TODAY WE honour the memory of National Heroes and welcome to the roll of high achievers the latest listing of those deemed worthy of national honour.
This annual salute for service to the nation stresses the positive, for in essence it is reward for the work done, outstanding achievement, or the singular act of bravery beyond the call of duty.
It might be useful however to give a thought to some of what was done to earn the honour in the sense that it helped preserve the nation's stability and added to its continued progress.
The deeds of the latest honorees will assume a place in current
history, in particular the 43 years of Independence. Before then, three of the original National Heroes - Sharpe, Bogle, Gordon - earned posthumous honour for their heroics against the atrocities of slavery and the authoritarian rule of early colonialism. They challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of their times and paid the ultimate price - all three died on the gallows.
In the fourth decade of Independence, it may smack of fanciful nostalgia to hope that such sacrifice can be expected among those who would lead us in this new millennium. For there can be little pride in the state of a nation where murder is so rampant that it targets victims both deliberate and random - and most heinous of all, women and children.
It seems to us that the most hideous acts of arson, killing, and mob lynching may have stunned our leaders into stony silence. The shame of world ranking in this regard must ignite a chorus of moral outrage at what we have become.
There must be some among us who can summon heroic determination to expunge this stain from the soul of the nation; be they police, soldier, parent, parson - citizen high and low - all must resolve to stem the rot that threatens Jamaica.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
