Orville Taylor | Whoever wins in US, peace should prevail

If you have never been through war, you will never truly understand the gift of peace. By the end of this week, two elections would have been concluded and the Jamaican people will know who is our next leader of Opposition. In two days, the United States will vote and choose their 46th president, whether a second term for Donald J. Trump or a first for Joseph Biden. However, for the first time since the 1980s, I am in mortal fear of the results of an election, and it is not ours.

Half of Jamaica’s population was born after 1980, so they have no first-hand knowledge of living through an undeclared civil war. America’s median age is around 40. Thus, most Americans don’t know what it feels like to wait, fretting with bated breaths, for positive news that their democratically elected globally popular president, Ronald Reagan, survived an assassination attempt.

Reagan had won a landslide on November 4, 1980, carrying 44 of the 50 states (excluding DC), 489 of the electoral colleges to Democrat Jimmy Carter’s 49. He also polled 8.4 million more votes. True, the Democrats got a horse-whipping, but he was conciliatory. Both he and Carter had served in the military when America was at war; so, he understood the value of peace. In his inauguration speech, he declared, “The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place … and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.” Recognising the need to keep his country together, he respectfully acknowledged him. “Mr President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition process, you have shown a watching world that we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other, and I thank you and your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of our Republic.”

Yet, in the United States (US), he was almost killed by a would-be assassin’s bullet. Every president since then has had attempts on their lives. This says volumes. In a country where there are 1.2 guns for every resident, the last thing the US needs is disunity, demagoguery and intolerance for opposition. Neither Trump nor Biden has even served in the military. Moreover, there are pro-Republican and now pro-Democrat militias who are armed to their dentures. America cannot afford any open conflict, because they all will lose.

NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED

In this shift-hold country on the rock, our journey to political peace is something that we old fogies do not take for granted. Personally, I walked two gauntlets each day to go to school and to work between the 1970s and ‘80s. It was the late 1970s and my friends with whom I used to play at football started becoming zombies. In short order, one set, none of whom was old enough to vote, started declaring themselves ‘socialist’ and despite owning no more than three suits of clothing, swore death to anyone wearing green. My other friends, who could barely spell Bustamante, felt empowered by their firearms and orange antipathy and chanted, “gunshot fi PNP!”

I went to school for seven years and then returned in the early ‘80s to work on North Street. So-called Labourites at the back gates and self-declared Comrades at the front entrances, but as one walked to get the buses on King Street, anyone could rush you and ask, “wha you a defend?” Many times, my underwear showed the mixed result of orange and green.

Despite those very bright colours, those were some of the darkest days in this country’s post-emancipation history. It was stupid and illogical then, and a lifetime later, it is still senseless. What a betrayal of our universal adult suffrage it was!

Unlike Americans, our political parties had enjoyed 36 years of unrestricted voting rights by 1980. They only had 14. So, in fact, we as a black, Third-World country had more years of democracy. We also, despite our killing each other, somehow never turned our guns deliberately on our elected heads of government. Nevertheless, given the flow of guns within and from the USA and other places, we cannot stoke any fires of hatred, disrespect and violence.

Credit P.J. Patterson who, despite the bitterness within his party on his trail to leadership and the strong opposition by Edward Seaga, he never pushed ‘kass kass’ and retribution.

True, we have problems to fix, with our young men killing each other, but our elections are smooth, world leading in transparency and our leaders accept the results with consensus, grace and peace.

Hopefully, the Americans will learn from us and the few who are attacking Lisa Hanna and Mark Golding listen to P.J. and others, who know what an undeclared civil war is.

- Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.