Dear Editor,

We try to unravel the various reasons our island is the way it is. We have identified our problems: high crime rates, domestic disputes, lack of educational opportunities, and we go on.

The tears of the broken-hearted have fallen on our soil. The hills have heard the cries of many weeping mothers, the ground has felt the knees of those so stricken with grief.

Who do we blame? Some say the Government, others the police, a broken educational system, religion, among many others. But we are the real perpetrators. We who choose to “mind our own business”, who fear so much for our own lives that we watch the lives of so many go down. We fear so much for our children that we “protect” them with our silence.

We are our own enemies each time we have kept silent, each time we have minded our own business. We have cut down the tree of hope. We have added tears to the reservoir. We have committed the greatest sin ever imaginable by man. Our silence has removed the ladder our children need to get higher. Each time you have kept silent you have screamed in the ears of your sons and daughters the sound of their own death. Each time you have kept silent, you have removed a hurdle for that killer to strike again. You have not done yourself a favour by keeping silent, instead you have done yourself and those you love the greatest injustice. Your silence forms a welcome sign at the entrance of your community to criminals.

We are shackled by our own silence. Each time we have kept silent we have dug another grave, we have built another coffin, we have said goodbye to another generation. Our silence says that all our ancestors have done and fought for is of no value: There was no need for you Marcus, no need for you Nanny, Paul you did not have to walk from Stony Gut to Spanish Town.

Nicola Brown

brownnicola04@gmail.com