THE EDITOR, Sir:IT WAS mid-morning and as I went about my daily tasks, I gave half an ear to the radio feature on health promotion. Immediately following, the sound of a gun cocked then fired, shattering glass, snatched my attention. I expected the message that followed to be a public service announcement denouncing violence, urging citizens to report illegal firearms and known or suspected killers. Instead, a JPSCo spokesman urged citizens to report illegal 'wire tapping', in other words those who 'tief light'.
Actually, the ad was more of an initial shock than a total surprise; although this was the first instance of my hearing it on radio, I had already seen the Gleaner ads the infant in the electric chair, the bullet through the light bulb. I know of some of the protests various groups and individuals have tendered. I now add my voice to these.
USE OF GUNS
I speak first as a mother who has lost her 19-year-old son to gun violence. The widespread availability and use of guns, never a benign or neutral issue for me, has now become complete anathema. I literally feel a visceral pain upon hearing the sound of gunshots, anywhere, anytime. I live with a kind of continual internal ricochet, amplified by, among other things, the media's casually stark depictions. My 16-year-old daughter reports a similar response to the daily flare of violent sounds and images with which we are presented. May we not then extrapolate to the thousands whose lives have felt and borne the impact of brutality and aggression? The effects are far-reaching; beyond the immediate family of those wounded or killed, entire communities and even so-called unrelated bystanders are impacted by violence in a way that is profoundly unsettling and a continual challenge to our mental, physical and spiritual health and well-being. My grandmother, bless her powerful ancestral presence, told me that once and only once during her growing years was someone murdered a jealous lover killed the 'other man' with a machete. The entire island was in an uproar. Rightly so. Now, each day we are faced with staggering reflections of the barbaric acceptance of viciousness.
Last Sunday I ran the Ministry of Health 5K. I like to describe myself as a meditative runner: some of the fast walkers were almost keeping pace with me and a group of three 7- or 8-year-olds alternately ran, sprinting ahead, and walked, then eventually lagging behind me. At the somewhat irritated urging of their coach? Relative? They darted ahead then slowed to a walk once they passed his glowering visage. One of the girls, speaking of heaven knows whom, at one point stated emphatically: "Him wan' some gunshot buss inna him head." By the time she had handed down her proposed sentence for the second time, I caught up and adapted my pace to theirs. (Fast walker passed me again.) I asked her if she could make life. She answered in the negative. "Well, then you doan' have a right to even speak about tekkin' it, you know'." She heard this out without further comment, all the while looking at me as if wondering what planet I had descended from; then suddenly her feet found wings, sensing perhaps that this was only the beginning of what could flower into a full-fledged lecture.
No blame for her in putting forth this edict. At this age, this was probably simply an act of regurgitation. But "As a man (or woman) thinketh, so he doeth." What about a whole generation of such thinkers and doers in ten and twenty years? Right now? Violence, media-sponsored or otherwise, must never become the norm, we must never become inured to it, for then some essential aspect of our humanity will have been slaughtered. And we should never allow violence to become common currency, its attention-grabbing effects exploited by shareholders to fatten their pockets, using ads such as these.
CRASS SENSATIONALISM
Why punish the public, JPSCo, for the lack of imagination and intelligence your ad agency showed in taking the easy road of crass sensationalism, and for your acceptance of mediocrity? The extreme images in these ads are in no way commensurate with the nature of the message that you are attempting to end. Blood for money, so the gunman says; and by using violent images for commercial ends, you only bolster and give tacit approval to this credo. You inflict further violence upon an already emotionally battered populace and, judging from the response, this ad campaign will neither promote the desired end nor endear you to the public.
Jamaica Public Service Company, you have dealt the Jamaican public a real disservice.
I am, etc.,
C. TIOMA ALLISON
Mothersnature2003@yahoo.com
