THE EDITOR, Sir:

With the volume of barbaric incidents plaguing our island, one would be led to believe that he or she is living among beasts that are disguised in human form. As much as we would want to hold an optimistic view of our nation, we cannot deny that there is a minority among us who seem to be highly deranged in every sense of the word; and therefore need urgent attention. I'm sure that a mental assessment of the nation would therefore prove that many of the people we see daily are in dire need of psychotherapy.

There is nowhere in my mortal mind that I could ever fathom such cruel and unjustifiable acts toward our children, our mothers, our fathers and our own flesh and blood. How can these acts be carried out by persons who have blood flowing through their veins? How do they sleep? How can they function in society as normal persons? How can they even live? If this destructive minority gets a chance to grow and blossom, then Jamaica is certainly doomed. We need divine intervention.

Not safe

Iniquity abounds and the love of mankind seems to have been swept away by some kind of tsunami. We are not safe in our homes. We are not safe in our schools. We are not safe in our businesses - nowhere is a haven. Even the very assets that we work so hard to possess, seem like items that we have borrowed or have been joint owners of. These individuals, or rather beasts, seem to have their faculties seared by an extremely hot iron, and therefore have no scruples.

These shocking incidents, that we hear even more frequently these days, were once unique to movies, but are now penetrating us in the eye. Perilous times are surely here and this didn't just happen overnight. The moral fabric of our society has been torn into pieces and we seem to be living in a time when there is a vast reverse of principles we once held on to.

Wicked

These are the times when one has to be apologising to someone who has just crushed his toes. These are the days when the terms 'wicked', 'stab', 'bitch', 'dog' and 'daggering' seem to be interpreted as uplifting words. We need the collaborative efforts of our schools, businesses, institutions and more so, our churches to fight against this spirit of madness and barbarism.

Too many dreams have been lost. Too much blood has been spilled. Too many lives have been shattered and too many families have been broken. We cannot just sit back and wait for the next plane out of here. We have to make our mark against violence before we become a part of statistics and before this great land of wood and water become a place where not even our animals can feed.

I am, etc.,

R. MOORE

sweetbrengel_1@yahoo.com