Responding to trials with denials

Aug 11, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Need I open by saying or expounding the dangers of denial? What I am about to verbalize is not applicable to all Guyanese, but at the selfsame time it applies to far too many.
There is currently a rising level of individual discontent among us, wherein we are blaming others for our problems and even our behaviour. Permit me to furnish the examples.
Yes, it is a known fact that the Police Force is fraught with rogues and renegades, dangerous, dishonest and unstable cops, all seeming graduates of Lucifer Academy. Nevertheless, we can no more put all policemen into one basket than they can all of us. Sad to say, but undeniably true, the country is in a state of denial, often blaming others in an effort to avoid taking responsibility for our own actions.
Get this straight: We have blamed political parties and/or their representatives for our inability to progress and succeed, then we blame them also for preventing our presidential saviour for helping us succeed. When the law is broken or our children/partners etc. are guilty of so doing, and are caught, we want to blame the police for the manner in which things were handled or the accused was treated. And if the police are culpable, we want them arrested, imprisoned and given harsh penalties.
Caution must be exercised before becoming a passenger on the Blame Bandwagon before the facts are known. The courts are blamed, when we are the ones who do not know our rights. We justify the actions displayed by representatives of a certain ethnic origin and blame those of a different ethnic origin, even though we live, work and play alongside each other on a daily basis. We do not teach our children not to talk with, befriend or confront fools and strangers, and what to do if they think they are being followed, such actions as resulted in the death of 9-year-old Shaquan Gittens, and then we blame the fool alone.
We want to lay blame on the educational and school system when the children do not learn, although we do not check their homework, ensure that they attend school, know how they are progressing academically and attend any school meetings.
These may be hard words to hear, and for which I offer no apology. The medicine that works best often has a bitter taste. Simple wisdom dictates that we individually be accountable for our own actions. Ask the question as to whether or not there are other factors that contribute to the current state, social, political, economical etc? Bet your bottom dollar they are! Those things are: reasons, factors and catalysts, but not excuses to justify where we are in life.
Here comes the more poignant question: Should we hold accountable all those who have orchestrated or contributed to plans for our downfall? The response is a resounding Yes! Yes! Yes! Absolutely! However, on a cautionary note, we are as much to blame if we allow them to stop us or help them as they hinder us.
Denial is known to resolve nothing, except that it makes us deceptively feel better about ourselves, as if we did nothing wrong. Regrettably, that is not always accurate. Now the time has come for our people to look in the mirror, or we would never find real solutions earmarked for progress.
We need to address the issue when others are at fault and go for justice. In a reciprocal manner, when we are at fault we need to look in the mirror where the initial reaction(s) for many people would be to still blame others or to strike out because the nail has been hit on the head, or at worst, play ignorant to the truth and the facts.
A case in point is that involving the notorious German dictator Adolf Hitler, who got the Aryans to blame and scapegoat the Jews as being the source of the Aryan problems. He was such a successful pro at this that the Aryans found it much easier to kill the Jews than to look in the mirror.
In no way shape or form are our problems unsolvable and we may be in fact the only solutions. However, it does take both the wisdom and maturity to look at the roots of our problems instead of repeatedly pointing fingers. No race or ethnic group stands as a symbol of perfection and none is innately superior to another. My approach remains balanced, and I do look in the mirror every day for my personal errors and faults that need to be corrected. I do not fear the mirror. You are invited to look in the mirror. If you do, what would you see?
Yvonne Sam

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