Looking for a few good men

Danya Hess, Contributor

It has long been said that the only thing needed for evil to triumph was for the good to do absolutely nothing.

I have often been troubled about this phrase as I look around my nation, watching the many ways in which evil seems to triumph daily. I have got sick of opening the newspaper to read about multiple murders, financial scams, missing children, this person or that person suspected of being involved in fraud.

I have more recently grown just as weary of the bad driving, the indiscipline when it comes to joining lines and obeying traffic laws, and a basic lack of good customer service in the average restaurant or store.

Recently, a friend and I were in the cinema, and when the movie opened with our national anthem, we stood at attention proudly. I am ashamed to say that not only were we the only ones in the whole cinema who stood, but the other moviegoers who were indolently lounging snickered at us, and 'whispered' mocking comments to their friends. I began to feel violently ashamed of my nation in that moment. When did we become a people that not only sit back when there is good within our power to do, but we mock those who stand for principle?

R-RATED MATERIAL FORCED ON US

It gets worse. The previews for upcoming movies were gory, graphic, pornographic and disturbing. The same things that our network providers would have apologised for showing a few years ago are now being pumped into us, against our will, through the previews. We attend a PG-13 movie only to be inundated with heavy rated R material in the previews. Yet, not only do we not resist, but we applaud the shameful abandonment of morals, and cheer the same violence which has crept off screen and into our streets.

A couple of years ago, my husband and I were on a country bus travelling to Kingston. The police and some soldiers were lining the side of the road, obviously tipped off about some illegal activity, and were waiting for their guy.

Imagine my surprise when they pulled over our bus, and began to search us. A line of young men were pulled from the bus, and one of them, a vendor, suddenly broke away and ran off into the bushes. The police had found a stash of his fresh marijuana hidden beneath his fruits and vegetables. The police gave a cry and chased the man into the bushes, while some of the soldiers returned to the bus and told us to go on.

While I was thanking God for the law-enforcement personnel who were obviously trying to do their job, who emerges a few miles down the highway but the same criminal! Instead of frowning and shaking their heads, the passengers began to cry out for the bus driver to turn around and pick up the criminal! My husband and I shouted the opposite, but we were outnumbered, and by the looks of it, if the driver didn't want a riot, he'd better do as he was instructed.

We retrieved the man, who got back on board the bus amid cheers and applause as if what he had done was praiseworthy. The hard part to swallow is that these passengers cheering him on were ordinary, everyday citizens, not hardened criminals.

STANDING ON PRINCIPLE

What is our nation choosing to become? When violent crimes earn nothing more than a disappointed headshake, and a murmured injunction before they become yesterday's news? When those who can stand to do good not only do nothing, but actively aid the bad? Where is the Jamaica of my childhood? Where young people rose to give the elderly their seats, and where people rushed to defend the innocent? Or have we simply become jaded by delayed justice, broken systems, and corrupt government?

My outcry is not so much to highlight the problems which I think we all see daily, as it is to challenge a few good men to rise up for principles. If all it takes for the darkness to triumph is for the few who carry the torches to keep them unlit, I guess I'm asking for a few good men.

Men, women, and children who want better for their nation to start being the change they want to see reproduced, even if it means becoming a target for taunts and ridicule. For people who want to see the Jamaica of their childhood coming back into focus, and will take their small stands daily to stem the tide of wickedness that has for too long flowed over our silences.

Any takers?

Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and dhess@ywamjamaica.org.