By T. Coreentje Phipps-Benjamin ” Our Children’s Keeper Quite recently, I sat on a New York City Bus and marveled at what most of us would deem a rare occurrence, given the times in which we live.” A mother and her son boarded the bus.” Having failed to sit adjacent to each other, they managed to sit across from each other.” The boy, clearly not more than 11 years old, sat next to two teenagers, probably around 17 or 18 years old themselves, who were in a deep exchange of opinions on a particular topic.” Although they were not very loud or uttering foul language, as the newly boarded passengers got comfortable, one of the boys uttered the “four letter word/slang for defecate”.” Not the least bit amused, the mother said to the teenagers, “Did you just say defecate”?” To which one of the boys said, “Yes”.” The mother responded quite curtly, “Young man there is a child sitting next to you”.” The son exclaimed, “It’s okay mom”, to which the mother replied, “No it’s not okay”.” The mother again admonished the teenager, “Can you not say that word anymore?”” Much to my surprise, the teenager replied “SORRY”.” I was somewhat mesmerized by the exchange, and I could tell that the other passengers were too.” Although the teenagers really had not displayed outlandish or unbecoming behavior, given that times have changed and how daring it is to scold other people’s kids, I expected those boys to offer the mother a thorough tongue-lashing.” The teenagers proved me wrong.” The encounter was an unusual glimpse into adult-youth intervention.” I immediately put St. Kitts-Nevis in perspective, and thought to myself, “Despite our nation’s burgeoning crime problem, we must assume a consistent, fearless, nurturing, stay the course, approach to reaching our youth”.” Maybe, just maybe, if we try hard enough, our young people will listen and act. As many Kittitians and Nevisians have expressed, crime measures will require a blend of efforts.” Some will be unpopular, some will gain the public’s nod of approval, some measures will be deemed swift and unyielding, while others will seem extensive and painstaking to implement.” What cannot be excluded from the “mix of fixes” for our nation’s crime crisis is the value of human relations.” Every parent, every adult, every Kittitian, every Nevisian must now make a genuine effort to be the watchdog for our nation’s children.” We have to be our children’s keeper.” With multiple lives snuffed out in shy of twelve months on a twin-island federation, which relies heavily on the confidence of foreigners walking the streets of our cities, we face a grim future if a wave of solutions is not our priority.” Think long and deep about our nation’s predicament and offer something positive. Still, We Trod On Many would suggest that even if Government does nothing about crime, as the powers that be, they must at least “appear” to be doing something to resolve our extremely challenging crime situation.” Essentially, we assert that justice must be ‘seen to be done.” Well, if there was ever a time in our federation’s history that appearances serve us no purpose, this would be it.” If there was ever a time that petty politics would hurt us more than it would help us, this would be it; if there was ever a time that a committed front from all citizens is of utmost value for the future of the federation of St. Christopher and Nevis, I beg to suggest that this time is here.” In the interest of saving a generation of boys and girls who have lost their way; in the interest of saving our nation as a whole, we must persuade those who lead us, or aspire to lead us, to summon assistance from every well-intentioned resource to tackle this crisis “back, front, and belly”. Several months ago, in preparing for a visit with St. Kitts-Nevis Police Commissioner Austin Williams, I gleaned information from a number of local resources, including segments of the 2007 budget address presented by the leader of the opposition in the federal house, Mr. Mark Brantley.” Therein lies a full spread of economic and social consequences, and an unwelcoming array of statistics that prove how severely crime attacks our society from multiple angles.” It is a testimony of how easily crime threatens to eat away at the social fabric of our blossoming twenty-five year old independent nation.” Like Mr. Brantley, other learned minds, and individuals in various organizations, political and non-political alike, have bawled their bellies out offering proposal after proposal on what we should do to solve crime.” We have heard the Rhetoric!” Rhetoric!” Rhetoric!” Still, the murders continue.” Murders, Tears, Funerals, Fears”WHAT NEXT?” Our nation must trod on despite the cloud that looms over us, invoking divine intervention from the Omnipotent being who, unlike man, is all mighty and all powerful. Reinventing Ourselves-Back to Basics The stark reality of globalization is that our societies have changed.” Adults lead more materialistic lives and as a result, many of our children have different ideals.” We want our children to change, yet we still lead questionable lives.” In fact, some of our adults really still believe we can tell our children, “Do as I say, not as I do”.” Those days are long gone.” And so unless we take on the persona much like the parent on the bus who discouraged foul exchange as her son sat nearby, unless we commit to offering our help to those kids that we know have gone astray, unless we become mentoring mothers and mentoring fathers, unless we offer ourselves at the altar of sacrifice to collectively find solutions and stay the course for our children and for our country, we have no one but ourselves to blame. The days ahead will be arduous, long, and unpredictable.” However, moving forward, the difference in our outlook on life ought to be a proclamation and commitment by ALL that we will not allow waywardness to destroy our nation.” “Crime is naught but misdirected energy”.” So declared Emma Goldman, a Russian born anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches.” Her view on crime decades ago remains just as relevant in our twenty first century. We must keep our young people occupied.” To sit aside and declare that other people’s kids, not ours, are involved in crime is essentially the height of social irresponsibility as we cannot truly vouch for our kids.” Moreover, we never know when indiscriminate youth behavior can befall us.” Our federation must now function as a village requiring every individual to pay attention, and to actively become involved in the repair and healing process of our communities.” What next?” Citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis combining our efforts in every aspect of society to save our nation, one individual, one family, one community at a time.” Without reservation, with soundness of mind, may each of us offer something, offer anything that will help to restore our faith in our federation, our Land of Beauty; Country where Peace Abounds
