonna happen again. Yes, it’s gonna happen again and again and again. Another child will be brutally murdered – it may not be at the hands of his stepfather but at the hands of a neighbour, or even a school mate; Another woman will be murdered at the hands of her husband or ‘child father.’ Another case will be swept under the carpet as money is exchanged for justice and as the wanton shedding of innocent blood is disregarded in favour of safeguarding ‘connections’.

Aren’t you sick and tired Guyana? – Sick of all the bloodshed and injustice and crime and… We have grown so accustomed to death that as brutal as the murder of Jamal Nedd seems, we will soon forget. We will soon forget our outrage and tears and outcries and even letter-writing, as another headline looms large and as yet another life is cut short. We will soon forget about those parents who were robbed of their only daughter or of that 72-year-old grandma who was executed in her own home. We have ourselves to blame – no-one else. Unless parents seriously take up their responsibility of nurturing their children and instilling in them values of love and respect for their peers and their elders, unless we learn to act as a community and to look out for our fellow man, unless we speak out against injustice in whatever form it may take,  unless we hold our governments accountable to their social contract and vote them out if they fail in their mandate to serve and protect (whoever they may be), Guyana would be like a leaf tossed in the wind, going to nowhere… going to nowhere at full speed.

Yours faithfully,
Loria-Mae Heywood