Dear Editor,

Every woman’s bowels should be moved and every man’s pride broken by the graphic content of that video. When a man can think it is acceptable to manhandle a woman with such animalistic aggression and hostility, deliberately prevailing upon her, using even his very body weight as a weapon to crush her head, you know our nation is in trouble.

Where are the days when passers-by would jump in and rescue a person in distress? When did we get to the place where other men stand around and watch as another man brutally wounds a woman who, by the way, in my opinion, is fighting like hell for her life?

What has become of the moral conscience of our nation? There was a time when even that woman’s very profession would earn her some respect in the streets. Instead, we are watching the desecration of the nurse’s uniform, one charged with saving lives, literally thrown to the ground as she fights to save her own life in the streets. Road rage you say? So tell me: What happens behind closed doors?

Our women and children are repeatedly victimised by the very gender that should be working to protect them and yet we expect women to be as excited about childbearing as they once were. That was road rage. Now imagine that rage in the context of a domestic relationship. Then imagine a young child or two in the equation. Barely managing to fight for hers alone, much less the lives of offspring. So the posture of the woman today to delay childbearing is no longer just a strategy for professional or educational aspiration. It is an act of self-preservation as women test the waters before bringing children into the mix. Easier to exit, easier to move, easier to survive — alone.

Our nation needs therapy. Our women are broken and our children suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as our men live their anger out loud. A lover, not a fighter they would usually say, until that moment of truth when anger is on display. Then the cycle continues. Our boys have been imprinted upon and our girls learn self-preservation.

It’s bad enough that women struggle to find one educated enough, professionally accomplished enough, financially stable enough. Now they struggle to find one courteous enough, respectful enough, caring enough, controlled enough, loving enough, man enough to be gentle. Our nation needs therapy. Our nation needs God.

Can our women of childbearing age give birth to our nation’s future if their bodies lie wasted in the streets and bushes? If we need them to keep our nation’s future alive, why are we killing them? Our women no longer live long enough to bear and our girls don’t live to become women. Do the simple maths.

Brain drain not sounding too bad as an alternative. Nurses, teachers, fertile women — endangered as they are, women still carry a physiological need to reproduce. It’s an innate part of the desire for fulfilment. So if they can’t do it safely in their own homeland, they just keep moving. There are too many options to stay in Jamaica, their homeland, and be victimised as well as disadvantaged.

Women endangered. Children afraid. Men misguided and angry. The law? It remains to be seen. Our nation needs therapy. Jamaica needs God.

Keisha Thomas

predestinedempowerment@gmail.com