The news that the vehicle owned by an electoral officer was blown up in his garage this morning at around 2:30 am is very bad news. Indeed it is very frightening news, bordering on horror.
Some weeks ago this columm warned of the possible danger, that the next elections could be marred by gun violence. Our forebodings did not meet with the approval of at least one Minister of Government, Mr. Nigel Carty.
Perhaps Mr. Carty was voicing the sentiments of the rest of his cabinet when he roundly chastised The Observer for what he called the macabre attempt to suggest that the next elections can be violent.
Although it is easy to claim vindication, this is not the kind of vindication which makes us happy. As a matter of fact, we are very frightened at the horrible thought that Mr. Oliver Knight and his family might have been the targets of a despicable act of terror.
It was fortunate for Mr. Knight and his family to have escaped injury and to lose only their motor vehicle. It is not consoling for them however to live with the thought that by the whim of some wicked person they could have been blown out of existence.
It is obvious that the perpetrators of this ugly deed have at their disposal the wherewithal to inflict deadly harm on persons who happen to fall within their band of hated.
We do not know what Mr. Knight or his wife could have done to provoke this dastardly deed. Everybody knows how quiet and unpretentious this family is. In local parlance, these people canÕt mash ants.
We can only speculate therefore that somebody targeted them as the surrogate for the real target.
We have to alert the authorities again to the fact that there is a festering sore of hatred running through our body politic and that if we do not treat this ulcer it will destroy our whole body.
It takes two hands to clap, so although we heartily condemn whoever attempted this act of terror, we hope that there will be an abatement to whatever provokes people to these dangerous extremes.
We know full well that evil people will stop at nothing to vent themselves of evil. We also know that sometimes evil people can find excuses for their evil conduct.
Evil is everywhere, but some countries can boast of being free from the scourge of violence because they have achieved a high level of diplomacy. This level of sophistication makes it unnecessary for their citizens to settle their grievances by resorting to slaughter.
There was a time when St. Kitts and Nevis could boast of such a happy climate, and we pray to God that he will some how guide us back to those pleasant days.
