The Editor
The Anguillian
December 31st2012
Dear Editor:
Holidays are usually a time when we come together to celebrate, visit with family and friends, exchange gifts and follow family traditions. This time of year means different things to different people. This was to have been a festive piece down memory lane as was very well articulated by the late Marvin Hamlisch, and sung quite memorably by Barbra Streisand in the academy award winning song “The Way We Were.” Mem’ries, like the corners of my mind, misty water colored memories of the way we were, but given the recent tragedies that has befallen us both in Anguilla and in the United States, we are forced to pull back and take stock of our priorities and where we are as a nation and as a people.
Maybe we need to look back at the way it used to be, and how we got to this very dangerous and painful place. This is not us. It is true that nothing stays the same, but it’s nice to remember when we could go to bed at night without locking our front doors, when we could go out and have fun without fear of being robbed or shot to death simply by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, when you were greeted with a good mornin’, or a good evenin’, when please and thank you meant something and when you heard yes sir or no sir, or yes ma’am and no ma’am. Times were simpler then.
Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind, smiles we gave to one another for the way we were. The smiles of twenty young and innocent six and seven year olds of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, whose lives were cut short by the bullets of a crazed Adam Lanza who, after killing his mother, drove to this school, broke into their classrooms and slaughtered them for no apparent reason. The smiles of innocent children who were bright, talented, loved art, story telling, dance, loved to sing, and who loved horses and the list continues…
And in our case, the smiles of those children who are left behind without parents who, for whatever reason, were the intended targets or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our children will not smile, either because they have no reason to or they simply don’t want to. They too love art, music, song, sports, horses and so on. They will not have their parents to share their dreams and aspirations with because their lives were cut short by a gunman’s bullet. They will have to carry on alone with no one to offer encouragement, no one to patch that bruised and bloody knee, no one to hold the bicycle as they learn to ride. No one to coax them back on after the first big fall. No one to tell them to look ahead and not at the pedals. No one’s left…. Barbra sings: Can it be that it was all so simple then, or has time re-written every line, if we had the chance to do it all again, tell me, would we, could we? We could go back to a time when we all looked forward to the holidays and all that they entailed. The serenaders with their scratch bands, the distinct sounds of the tray guitar, the strum of the banjo, the bath pan bass, the ‘moroccas’ and last, but not least, the ‘bahoe’ providing the much needed bass sound.
We went to bed unable to sleep for fear that they would come and we’d miss them. Year after year we looked forward to seeing and hearing them which was as much a tradition as opening gifts on Christmas morning. We’d look on as the revelers were treated with goodies such as sorrel, the spiked version, guavaberry and an assortment of cakes and pies, not to mention a few shillings. We’d hope that they’d bypass all the formalities and get back to serenading. Sometimes they’d play one for the road and sometimes they’d just leave. Word to parents, don’t feed them first. Do it last. Well time has changed all of that. Serenaders hardly go out anymore. The lead up to Christmas has lost its glitter. It’s now more about what did you get me and can I take it back.
Those twenty young children in Connecticut will never be able to do any of those things. Time, as complex as it, has become has seen to that. Simple shotguns and revolvers have given way to semi automatic rapid fire battlefield assault weapons. When Her Majesty’s Royal Post Office is being used as a conduit for transporting these deadly weapons it is a sad day. Who would have thought they would be using FBI, semi automatic guns and Anguilla all in the same sentence? Time has surely changed all that. Time has done away with the simple fistfight as a way of settling our differences. Now we hide in the shadows and ambush our so called enemies with deadly force. It’s now east against west and north against south. We are pitted one against the other. What has happened? The Honorable Evans McNeil Rogers, writing in the December 21st, 2012 edition of this paper, had this to say: “Anguilla has changed over the years and it has not been for the better. There is a new ‘rudeness’ in Anguilla that seems to be celebrated.” He goes on: “We celebrate rebelliousness when negotiation would suffice, we celebrate verbal abuse rather than respectful engagement, and we celebrate boisterousness rather than calm reasoning.” Dr. Lincoln V. Lewis, Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, in a piece written for the Walter G. Hodge Memorial Day Lecture series back in 2003, noted that Stokely Carmichael, the well known radical from the 60s, observed that violence was “as American as apple pie”. Dr. Lewis said he’d like to see the day when he could say that “non-violence was as Anguillian as peas and rice.”
That was wishful thinking on Dr. Lewis’ part, for a careful analysis of the years since he made that speech will show that things have gotten exponentially worse. Barbra continues: Mem’ries may be beautiful and yet what’s too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget, so it’s the laughter, we will remember, whenever we remember, the way we were. So after all is said and done, all we have are the mem’ries of the young, beautiful, talented and vibrant children taken from their parents in Newtown, Connecticut, and of those same young, talented, beautiful and vibrant children in Anguilla whose parents have been taken from them by gun violence.
The holidays are that time of the year when we all get together to celebrate for one reason or another, but when events as horrific as the ones that happened in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut, as well as the ones that we’ve experienced here last year, it is time for all of us, no matter where we are, to say in the words of President Obama, “enough.” I was extremely disappointed to see our CM give his annual Christmas message and not mention a thing about the wave of violence that we’ve been experiencing. It is during these times that we need our leaders to show some leadership and condemn the violence. Let the hooligans know that they will be sought out and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It is a sad day when the former CM Fleming has to come forward and condemn the current reign of terror while the current CM is preoccupied with saving his hide. We need our leadership to step up, both the Governor and the Chief Minister. To our government we say, your loyalties right now – in our desperate time of need – is to us the people. Governor, you took a sworn oath to protect and defend us. The time for action has come as another person in his nationally televised speech, to a grieving nation a few weeks ago, told his people that “this has got to stop.” This is not who we were or are as a people. Well, sir, in our tiny bit of paradise, it has to stop before an act as horrendous as the ones we’ve been talking about happens on our shores, then paradise as we know it will have ceased to exist. America’s heart aches for its dead as I’m equally sure we ache for ours. We mourn for our parents as their parents mourn for their young. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “the measure of a man is not how he acts in times of comfort and convenience, but how he acts in times of discomfort and inconvenience.” How much more of this do we have to endure? The time has come to act. Sirs, I beseech you to make Martin Luther King Jr’s prophetic words ring true.
What happened in Connecticut could have happened anywhere. We have become a people whose moral compasses have gone awry. We no longer behave in a manner that’s conducive to civility. I agree with Mr. Rogers that we are raising our children in an environment that is a breeding ground for a very confrontational society. He further goes on to say that “if we want our children to behave in a manner that is consistent with decent moral values, then it is incumbent upon us to lead by example. If we want them to behave in a certain manner, then we as parents need to model that behavior.” You can’t preach one thing and practice another. In other words, the old adage of “do as I say, not as I do” is not going to fly. We resort to a Wild West mentality to settle our differences. Is this what we fought for back in ’67? To turn our country over to a bunch of individuals whose only concerns are their own selfish wants and needs?
Mr. Rogers, I applaud you for calling out to the upper echelons of our government to clean up their act, to be appreciative of those on the other side and realize that they too have as much business to be there as they do. This crab barrel mentality seems to have taken over everyone. Each of us has a right to be heard. Right now government looks like it’s working for the few and not the many as it is supposed to. All of us need to practice what we preach. There’s an old saying that says “you need to know from whence you came in order to know where you’re going.” We seem to have forgotten who we are. We no longer do the little things that made us unique, and until we remember how we got here we’ll continue to tear each other down much to the delight of those who would like to see us fail. There is a well known poem written by a Pastor Martin Niemoller during the Nazi reign:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out — because I wasn’t a Jew
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out — because I wasn’t a communist,
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out—because I wasn’t a trade unionist
Then they came for me—
And by then there was no one left to speak out for me.
We can remain silent and watch our fellowman fall one by one hoping that someone else will come forward, until there is no one left to come forward. Before I finish, let me say this. The recent gun violence, both here and in the United States and elsewhere, is receiving the most attention simply because of the magnitude of these horrific acts and the time all of this is happening: holiday time when everyone is looking forward to being with family and friends. This is not to say that those people who fell victim to a gunman’s bullet should be any less important. On the contrary. Everyone had a mom, dad, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandparents and so on. All of these people have felt the pain. We remember you, and hopefully those responsible for your passing will have paid the ultimate price. To all of those who’ve been felled by a gunman’s bullet, we pray for you and hope that you are in a better place.
Mem’ries are what keep us grounded. We tend to go back and reflect on how things used to be – when things were simpler. We remember the things we want and choose to forget the ones that are too painful. Let us use these holidays to reminisce about how it used to be: the masqueraders, the serenaders, the maypole dancers, the guavaberry, the sorrel, potato pudding, cakes and pies topped off by mass. A trip down memory lane this year will be bittersweet, but we’ll make the best of it because we’re resilient. Until then, have a wonderful and prosperous New Year and may God bless us all, and may God bless Anguilla.
Tyrone Hodge
