Urgent call for civil action

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am writing with reference to the article by former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson, titled ‘Barbara Gayle – The message to Jamaica’. Mr P.J. Patterson’s plea for sanity and civility should not go unheeded. The bleeding in our society must stop.

Jamaican society is wracked by personal carnage, characterised by greed, avarice, and uncaring for the least among us. The former prime minister is calling upon the movers and shakers among us, individually and collectively, to devise means which ameliorate the suffering of too many in the society and for changing the mindset of those infiltrated with evil and wrongdoing – programmes uplifting the marginalised and which challenge the dominance of incivility and cruelty.

I recall the ‘Values and Attitudes’ programme Mr Patterson introduced in the ‘90s. If only more of the movers and shakers had had a robust buy-in perhaps our society would have been on a better trajectory. We need to revisit this programme as part of rebuilding and transforming our beloved land into a more civil and caring society.

As Mr Patterson said, Ms Barbara Gayle’s heinous murder, though senseless, should not be in vain. Let us use these lessons of the worst among us to make 2025 the year of redemption.

AMBASSADOR CURTIS WARD