This approach to the matter at hand is simply worthless.
In the circumstances we need men and women – wherever they are – to do their bit in helping to clean up the mess that has been made of this place.
This cleansing must obviously comprehend a situation where parents, grandparents and others are encouraged to come together to help rescue their brood from sure destruction.
While government [at all levels] does matter, the fact remains that there is a large part that can yet be played by home, Church and neighborhood in seeing to it that this nation’s youthful hordes are better civilized; better nurtured and more adequately socialized.
We are dedicated to an enterprise that demands that we continue to speak truth to power and that we should continue to call for progressive action and initiative on the part of all who would lead.
In this regard, when we talk about leadership, our reference is to that broad panoply of people – bonded in institution and cemented by interest – and who are called upon to make decisions that matter for all of us.
Each Bahamian has a role to play in this country – either as part of the solution or as an essential cog in the machinery that constitutes the problem.
The time has come for Bahamians to take more direct responsibility for their situation and prospect in the world.
Whether we reap a harvest of shame or a bounty of goodwill and respect ultimately depends on what we want and what we do individually and collectively.
How we govern ourselves and how we discipline our appetites for good or ill shapes the kind of children we produce and the kind of society we bequeath our progeny.
Today’s appetite for the gun was whetted yesterday.
The gun increases the likelihood that someone will end up the dead. This is precisely what has been happening in a Bahamas where guns are ubiquitous.
One of the more interesting paradoxes in social life is neatly captured in the expression, ‘locking the gate after the horse is already long gone’. So it is today as so very many of our fellow-Bahamians routinely lament the decay that threatens to engulf us all.
We remind all and sundry of the fact that while lamenting what is broken might assuage some of the guilt some have for the current parlous state of things, they should take – if only a moment – to reflect on the possibility that they themselves might be complicit in the mess whereof they complain so mightily and so very heartily.
When it comes to blame, there is enough of that stuff for everyone we know, from successive governments that have sought to do too much on occasion and [sadly] too little on others.
But since this is all that can possibly come of exercises in expediency, we are not at all surprised when resort is had to some other easy fix.
And since there is really no magic bullet available, we commiserate with Kerzner International as they do what they think they have to do in the face of their recent scare.
New information reaching us speaks to some of what Atlantis proposes to do as they try to protect their business interests, the lives of their patrons and their hard-won reputation.
One aspect of this resort’s initiative concerns youth who patronize this or that facility owned by the Kerzner group; this new policy effectively bans unaccompanied youth from the resort’s properties.
While this is one good step in the right direction, we counsel all and sundry that this is little more than a panacea.
Evidently, more must be done by all parties concerned to see to it that social life is better imbued with civility; that thugs who would go around armed and dangerous should be hunted down, charged [if convicted]; and thence sent off to jail for no less than seven years.
Such a move would send the clear and loud message that gun-violence or other abuse will not be tolerated.
In the ultimate analysis, we are persuaded that government and its social partners should so bind themselves together in common accord as regards figuring out longer-term solutions to how – as a people united in service and love – we can cope with and overcome this nation’s myriad of social ills.
