Letter of the Day | Land of wood and slaughter

THE EDITOR, Sir:
The ghastly murders of those in one of the nation’s most vulnerable groups, children, live as testament to the low sink of debauchery and mentally diseased state that currently blankets the air and threatens to cloud law and good governance.
As an educator tasked with receiving and preparing the nation’s children for productive citizenship, I am sorrow-stricken that we have butchered, taking collective responsibility, 11 children on average, per quarter, in our little island for this year 2018.
I can’t even begin to imagine the terror of the victims and that of surviving family members thrust into a physiological and psychological whirlwind, as they try to grapple with an ever-deepening and widening emotional wound.
Add to that that by this year end, with this steady and worsening path, the savage hunting of our children would have numbered into scores. Each child we let die is a potentially brilliant mind killed. We are killing off our brainpower. We are killing ourselves!
What a state for any nation to wallow in! Permit me, though, to ask: What kind of men prey on little boys and girls? Defenceless, helpless children.
If the slaughter of adults does not seem enough to appease the sickening consciences of murderers, then what? The little children must now be sacrificed on the altars of bloodthirsty, bloodletting consciences? Then we wonder: Is our nation being overrun by cowards, wimps, and lackeys?
Returning residents, locals, adults, and children are common game in this hunting spree. No one is spared! The Grim Reaper of lore is, in a proverbial sense, having the time of his life in our little land of wood and water, surprising even himself by reaping more than what he came for.
We are, believe it or not, close to, if not there, becoming complicit with the degenerate state of affairs. Is this the land of wood and water we once knew? Or is it a human, or slowly becoming, a children's abattoir? I walk, wondering who is next. Do you also?
As the year dies down, hurtful memories live on. I take this opportunity, for what it’s worth, to join with many others in expressing the deepest of condolences to family members at this time, those overtaken by the juggernaut of crime in one way or the other, those ambushed and robbed of the opportunity to see their child, their loved one, strive, reaching their fullest potential.
Ultimately, though, citizens and rulers, parents and strangers, lest we forget, a nation that cannot, in the spirit of Ananda Dean and others, protect its children, its future, and learn from its past will, ultimately, be a failed nation.
WARRICK LATTIBEAUDIERE
Lecturer,
University of Technology
wglatts@yahoo.com