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At a time like this

May 24, 2023 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Kaieteur News- This is a time for every Guyanese in the national space to come together.  It is most fitting that we do so with sincerity, with humility, with an openness to learning, and with a little giving of self, when so many have lost so much.  We must bond in solidarity with our indigenous brothers, if only to extend the fraternal in this interval of grim national travail.

At a time like this, we at this publication issue this simple appeal: let us help one another by putting aside the quarreling, looking past the differences, and rising above the current paralyzing circumstances.  This is when we manifest what kind of people we are deep down.  It is up to each one of us to show how much we care, how much in common we share, and how we will not fear to reach out, to comfort one another, in this season of national tragedy, this interlude of incredible loss, and incomparable anguish.

Our children in faraway communities are struggling to cope.  Our indigenous brothers and sisters, who now live with numbing horror of having lost an offspring in the worst of situations, need us now.  They need the cooling warmth of our solidarity in the spirit; we all need the comfort of soothing solidarity in this period of national mourning, this remorseless expanse of bitter tears and tired hearts.  We must show how kind we can be, find the essence of ourselves to empathize with the pain and distress being felt in humble homes in small, remote villages that are only names to many of us.

If ever there was a time for the deepest expressions of national solidarity, that time is now.  It would be disrespectful to be otherwise, as we pay tribute to the untimely passing of these young children, so full of promise, with so many visions for themselves, which must now go unfulfilled.  It would be the worst burden that we could place on the parents, who have lost loved ones, and are themselves now lost in a haze of pain and grief.

There are all these grand, rushing, flashing things going on in today’s Guyana.  Now, everything must come to a full stop.  For if we cannot recognize our dead in the proper, most genuine manner, then what are we capable of, what else can we be counted upon to be considerate about?  It would confirm our sincerity, indicate our growing maturity, that we look the other way for this longest of long moments, and that the world is presented with a glimpse of the decency we are able to marshal, what we actually can and do deliver.

As we reach in helpful solidarity, as we extend ourselves to assist, it is wise and even humane that we allow these simple, down to earth native sons and daughters of this country the space to grieve as only they can know how.  We must be keenly aware, sensitive, about the need for privacy, that special and solemn dignity, that accompanies the death that comes to our doorstep, invade inside the thresholds of our hearths.

There should and must be a single item that takes the foremost priority, transcends all other considerations, every other objective.  It is joining in solidarity as a people, as a nation, and help the indigenous community to weather this storm, to rise above their circumstances, as draining as they are.  We have a great opportunity to manage ourselves in the best way possible in this the worst of times, by being about simple graciousness and compelling class.

The worst thing that we can do the shattered parents, the struggling communities, is to swarm them, to overwhelm them, in thoughtless displays that suit our own purposes only.  In this time of trauma and trial, we are wise when we know when to step forward, and wiser still when we are unselfish enough to step back for fear of offending, of overstepping the bounds of decency and civility.  We have lost children, now it is essential that we do not lose our senses.  We can share in quiet mourning by just being there.  It is the profoundest form of solidarity at a heartbreakingly poignant time.

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