Letitia Wright

Feb 02, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We are proud of a Guyanese that made it good.  Letitia Wright is a cause for local celebration, a figure worth embracing by all Guyanese, regardless of our old scars and bones-in-the-throat, our politics. She is an example for all of us, one who reached the heights, and never forgot where she came from, who her people are.

It is inspiring that Letitia Wright, a Guyanese woman of humble roots, who hit it big with international cinematic stardom, still remembered, came to share, and share she did.  She graced our top lawmaking body, Guyana’s National Assembly, with her presence and made a memorable impression with some simple words that ring with rich resonance across the length and breadth of Guyana. “Love and peace” were what struck a chord with us at this paper. This society has been plagued, has grievously hurt itself, where Guyanese are a divided people that limps along, and drags around, mostly aimlessly.

Instead of the love and peace counseled by Letitia Wright, we have been consumed by hatred and fears, hostility and resentments, that just will not let go of us. The only time that Guyanese seem to have the time of the day for one another, extend beyond the basic courtesies necessitated by convention, is when they migrate to foreign shores. In good times and bad, and they have been mostly tough, there is this preference that deepens bitterness, expands rancor, and delivers to the state in which we now live somewhat tensely.  Any little development could unleash the worse in us, with the usual sharp, boiling partisanship springing to the fore.

Given our circumstances, this visit of Letitia Wright to her own, and for her own, the expanse of the vast diversity of Guyana people, ought to have been capitalised upon more vigorously, more meaningfully. It would have been a wonderful opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition to stand up and offer a few words of support, of citizenship, of joy during the parliamentary presence of Ms. Wright. It would have been infinitely better, a great national moment and opportunity, for the PPPC Government and Coalition Opposition’s APNU+AFC Members of Parliament to come together as one, during the short span of time that this Guyanese superstar was in their midst. To take this to even higher ground, it would have been making the best use of our sister’s highly hailed visit, if President Ali and Opposition Leader Norton could have been seen together with her.

Along the same lines, we at this paper believe that still another beautiful moment was foregone, perhaps due to scheduling or someone not thinking about it. This was when Letitia (she is now a truly national daughter, so we are comfortable speaking of her in this familiar manner) paid her courtesy visit to Guyana’s most prestigious institution of learning at the Secondary School level, Queen’s College.  We ask of our fellow Guyanese to think of how it would have been delightful for all citizens of this country to watch the Hon Minister of Education and the APNU+AFC’s Shadow Minister of Education sharing space and sharing the moment with Letitia and the cream of our student princes and princesses. Imagine the impression on our best young minds, our future leaders, and actors (actresses, too) on the national political, social, scientific, and financial stages.

Letitia Wright came to Guyana, and clearly, we saw her in her simple and graceful grandeur, how she conquered our hearts with the humility of her bearing and her spirit. She is a real, true, and authentic product of this torn soil.  So much we can learn from her, so much we can do.  We urge our leaders on both sides of the now almost unbridgeable divide to seek out ways to mend, instead of working diligently to mangle.  Guyana urgently needs some kind of glue to bring it together, and that something which holds the Guyanese people together. The tragedy of our existence is that we have all this wealth, but we have all these woes, this polarising willfulness that wrenches more apart. Thanks to Ms. Letitia Wright for making our day, for giving us one small, fleeting glimpses of what can and should be.

• Editorial, Guyanese, Letitia Wright, National Assembly, woman