One of the crueler sides of that thing we call ‘human-nature’ has to do with the extent to which we – as such creatures – adapt to situations and conditions once thought both abominable and incomprehensibly unfit for us.
In case after dread case, we note how human beings can become numbed and often quite insensate in the face of violence run amok and in the very face of innocent-human-blood-shed.
This is truly remarkable, if ever there was a need for examples to back up these claims reference need only be made to that horrid score that comes packaged in with an ongoing torrent of human-blood-shed on this or that mean street somewhere or the other in this or that Bahama heart-land community.
Day in day out, there are reports upon reports which speak of this or that community where gun-men routinely engage each other in gun-play and fisticuffs; and where – on occasion – a cutlass is brought out and thereafter used with the most savage Rwanda-like efficiency.
Regrettably, all of this is closely monitored by children unfortunate enough to be born to these socially savaged people; and so, in turn, these children routinely morph into beasts just like their parents; their neighbors and their so-called friends.
And so, the battle for turf continues; and thus all the bloody news coming in from the whirlwind, where we find the likes of the three short stories that follow.

First things first: “…A 32-year-old man became the country’s latest murder victim when he was shot multiple times while walking home. It happened around 12:30am Thursday.”
“…Police say the victim, who sources identify as Patrick Bodie aka “Lil Pat”, was walking through a track road between Gibbs Corner and Thompson Lane on the way to his home when he was approached by an unknown man who opened fire on him, hitting him multiple times about the body.”
“…When police arrived on the scene, Bodie was still breathing, but was unconscious. He was taken to hospital by ambulance where he died of his injures shortly before 3a.m.”
Needless to say, this story is identical to any number of other stories concerning how this or that young Black man just so happened to be killed at the hands of someone just like him.
In another such instance, we hear say from reports to the police, two men ages 41 and 56, were sitting on a porch on Meadow Street when they heard what sounded like three gunshots.
In truth, these men not only heard these gun-shots, they were hit by them.
Both men were taken to hospital where they are listed in stable condition.
At another remove, then, there is another dimension to this sad, sad song.
Here we can and do report concerning how life is lived out in some of this land’s meaner communities; thus work we did with one woman and her five children.
This woman lives on Frogman Lane; and we can tell you today that she laments her ill-luck at having to stay in a house on a street where as night falls, the gunfire begins.
This woman also tells us that she is afraid for her five children [three boys and two girls]; this because she fears for their safety as they make their way to and from school.
This woman tells us that she is especially concerned for her daughters; this because she knows precisely what is likely to be their fate in such a place where “selling” is routine.
This woman also tells us a sadder story of a time not long ago when she witnessed a man being chased and then shot down by his pursuers.
This woman’s story is identical to tales told by other men and women, who daily see, hear and feel some of what it means when the word goes forward concerning life in the ghetto.
In short, life for many comes freighted with fear in places where they are – on occasion – as afraid of the police as they are of criminals salted throughout their communities.
There are all those other decent, law-abiding citizens and residents [the working poor] who must brave the gun-fire, keep their heads down and [on occasion] see as if they are not witnesses to law-breaking on their very door-steps.
And so, the bloody beat continues in a place where murder, mayhem and abuse have become endemic.
Saddest of all has to do with facts suggestive of the conclusion which says, our leaders are currently not up to the task and challenge of dealing effectively with these issues.
Sad to say, an alternative theory suggests that the road we currently tread is the same one we built so long ago – and so today, we are reaping what we sowed so very long ago.