The front page headline of the Tribune of January 17, 2003 read: “Police in despair over shootings” and “Uriah McPhee Primary students stunned by ‘senseless’ death”. The police were in despair after the senseless killing and students of Uriah McPhee Primary School were ‘broken’ by the ‘cruel’ and senseless death of a sixth grade student who was gunned down in his home off Bernard Road two days before. He was said to be watching television when a fiery feud broke out between two groups of men over a damaged Lexus luxury car.
Here we go again, acting surprised and outraged at violence and death. So what’s new? We really shouldn’t put on airs of outrage and condemnation because we have done a tremendous job of fertilizing the environment to produce such violent results. What we should be surprised and outraged about is our reluctance to see and deal appropriately with the underlying causes of so much uncontrolled violence and bloodshed.
We have said it time and time again that there will be no improvement in our social demise until we realize that the violence and criminality that we are experiencing are directly related to the values that undergird our systems that mould our thinking, attitudes, and behaviour.
A little over a year ago I witnessed an incident of brute anger, which almost led to death. One fellow threw a missile at someone, missed and hit a fellow’s car across the street. In no time, tempers flared, with the car owner bludgeoning the missile thrower with a strip of aluminium from a discarded window. That wasn’t enough revenge, and so as the victim of the beating lay stunned and bleeding on the side of the road, with almost jackel-like onlookers savouring every moment, the angry assailant went to retrieve an axe from the trunk of his car to strike the fatal blow.
It was at this time I intervened and yelled that the bleeding carcass was already dead. Stunned, the uncontrollable combatant looked at me and held back. “Yes, he’ll be dead tonight and tomorrow they will come to hang you; then we’ll have two dead persons and two grieving families,” I said.
The point we’re trying to make is that we have done a great job of fostering the value of things being more important than people and human relationships. Things define us and determine our worth and status. The cars, the gold chain, the earring, bracelet or Rolex are the extension of my manhood; and when bruised or encroached upon, must be defended at all cost.
Yes, we have done a great job of not sparing the rod in raising our children, as was the case with a neighbour a few weeks ago. The mother hit the little four-year old as punishment because she went into a room behind her, against her mother’s wishes. The girl burst out crying; and to get her to stop crying, the mother hit her several times and ordered the child to stop crying at that very moment. The child was in pain but she was being forced to steel herself against pain and deny her feelings. She had no right to or need for positive contact.
What happens to this child later in life when she tries to develop relationships? Mother, who is God-like in the eyes of the child, has sent out mixed messages, and the child will more than likely grow up confused about what constitute caring, loving relationships. Mother, without realizing it, could very well be planting terrorist seeds of power, which says that violence works, even though mother might tell her it’s wrong to do it. How is the child to distinguish between a good and a bad hit when both hurt, and probably leave lasting damage on the child’s social, emotional and psychological being.
The police called the killer of the youth mad men, but they were dead as men a long, long time before that. If we were to delve into their family of origin, it is very likely that we’d find that their human spirit was killed long before they even reached puberty. Long before the horrific act of killing that youngster, the tentacles of their environment had already castrated them, and they were only trying to find their identity in the powers of the gun. That’s what “dead men walking” do; and we have lots of them around; so don’t be surprised at seeing more and more murders. We planted the cultural seeds of violence and death long ago.
Change will come when we start planting the cultural seeds of respect for self and others, and our environment. Dare we try another way?
By Vincent Ferguson, The Bahama Journal
