Dear Editor,
For those who are not familiar with Thurgood Marshall, I would like to introduce you to this historic figure. Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in the United States. As always, I was thinking of Guyana and wanted to write a few lines to encourage my friends and your readers. In the process of researching what I would say, I stumbled across Justice Marshall’s acceptance speech for the Liberty Medal, which he delivered on July 4, 1992 at the Philadelphia Hall. By this time, he was one year retired from the Supreme Court. However, what was intriguing about the words of the speech, as I read through, was the fact that I could seamlessly replace “America” with “Guyana” and the speech could have very well been delivered in Georgetown today. To this end, I thought I could just share portions of the speech with readers. I have taken a sort of poetic licence to reproduce, mostly verbatim excerpts, but adding the words in parentheses to make the speech somewhat Guyanese—don’t worry; I did not change the words to Creolese.
“But as I look around, I see not a Nation of unity but of division – Afro, [Whites, Indian, Portuguese, Chinese and Amerindian], indigenous and immigrant, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. Even many educated [and successful citizens] have given up on integration and lost hope on equality. They see nothing in common except the need to flee as fast they can from our [country]…But there is a price to be paid for division and isolation…Look around. Can’t you see the tension in Watts?
We cannot play ostrich. Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. [Guyana] must get to work. In the chill climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because [Guyana] can do better, because [Guyana] has no choice but to do better.
The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me. Afro, [Whites, Indian, Portuguese, Chinese and Amerindian], rich and poor, educated and illiterate, our fates are bound together. We can run from each other but we cannot escape each other. We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster the courage to discover what is fundamentally the same. [Guyana]’s diversity offers so much richness and opportunity. Take a chance, won’t you? Knock down the fences that divide. Tear apart the walls that imprison. Reach out, freedom lies just on the other side. We should have liberty for all.”
Yours faithfully,
Kofi Dalrymple
