Esther Tyson, Contributor
As a nation, we have reached a depth of degradation that we have never known before. We are sacrificing our children on the altar of violence, vengeance, self-enjoyment, greed, coarseness, crass materialism, slackness and rank immorality.
Men rape babies and innocent, virgin children because they believe it will cure their sexual diseases. Children are murdered to get back at parents who have crossed the drug dealer and the gunman. Mothers send their daughters out to prostitute themselves to get money. A 13-year-old girl-child is allowed by her parents to enter a modelling competition and the organisers select her as the winner to parade her young body in a skimpy bikini before crowds of ogling, lecherous old men. Mothers choose their live-in lovers over their children's safety and well-being.
Women bring men into their homes to have sex with them to get money, with their children observing this immoral behaviour. Women move from man to man without regard for the impact this loose sexual behaviour is having on their children. Sometimes, these lovers sexually abuse the daughters of their women, who turn a blind eye to all that is going on because they want the money or the sex that the men give.
Obscenities
Our children are taken to lewd dancehall sessions where women gyrate their bodies to sexually stimulate men around them. Parents have children sitting with them watching X-rated movies. Parents use obscenities to their children as frequently as they drink water. When told that these things are wrong and not good for the children, the response you will get is, " A nuh nutten."
The practices that promote good child-rearing are habits that are seen as old-fashioned and are scorned by many adults in our society. These are habits such as teaching our children good manners, to have a sense of responsibility, and the value of working hard to reach a goal. We need to teach our children to respect other persons, to obey the law, and to love God.
I am so tired of hearing that it is because of poverty that things are the way they are. When I was going to school, many children came from poor backgrounds, as I did, but their mothers had pride in themselves. They would make sure that their children went to school with what they needed, at great sacrifice to themselves. They would ensure that their children were going to Sabbath school or Sunday school even if they themselves were not going to church. The children would, in this way, get a spiritual foundation. This is no longer the practice.
No time to rear children in the right way
Our children are being nurtured on a diet of North American loose, immoral cable-television shows. They are being stuffed with the local dancehall slackness, which is being forced into their systems by the music videos, the sound systems booming on many corners and the dancehall sessions, which increase yearly in our society. Many parents are busy enjoying this lifestyle and have no time or inclination to rear their children in the right way.
A symbol of our condition is how macabre our behaviour at funerals has now become. It is not so much a place of mourning, but a place to profile and show off the latest dancehall hairstyle and fashion. There is little reverence (that's another old-fashioned word) in some of these funerals. Outside of the church, alcoholic beverages flow unchecked, as do the obscenities. We have broken down the standards and taboos in our society and there are no protections left to preserve a civil society. The walls are down and we are now subject to the whims of dons and the drug kingpins. What type of society do we expect to have when our children are being nurtured in this mire of base crassness?
Children are insecure
We have a society where our children are insecure, not having the knowledge that their parents are there guiding and leading them in the right way. We have teenagers who lack a sense of who they are because their mothers are with so many men that they wonder who their father is. We have young people without spiritual guidance who, in times of stress, inflict wounds on themselves to relieve pain instead of turning to prayer. We have young men without father figures who join gangs to have a sense of belonging and identity. We have young men who put on a posture of coarseness and aggressiveness and spout violence because the role models that they have are the DJs and the dons. We have young girls who think the way to get by in life is to 'wine' and gyrate and do the daggering dance in order to be accepted and to be popular.
Added to this is the stimulus provided by the Internet and the exposure that they get by putting their behaviour in cyberspace. There is little sense of what is private and what should be public. Everything is posted on Facebook for the entire world to see, including sex acts, lewd and vulgar behaviour, and unacceptable acts. After all, it is well known in Jamaica that popular media personalities have done this. These are the role models for our children. How can we expect them to do any better? After all, children live what they learn.
We need to heed what God said to the Jews in Jeremiah 6 vs 16: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."
Esther Tyson is the principal of Ardenne High School. Comments may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
