THERE is a cost to doing wrong and a cost to doing the right thing, and we believe from observation that few people are willing to incur the personal cost of doing the right thing. Too many of us opt for what seems to make us better off, even if it is wrong.

It is a precious few who are willing to do the right thing, cost it what it will. This very exclusive group rarely includes politicians. So when a politician takes a stand on an issue which is right and could have serious personal cost, then he/she must be commended.

Dr Peter Phillips, former minister of national security, has been the subject of threatening graffiti because he has raised concerns about how the Government is handling the US request for the extradition of Mr Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. Whether his position is right or wrong he has had the courage to speak his mind. This is a duty incumbent on him as a member of parliament and his right as a citizen.

He is well-placed to speak on extradition matters, given his long tenure as security minister during the PNP Government of Mr P J Patterson. The fact that he accepted the personal danger of the security portfolio does not make it easy as a family man to do what he thinks is right, despite threats.

The threshold of personal danger has to be crossed by each and every one of us if we are to lead a full life in a society with one of the highest murder rates in the world. It is only when a sufficient majority of the citizens of Jamaica take the stand for right, cost it what it will, that citizens will triumph over criminals.

It cannot be left to the police to make the ultimate sacrifice, if necessary. Those who express admiration for Dr Carolyn Gomes but remain passive, only make her crusade more difficult for her. Those of us who, by our silence, are complicit, make it more difficult for the courageous Mr Greg Christie to do his job.

We all cannot be heroes or heroines, but if the majority of us are cowards with embalmed consciences then we create an environment in which a ruthless minority imposes a reign of tyranny on all of us. If too many of us opt for responsibility for self and loved ones in preference to exercising our responsibility for the society, then we are all in jeopardy. This is how the Nazis came to power.

It is not good enough to mind our own business, because that will not guarantee that we can enjoy the individual rights to which we are entitled. As Martin Luther King Jr said, injustice anywhere endangers justice everywhere. Freedom and peace require eternal vigilance. They have to be defended and protected all the while, everywhere, every time by all of us.

As mere mortals, we may not all be able to rise to the commandment of loving our neighbour as ourselves, but we can all be concerned about our neighbours because what happens to our neighbour can happen to us. Let us be the keeper of our neighbour’s safety and security. Let us do for the security of others as we would do for the security of ourselves and our loved ones. We will all be safer and more secure for it.

Admittedly, we cannot all do what Dr Phillips, Dr Gomes and Mr Christie are doing, but we can stand behind them and let them know that they have our support and appreciation for what they are doing on our behalf. Let us also commend the thousands of unsung Jamaican heroes who every day accept the cost of doing the right thing and pay the price.

Let us create the mass psychology of doing right. The cause needs all of us now.