AUGUST is just around the corner, a few hours from bringing with him “shock and awe” that when he lands, seven months of 2016 will have gone by. He’s not joking. Time is flying faster than even Donald Trump can run his mouth, bringing confusion into a world which has never seen anything like this one man spewing a barrage of what a friend of mine calls “ridiculosity”.

With almost five months to come on the world calendar, we continue living from one minute to the next, barely surviving in a state of uncertainty. The mood of the times continues to challenge the efforts of the ‘good people’ who still hope and believe that ‘better’ can come, if only we make the effort to treat each other with common courtesy and civility.

It is hard to believe that we have survived so much brutality, to the extent that even children are suffering. Leaving aside what is on the overseas agenda, on home ground we are living by faith and fear and only the Highest Power knows where it will end. We are learning some really strange lessons.

From this weekend on, we will be partying and celebrating, but with all that, so many of the lessons of history have caused us to coin new words and proclamations of our own. This might help us to understand why we must find saving graces of our own kind. We have never stopped the search for heroes. Just this week, we have revived the long-held argument as to whether Miss Lou should be made a National Hero. Members of the public want to know whether the people’s desire will be accepted or not.

It is not “to-deh day”, as grandpa would say, that discussion has been raised to at least erect a public statue of her. I happen to know of a project, which is intended to bring that hope to reality. The honour for Miss Lou’s statue has been organised by a group of long-time friends of hers who have never forgotten her. The memory will always be there. The statue is coming, they pledge. Some technical aspects are already formalised and in time, we should know the details and how the project will come to fulfilment.

A statue by all means for Miss Lou, but there is so much more to her than that alone. There is much more than just the pleasure she brought us in her time. Many see her just as a warm, cuddly friend, who could tell “sweet jokes”, but the extent of her value has not even begun to be made clear. As Buju seh, “the full has never been told”. The value of the way we express ourselves as a people is still at the centre of scholarly discourse as to the contribution of Miss Lou. Despite this, there are still persons who cannot, or more correctly, will not admit that there is anything of value in the gift, which came with our heritage, and which Louise Bennett brought us.

Up to her last days, she refused to be ashamed of who she was, how she spoke, and how she wrote. I have always been amazed at the way she held her ground in defence not only of herself but the land of her birth. Louise Bennett Coverley knew where she came from and was confident of where she was going and what she would take with her.

I still don’t understand why some people are unrelenting in trying to put distance between the language of the people who were born into the same space. They persist in trying to belittle one of the great gifts which was given to us. The arguments against Jamaican talk, (call it what you will), jump high or jump low, really is due to a lack of belief in ourselves.

The weak argument that we must abandon what a Louise Bennett preserved for her homeland while issuing false claims that they are protecting us. Seh wha? For matters like that, Louise would “buss a big laugh” and continue to speak as she learned from the earliest days of her youth, to her very end. She was Jamaican and spoke like one.

RIDDLE ME DIS, RIDDLE ME DAT…Talking of where we come from as “Jamma people”, we have a lot to say when it comes to our folklore. While some people are bursting their heads with Pokemon Go, it might be a good thing to build our own games and be rewarded by where we come from and the impact we can make elsewhere. Work this one out now. Jamaican women, of course, do many things. Can we really, really roar? (Check out the Little-Little Theatre this Sunday afternoon 4 p.m.)

SUNSPLASH AND HISTORY: Praises are being sung about the recent success of Sunsplash 2016, which drew fans from “abroad and at home”. Interestingly, how many of the revellers knew the history of the event? Seriously now, how many knew of its history from its origins in 1978 when the world seemed to be tumbling down around Jamaica because of politics and politricks on the land? Then came the bright idea to put Reggae to work, and work it did. One day soon, there should be a “get to know it session” to find the answer. What if there had been no Sunsplash then? Would there be one now?

Barbara Gloudon is a journalist, playwright and commentator.

gloudonb@yahoo.com