The Editor, Sir:As a pastor, I would recommend that we as a nation declare to the rest of the world that we are a sovereign nation, we hold to what worked for our forefathers where it took only a knowledge of who was in charge to keep us in check as children and a police uniform was enough to let us conform.
Let us be to our children, the parents, the leaders, the friends, the protectors and then reap the rewards of our labour as they become the leaders of tomorrow.
Let us get back to the days when neither the elderly nor the blind had to worry about being on the streets, at a bank to do any business there, at a doctor's office for a check-up or even at the grocery to do shopping.
Love and respect
Let us bring back the days where we are prompted by love and respect for our fellowman that would cause us to jump to serve when the need arises without thinking of what reward we would get , as this reward would be a satisfied heart that loves.
Let us get back to the days when you recognise the importance of the other child as without them there are no games to be played (stuck in the mud, jax, dandy sandy, ring games, etc.). Let us get back to the time when women were not seen as sex objects but as important to get us as men to practise how to understand and eventually protect and lead with our male strength and intuition.
Let us get back to the times when rather than being selfish and what is mine is mine, give because it was what we saw among our parents and neighbours and they had a cohesive and healthy lifestyle. Oh for the return of those days!
Just as it recognised with the academic educational process and as we have been structuring learning programmes to make our children marketable for the Caribbean and the world, let us also give this kind of focus on the social and the spiritual so that those who come behind us will call us faithful.
An open mind is useless, an uneducated mind is dangerous but a trained mind is priceless.
I am, etc.,
DAVE NEIL.
Liguanea P.O., Kingston 6
theshepherdlounge@yahoo.com
