Dear Editor,

The management of Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay appears to be celebrating Jamaica’s 60th Independence, except that what they are displaying is not the Jamaican flag.

They ought to know that the colours of the flag are black, green, and gold. There is no yellow in the flag. And further, when did it become appropriate for the flag to be hung from the ceiling, as currently being done at the airport?

We have arrived at a place in this country where established protocols, structure, and order have been relegated to the past and are now replaced by optics and expedience. Somehow we have failed to inculcate in the psyche of our young leaders the inalienable rights and liberties which our national symbols and institutions represent.

We must understand that we did not get to this hallowed place of nationhood overnight or on the whim of some thoughtless desires. Determined effort, sacrifices, and self-denial are the characteristics of those before us, who bent their backs in order that ours may be a better existence than theirs. We must, therefore, respect the symbols of our nationhood.

It is unacceptable for the airport to be engaged in a sacrilegious representation of the Jamaican flag and, likewise, other public and private institutions. There are those of us who regard nationhood and our identity as Jamaicans as sacred and find it offensive that the flag is being misused and desecrated.

This must be resolved immediately, and we feel the same way about the airport being referred to as Donald Sangster International Airport or Sangster International Airport.

The foregoing is reflective of the erosion of good governance in our society, and it is obligatory that those of us who believe in Jamaica’s future and its retreat from the carnage of ignobility and moral decadence stand up firmly against this proclivity to be guided only by optics and expedience.

Mark A Hylton

markahylton@hotmail.com