Something dread is happening on this island.

That terrifying thing has to do with how some born and bred criminalized-Bahamians have apparently declared war not only each other, but also on any and every one who crosses their paths.

Even as these matters surface, there arises that dawning realization that our schools must be failing; that our churches can and should be doing more – and that, the Bahamian people may be obliged [ if only for the sake of their safety and sanity] to rely less on government and more on themselves.

The word of advice we bring is that the Bahamian people should so organize themselves that they place more demands on themselves and on all who lead or would provide leadership in hard times like these.

As the carnage continues throughout this or that heartland community, there are very many Bahamians who now openly wonder whether any administration has what it takes to turn this situation around.

We too have our very real concerns about a situation where so-called criminal elements brazen enough and vicious enough that they see nothing wrong in acting as if they were soldiers caught up in the coils of war.

What we have on our collective hands is a scenario where the so-called chickens are coming home to roost.

Today we live in a time where we can experience first-hand what happens to a people who have grown accustomed to making big money the easy way wake to discover that those bonanza days are gone with the wind.

What happens to so very many is to be seen in some of the stories that today make the headlines; some that speak to bloody murder; some to mayhem run amok; some to carnage unspeakable; some to rape and other kinds of sexualized savagery; and some others to rampant rip-off.

There is that continent of crimes where subtle theft has been turned into a national past-time – as in cases where workers at this or that utility operation routinely extort money done for this or that work for which payment has already been made.

Here of late, garbage collectors have found their own thieving way of getting more money for the work they are already being paid to do.

With open-palms, they all expect a so-called tip!

Sadly, this kind of behavior has come to be accepted and expected, thus some of the corruptions that now beset this country’s criminal justice system; some of the corruptions that attend the conduct of certain aspects of this nation’s educational systems – and some of that myriad of corruptions that now cling to some of this nation’s religious and other such who say that, they have been called.

Today there is that dawning realization that speaks a very special truth concerning matters political.

That dawning realization is that there are things that people must today do for themselves. Indeed, there is a growing sense of urgency on the part of very many Bahamians concerning not only what they expect to happen on that day when a new administration takes the reins of power, but also with whether or how this nation of ours will survive in a time when things seem to be trending in a direction where crisis piled upon crisis seems to be endemic.

It is against this stark background we take a look at some of those things we can and should do, moving forward.

We do believe that any such change agenda should include local level governance for New Providence, land reform and a speeded up agenda aimed at the empowerment and animation of any and all projects aimed at deepening Bahamian ownership and investment not only in the Bahamas, but in places as diverse as Jamaica and Haiti.

Such an agenda for change could and should involve putting in place policies aimed at increasing not only food production in our country, but also a policy aimed at resolving our country’s persistent dilemma regarding so-called undocumented migrants living and working in the Bahamas.

Even as we wish for leadership that would help realize these ideas, crime and the fear it spawns – if allowed to run unabated – can upend even the best as they try to do their best.

And then, there remains that other pesky reality – the national debt.

Thanks to the burgeoning national debt, those generations of Bahamians – with some not yet born – that will find themselves struggling like nobody’s business to pay it off.

But yet we hope for the soon-coming of a happier time.