I cried.
I cried at the news that another young life was lost to violence. Another loss, another murder, more tears and more heartbreak. I believe we all mourn in some way, at the news of yet another murder in this our beloved Federation.
I cried because the St Kitts, the Basseterre I grew up, not that long ago, when gun crime was rare, and neighbours knew and looked out for each other, and bad company referred to loud and disrespectful people who picked fist fights, is not the same St Kitts my young son and our young sons and daughters will inherit.
I cried because the innocence I knew growing up in Basseterre, walking with my father in La Guerite, St Johnsons village, MacKnight, Market Street, Newtown, Prickley Pear Alley, Soho and Dorset, is somehow lost to all of us forever.
I ache as a young mother trying to imagine the pain gripping another grieving family over the loss of another of our nation´s sons. I am anxious as I pray Lord, how can I spare my son, and all our other sons and daughters in this country from the violence that seems to be mushrooming all around us.
It pains me to think that another young man, full of youth and potential, who may have aspired to be anything, given the right catalyst, lays dead somewhere. Dreams ended, hope shattered, potential all terminated. And I wonder how many more of our young men will we lose to violence. How many more families must mourn and try to pick up the pieces and move on, how many more of our young sons will kill each other, and teach others to kill, and just how much more can this country take?
I see the loss burdening this young island nation, barely into its independence era, as an opportunity lost. Our beloved Federation, with endless human potential in our young men and women who make us proud the world over, would never know which lost life may have gone on to advance our national development – as a great leader, economist, agronimost, social worker, orator, physician- who knows?
It pains me, as it seems that the crime problem is worsening. I wring my hands as I wonder what can I do? What can we do? Where have we gone wrong and what can we do to put it right? And how many more will die before the horror and tragedy of each death gets jaded, so we fail to care or to take notice any more. And what would be worse than the loss itself, than when the collective nerve of the community becomes numb with ever increasing violence?
And in all of this I refuse to placate myself with the fact that crime is worse somewhere else, that in other countries there are so many more murders. I reject any suggestion that our situation is very tranquil compared to others. I know it is, but that fact alone is no consolation for me. This is our St Kitts, our Nevis, and we know that this level of violence in our people is unnatural and out of control. It must be stopped immediately or we will lose this entire nation.
Out of the grief and regret I feel must come a deep resolve in me, and in all of us to put our resources, our various strengths and our energies together to restore our Federation to peace and tranquility.
13-11-2008
