The Editor, Sir:

I crave the opportunity to send this poem to the artistes who are creating music that is inciting violence in our society, whether they believe they are responsible or not:

How long can we hide behind

dancehall music because we believe it eases the pain

Lyrics, cymbals and drums, hi-fi sound system beating down a depressed lane

Weed, chalice, tight pants, bleaching, riding on the poverty train

But at 2 o'clock when the music stop, here comes the problem again

The system sees it as a means of pacification

The PMI sees it as a means of unification

Is Mavado's gullyside a state of mind

Or Assasin's ghetto designed to keep us behind?

How long will Beenie be our Doctor

How long will Bounty be our guide

How long will Vybz be my child's teacher

In the mind of my son, Mavado, reside?

The murder music is not the worst of our problem, we have rape, suicide, dirty politics, and the like

We have parents and students beating teachers so ever so often, they must strike

The gun lyrics and false hope is playing havoc, man

To undeveloped minds, your lyrics are too strong

The subliminal message is etched in the mind

So murder music makes us unkind

The glorification of the gun is no fun

So spare me to spare you and the land of the sun

Because our lives are filled with contradiction, lies and promises

It has become emptied of the hopes, dreams, aspirations and realities

We are impregnated with grouses, funerals are our pastimes

Trapped in our lower selves nauseated by musical nursery rhymes

Screaming, but the Lord doesn't hear

The drums, cymbals, loud speakers are too loud to bear

All make us depend on the music for a solution

Clean music is the place where freedom lives

Yes, clean music, mystic revelation and emancipation it gives

And as I close this door, we must rise and make things right

Because if we don't, after murder music, it will be bloodshed tonight.

- Everald Dunkley, evdunkley@yahoo.com, Via Go-Jamaica