“Every day above ground is a good day.” (Unknown)
Usually, I believe this expression of positivity. But not today. The day hasn’t ended yet, and already it has left me with a very unpleasant taste.
This morning, on my way to work, I saw an unfortunately common sight on our roads – a victim of a hit-and-run. Oh, said victim wasn’t human, but does that make the crime any less heinous? And no, I’m not biased because 1) I’m an avid dog lover and 2) I recognised the animal. And yes, it is a crime. All life is sacred. Admittedly, whenever I see a tiny puppy, for instance, straying from a home towards the road and certain, imminent death, my first thought of the owner(s) is, “You careless, heartless, insensitive moron! Would you allow your helpless baby son or daughter, niece or nephew, or grandchild to wander out on the road and be crushed to a bloody pulp?”
When did life lose its sacredness and worth? When did the numbness seep into our psyche? When did the lines become blurred? And when was the life of a brother or sister weighed in the scales and deemed to be the value of an animal’s carcass?
Like that of the beautiful, young woman who was shot to death today in the middle of Half-Way-Tree when the sun was at its highest and the crowd at its greatest.
Just like another dead [insert animal], right? Doesn’t matter. No big deal.
What are we teaching our children when they are used as bait in crimes such as this one?
A young woman leaves her office after working hours and sees a little child crying on the road. Feeling pity for the child, she goes over to ask what is wrong.
The child replies, “I’m lost. Can you take me home, please?” The child hands the young woman a slip of paper and tells her where the address is located.
Being a kind-hearted person, the unsuspecting young woman takes the child there.
When they arrive at the ‘child’s home’, the young woman presses the door bell and is electrocuted as the bell is wired with high voltage. She is knocked unconscious.
The next day, on regaining consciousness, she finds herself in an empty house up in the hills, naked. At least 20 condoms are thrown all around, with semen flowing!
She has not even seen her assailants.
No regard for life, in whatever shape or form; none for another person’s body and rights. (By the way, this is apparently a new rape tactic that was forwarded to me.)
And yet, I still hope that one day, although it may not be that soon, humanity will awaken to the need to return to being each other’s keeper. That the strong will be the upholding arm for the weak. That we who can speak will be the voice for those who cannot. That we will all recognise and regain the rights and reverence for life. And its worth.
Even if that life is a dog.
2 Comments
May 14, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Sacred is relative, I suppose. I don’t think that calling something sacred is the only way to assign it value and argue for its preservation. In fact, making some things sacred, means that other things are not sacred. So, its ok to get rid of the non-sacred stuff?
There’s nothing about jamaican cultural values or norms that places a meaningful value on animals, except in the entrepreneurial sense. And since the dominant message is that it is ok – and in fact lauded – if one person’s individual choices cancels out others – well, if I kill your dog because I don’t like dogs, what are you going to do about it? Since we don’t eat dogs, and the ones on the street are not the ones that command the big dollas, well, it doesnt matter if I run over it, right?
Similarly with people: if any man want to kill any woman cause she do something he don’t like, we say he can go ahead and kill she. Don’t matter that she might be of value to somebody else? We ask, but why ím affi kill such a nice girl? Get my drift? Kill anybody you want, just make sure that is not a person who we had assigned positive value to: she can’t be too brown, come from somewhere, be educated, look nice, etc. Only then do we have a real loss. If she wasn’t nobody, then she can dead. Anno nutt’un, right?
Our problem? We think and act in absolutes. Complexity is not our strong suit. Being each other’s keeper means we have to think about what kind of keeper do I want to be, and what kind of keeper do I want in someone else. That too much fi wi head. Just lik dung di dog an gwa’an. Is ongle dog. End of story.
May 14, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Long Bench: Yeh man, mi get wha yu a seh.