Why, oh why?
Dear Editor,
How many more children will have to be raped, abducted and killed before we take drastic steps to correct it? How many more children will we watch mourn the death of their parents at a tender age or in some cases don’t even get to know their parents due to criminal action?
Why is it that so many adults are going to school and classes to further their education, while our children are on the roads begging and selling when they should be at school?
Why in our churches do the adults sit at the front and the children at the back. Why are there so many churches worshipping the one God yet we live in disunity and disarray?
Why do our professors and accomplished people believe they have to be in the spotlight at all times boasting and reminiscing on their achievements, while our children are suffocating for the opportunity to achieve their goals? Why not give our children a chance to be in the spotlight for a while? And it doesn’t have to be on the seven o’clock news in a negative light, but on programmes of hope and optimism.
When will the government realise that the solution to our problems is the children of this precious country and that investment in them is our only hope? When will the policymakers introduce systems that will encourage good values and discipline instead of corruption and indiscipline?
Why have our school principals and teachers lost interest in activities that will enhance not just the school but the entire community in which the school resides? Why have our policemen and women become so internally centred and disconnected from community development? Why are there so many communities without children’s groups and clubs to help the children?
Why have our churches become so isolated from each other and have begun to portray signs of politics within the church fraternity? Why is it that our pastors preach only in their church; what’s happened to open-air meetings and house-to-house ministry? Why is it that the children are mentioned only in Sunday school or in May, yet in divine worship and the remaining 11 months, it’s as if they don’t exist?
Why does the government which has the authority to bring about changes sit carelessly while people continue reckless procreation? Why is it more important to discuss issues of abortion than to find solutions for child labour in Jamaica?
Why do we have so many educated people yet we cannot make educated decisions? Which educated woman will step up to the plate and play start new era of the great Nanny? Which educated man would rather die in yonder gallows than to see our country continue down the path of corruption, dishonesty, indiscipline, child abuse, child labour and abduction, etc?
I will not stand by and watch this country fall through, just because we have become caught up with misguided principles and lost values.
Leron Mattison
