Letter of the Day | Peace, love and tolerance: best gifts for Christmas

THE EDITOR, Madam:

With only a couple of days left for Christmas shopping, there isn’t much time to decide on the most appropriate gift to get my fellow Jamaicans.

However, as I ruminate on what could be my best gift for 2019, the newspaper headline ‘Bike road rage’ caught my attention. The article was most troubling and emotionally draining as it spoke of a cyclist who, having accepted culpability for non-malicious, non-threatening, but clearly offensive, spontaneous oversight, apologised profusely to the recipient of his misjudgement, but instead of a gracious acceptance of his apology, he was murdered.

When did we get to this juncture in our beautiful Jamaica? A place where cruelty, shamelessness, and barbarism have become a way of life for so many. The more I thought about that incident, the more convinced I am that the best gifts for my fellow Jamaicans at this time would be peace, love, and tolerance.

Given the increasing levels of anger, rage, and senseless crimes of murders and other atrocities that have assumed permanent residence in some of our homes and, by extension, our beautiful country; the increasing levels of intolerance and apathy for our fellow Jamaicans; emotional instability among our youth; coupled with the apparent lack of integrity, the huge deficit in conflict resolution skills, and the spiralling statistics in physical and emotional abuse of our women and children; I am convinced that peace, unadulterated love, and tolerance should help to encourage understanding, empathy, appreciation, and mutual respect among our fellow Jamaicans.

A LOT TO BE THANKFUL

Those of us who are so blessed, will, in a couple of days, witness the dawn of a new year and a new opportunity to make a fresh start. Irrespective of your resolutions for 2020, take a moment to reflect on the year’s experiences and use them to inform your attitude going forward.

For such a small nation, we have an awful lot to be thankful for. As we reflect on 2019, let’s celebrate with and congratulate all those who made Jamaicans across the globe proud and gracefully marketed Brand Jamaica.

My fellow Jamaicans, please handle all conflicts whenever and wherever they arise, with a sense of dignity, appreciation and respect for life. It is important to remember that the gift of the Christ child almost 2,000 years ago was indeed a gift of peace, love, joy, understanding, hope, and much more.

Please remember the widows, widowers, spinsters, orphans, and the homeless who may be alone this Christmas, and try to bring them joy.

If you take one thing with you into 2020, let it be this: “Be anxious for nothing, but in prayer and thanksgiving ... let your desire be known to God” – Philippians 4:6-7.

MAUREEN BRADY