Dear Editor,

The recent Easter period reminds us of the intervention of Jesus into the world for others who could not address their problems on their own. It was a costly intervention, but He paid the price so that men could have a transformed and ‘resurrected’ life. And He set the example for us all.

We believe that there are many areas of intervention needed for Jamaica. However, there is one area I would like to highlight in this brief letter. We need intervention in our inner-city communities to emancipate them from the culture of violence.

The example that Jesus set is that He intervened in a situation that was not His fault, but saw it as important; for the lives of men depended on it.

What is our response when there are drive-by shootings that take place on a regular basis in the inner-city communities? What is our response when at a funeral there is a seven-year-old boy weeping over a casket, as his relative has been murdered? What is our response when, out of a sample of four young men with whom I spoke from one community, each had a close relative murdered, with two of them having stab wounds and one with a scar remaining as evidence of a gunshot to his abdomen. Not to mention the recent killing of 17 people in three weeks regarding issues around one community.

We have benefited from the intervention and sacrifice of others, when we consider slavery. Now it is our turn to help free those who are caught in a culture of violence. We must see that there is more than an issue of crime we are dealing with, but a culture of violence, and it will take all sectors of society to stop this national epidemic, which is spreading.

We desperately need intervene to bring this emancipation and transformation so that many, many more of our fellow Jamaicans can be freed.

Bruce Fletcher

bruceaf_100@yahoo.com