THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WRITE in response to Hilary Robertson-Hickling's Sunday Gleaner commentary where she expresses hope that " ... the adversities that many Jamaicans have suffered over many generations have not yet turned us into brutes." Though a well written piece, I would challenge the quoted statement by asking, at what stage do "we" become brutes?
I dare say that present indicators are not encouraging. Our very inaction and nonchalance to demand effective governance from a feckless leadership has resulted in the self-incarceration of many citizens behind iron bars with guards at the gates to assure their own safety. With the insidious corruption pervasive throughout most public and private business concerns, the innocent will rapidly become tainted.
GRAVE THREATS
Murder-for-hire and reprisal murders now present grave threats to the justice system, as witnesses to many of these occurrences are eliminated without fear of punishment or apprehension on the part of the perpetrators. While we wring our hands and mourn our dead, we must understand that without decisive action, we may soon be recognised by the rest of the world as a nation of brutes.
It would do us well to remember Nietzsche's grave admission that "whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze back at you."
While we wait for a solution, the brutality is taking its toll. We are slowly being transformed into the very brutes we struggle with and will one day find that we do not recognise ourselves.
I am, etc.,
JENNY STONER
jstoner2005@hotmail.com
Miramar, Florida
Via Go-Jamaica
