Hello mi neighbour!

These are trying times. Almost everything is different. Critical lines of demarcation are fast disappearing, making way for chaos and confusion especially among the illiterate and the impressionable. It’s open house across the globe: words like “sacredness”, “secrecy” and “privacy” are fast becoming obsolete. Gender is no longer fixed. You can now be what you wanna be. So with the help of science, you can be a female at breakfast time and a male by supper time. Am I exaggerating? Getting my point though.

Today, the language is foul and froward. People speak their minds freely with little or no respect for “he, she or the old lady”. Our toddlers are being served a daily oversupply of indecency and immorality. Faith in the Government’s ability to run our country is running low. So low that the populace thinks its time to dispense its own justice/injustice.

Oh yes, it’s been a long time coming – and there is no turning back. The union between crime and violence has produced “many children and grandchildren who themselves are raising families of their own”. Clearly the “contraceptive” ain’t working.

The challenges have pushed the authorities to their wits’ end. Little gumption is left to withstand the forces of evil that have been unleashed to “steal, kill and destroy” everything in sight. Questions being asked are, when did we get here, how did we get here and where do we go from here?

We fell asleep on the bus and have passed our stop. The bus driver was minding his own business – not paying attention to us, and therefore cannot be blamed for our carelessness. We started to become careless from the moment we shifted our focus from the guiding principles handed down to us by the Heavenly Father – those principles guided/guarded by our forebears.

What has become of our dependence on the “Eternal Father” to whom we first sang our National Anthem 60 years ago? “Eternal Father, bless our land”.

Even though that anthem (national prayer), written by Father Sherlock, is still been sung in Jamaica and elsewhere, it has lost its meaning on the majority. Daily family prayers are no longer used to invoke God’s blessings and protection. Now that those prayers have been discarded, the predators have been having a field day. Sad.

It is still true that “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”. It is still true that “except the Lord builds the house they labour in vain that build it”. It is still true that if we make the Lord our shepherd, “we shall not want”. And do you know what is also still true? “If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves, pray and turn from their wicked ways…” this land of ours will experience true safety.

But let us say that we forgot all of the above injunctions. Here is one everyone should always remember: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ and ‘do unto others as you would want them to do unto you’. Let’s open our mouth, “drink this medicine” and watch healing come to Jamaica the “land of our birth”.

To top it off, please help someone from the list below as you help me say thanks to those who’ve helped.

THANKS TO DONORS

1. Everybody’s Pharmacy, for act of neighbourliness.

2. Joy of Jules, for assisting visually impaired students with completion of application forms for financial assistance.

3. Nataya, USA, for offering some of our local neighbours food and clothing.

4. Annmarie, St Andrew, for acts of neighbourliness.

KINDLY HELP SOMEONE FROM THE LIST BELOW

1. Neighbour, St Catherine, visually impaired – needs a place to live while he attends university in Kingston.

2. Phyllis, Hanover, unemployed – seeking assistance with board and zinc to build a little house.

3. Sandra, St Ann – unemployed, house was destroyed by fire, seeking help to build a bathroom.

To help, please call Silton Townsend @ 876 884-3866, or deposit in acct # 351 044 276 NCB. Alternatively, send donations to HELLO NEIGHBOUR C/o 53 Half-Way Tree Road, Kingston 10; Paypal/credit card: email: zicron22@yahoo.com. Email: helloneighbour@yahoo.com. Visit hellomineighbourja.blogspot.com Mr Townsend exclusively manages the collections and distributions mentioned in this column and is neither an employee nor agent of The Gleaner.