Sadly, some who now lead and very many who would lead in today’s Bahamas are seemingly loath to break with status quo thinking; thus that dread sense of stasis/paralysis at the core of current thinking concerning what is to be done in the circumstances.

Instead of the generation of a bold new vision charting the way forward, we find only recitations of so very many of yesterday’s plans and projects; most of which failed for want of either sufficient funding or for lack of both experience and wisdom.

What we now have in these hard times are proposed back in time trips in nostalgia to a time when money flowed and the living was easy.

There is no such Time Machine and clearly, the future beckons.

As it does, we can and should seek to bend reality to our will; thus the importance of choosing the creative way forward rather than staying mired in an intolerably destructive status quo.

This is indeed a time of sadness and sorrows.

Sadder still, some of our people have decided to embrace and dramatize death rather than clinging to life and joy and love and peace.

This weekend past was one hell of a time for so very many of our people.

Like other such days, the news in the wind had to do with human suffering, human degradation, human despair – and sudden death.

In one instance, an AIDS sufferer made the news with his revelation that some of his family members despise him and have thus decided to abandon him to his fate.

As we understand, this man who once made the news is living with AIDS.

We wish him long life.

The same wish cannot be extended to some other Bahamians. These are the ones who were murdered this past weekend.

While they may be gone; they shall not be forgotten. As night follows day – there will come forth some blood-curdling cries for more bloodshed.

Invariably, demands like these come from the lips of people who fervently believe that human blood shed demands that more blood be shed; this time by the state.

I thought to myself that we who struggle are not caught up in a battle that is being waged against men and women, but against a far more insidious force.; one that might be characterized as the mystery of Evil.

As St. Paul so widely advises: – “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Put simply, it is this force that conduces towards negativity, darkness, destruction and death.

Mercifully, there are countervailing tendencies; namely those more conducing towards the attainment of the positive inclusive of human conviviality, affiliation and the renewal of a deep and abiding sense and spirit of community.

Some questions now arise.

In the first instance, can we – as a people united in service and in love – move in this direction?

Second, is it possible for those who strive to lead understand that, they must first follow?

Third, is it possible that those who now struggle underfoot can ever pick themselves up?

Our answer to each is in the affirmative.

As one hoary truism teaches, necessity is the mother of invention.

This notion is usually trotted out whenever reference needs be made to that apparently innate human capacity to find a way when there is apparently no way out.

In a sense, then, this is what can be described as creativity.

Contrariwise, there is no enemy or barrier to change more insidious than those beasts which come packaged in another package labeled in Latin, “The Status Quo”.

Those who cling to things as they are do so because they have interests that are grounded in these realities. They can be expected to fight tooth and nail to hold on to their versions of the so-called good life.

Governance is best when those who govern are closest to the people; thus our call to those who now run things to take the lead in bringing forward this new thing.

There is today a crying need for real educational reform. Indeed, there is no doubting the conclusion that things as they are can only lead to more failure.

Clearly, we can and should put in ourselves a can-do kind of spirit.

We would then and thereafter reap a bountiful harvest of goods conducive to the health, safety and well-being of all Bahamians.