Dear Editor,
On 17th April, a tragedy occurred. A young man of 23 years and a young woman of 16 years riding a motorcycle were killed when a driver lost control of his car and struck them down. In its Tuesday, 19th April publication, the Guyana Chronicle published an editorial on the incident.
In that editorial, the editor dismisses the ‘reckless use of the roadways’ and ‘the phenomenon of persons drinking and driving under the influence’ as ‘nothing new’. Instead, what he finds ‘very disturbing, to say the least,’ is ‘a teenage girl leaving her home to attend a late night party without the knowledge of her parents.’
The editor impliedly attributes the death of the young woman (to whom he refers with presumptuous familiarity as ‘Hansranie’) to ‘weaknesses’ which he perceives in her family structure. He derides ‘the company they keep’ and ‘the activities they engage in’ and suggestively separates ‘in school’ and ‘out of school’ activities. He pronounces on the ‘unacceptably close relationship’ with the young man and, with righteous indignation declares that she ‘should have been busy with her books, not out late at night partying.’
As if attacking the deceased were not enough, the editor then presumes to comment on her family relations, assuming without evidence that the young woman and her parents had not been ‘open’ and ‘forthright’ with each other, and assuming further that the parents should have disapproved of the relationship which he imagines existed between the two young people. Incredibly, he claims the liberty and authority to lecture that ‘the relationship she shared with Bess was not best for her at this point in time’.
The moral misdirection of the editorial is self evident. Surely the issue of a possibly drunk adult driver causing the death of two innocent road users should be of far greater concern for the editor. Even worse is the insensitivity. Surely the tragedy deserves compassion and respect for the bereaved, not callous and indifferent criticism.
I have struggled to identify the editor’s motive. Is his attack directed at this young woman because of her age, her gender, her race? But in the end, that is irrelevant. A family is in mourning.
They are saying goodbye to a sister and daughter, taken from them by an accident not of her making. A pompous, unfeeling and morally misguided editorial paid for by the Guyanese public has added the weight of shame and ridicule to that family’s burdens. I call on the Chronicle to apologize to the families of the deceased, and to take disciplinary action against the author of such callousness.
Please permit space for me to extend my sincere condolences to the families of the two young people.
Yours faithfully,
Timothy Jonas
