Despite being moved to the National Indoor Sports Centre, due to concern about the weather, the annual national honours and awards investiture ceremony, scheduled for tomorrow, will most likely offer some of the pomp and pageantry that Jamaicans have come to expect from this event at its traditional venue — King’s House, the official residence of the country’s head of State.

The ceremony will see a grateful nation recognising the outstanding contribution of 150 citizens and this newspaper joins in congratulating and thanking them for their service.

While there are some who scoff at this event, we believe the gesture is important as it helps to uphold the ideal of service to country, particularly as too many Jamaicans have been sucked into the global trend of self-absorption and materialism.

In that regard, last week’s observance of National Heritage Week, especially within our schools, continues an extremely noble tradition, as it serves to instil and reinforce in students the priceless sacrifice made by our foreparents to secure the freedoms that we enjoy today.

It cannot be highlighted enough the importance of the Bill passed by legislators some years ago that absolved four of our national heroes — Messrs Samuel Sharpe, George William Gordon, Paul Bogle, and Marcus Garvey — as well as their supporters, sympathisers, and participants by association, and other freedom fighters, of criminal liability arising from their participation in what has been termed “acts of liberation with moral justification”.

We recall very well the parliamentary debate on that Bill — the National Heroes and Other Freedom Fighters (Absolution from Criminal Liability in Respect of Specified Events) Act, 2017 — in which Ms Olivia “Babsy” Grange, the minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, correctly stated that: “Our ancestors were of a pedigree that was not daunted by challenges, no matter how great they were or how seemingly insurmountable the obstacles. They came to Jamaica shackled and belaboured, but within their fertile minds dwelt the militant cultures they had fashioned back home in the various (indigenous) forces of the [African] continent.”

Essentially, as Minister Grange stated in that debate, the objective of that Bill was to redeem and restore the dignity and integrity of those who suffered much.

Ms Grange also reminded the nation that those freedom fighters made life difficult for enslavers and oppressors, ensuring that plantation owners and empire knew they could not enslave their minds.

That fixity of purpose and mental strength contributed in great measure to the achievements of our foreparents, particularly our seven national heroes who are generally the focus of activities throughout National Heritage Week.

But even as we pay homage to our recognised national heroes, we also know that there are many other Jamaicans imbued with a similar sense of nationalism and high regard for the welfare of others.

We consider it our duty to tell the stories of those unsung heroes who make sacrifices daily to build this country. And as we do so, we reiterate our suggestion that the State should examine the idea of conferring the title ‘national treasure’ to Jamaicans who have and are making exceptional contribution to national development.