It’s only mid-February…what lies ahead?

Feb 19, 2019 Editorial

There are no answers. None from any leading quarter. None that provide soothing; nothing that possesses either credibility or brings conviction. There are only questions; followed by more of them. All are unanswerable in the careful silence within the public charades.
Yet there is very little that eludes the thinking of the reasonable, the visions of the veterans long seeped in the practices of a disturbed society, and one with a history as old as the river, if not older.
If this is only mid-February, and these known, publicized incidents are among the first, then to where and what?
It is now more than fifty days into a heated, disputed 90-day deadline. The first question is this: what lies ahead? The second is almost reflexive and part question, part statement: from now to whenever?
It could be a long count; an excruciating and alarming one as that date remains open-ended and open to the worst interpretations; and as the animus of race relations sizzle beneath unpersuaded exteriors; unconcerned ones, too.
What is the planned, but not unleashed, not experienced second step along the ladder? Along the ladder could be upward or downward; upward, as in needed, sought after convergence of commonsense and consensus. On the other hand, along the ladder could also signal an incremental and intensifying downward drift of obstacles, resistances, and minds locked in steely resolve.
What does that mean for Guyana and Guyanese out there in a tense, tumultuous world?
In the real chilling world of watching, speculating, judging, misjudging, dividing, and distancing? It means this way or no way. And however misguided or misleading leaders may be, they are followed blindly and cravenly in this country.
There are bomb threats at schools, and surprisingly parents are not letting the political groups and leaders know in no uncertain terms that there is great discomfort with the existing situation. A very public message that this is the personal, social and environmental reaction (not racial, not political); that this is not the regular election business; that it is not acceptable that part of parental suspicions are that children are not off-limits. That their existence is sacred and must not be any part of a possible dangerous chess game. No finger-pointing. No singling out. No conclusion.
Rather, it is about applying some very vocal, very public, and very powerful pressure on the political participants that there better be clean hands in this; there better be joining of hands going forward; and there better be some hands raised in a concerted effort at deescalating an atmosphere so thick with ugly hostility, as to be tar mixed with molasses.
Words are not enough. Substantive effort, through positive energy and action are what is required; indeed, demanded by the hour that grows dimmer by the development. That sacrifice by parents in the interests of their children, in the paramountcy of their children has to-must-transcend the paramountcy of any clan or comrade, the paramountcy of any political party.
Well, where are those outraged, frightened parents? What and who comes first? There could be great opportunity and by-product that, such unsettling set of circumstances, when seized at this lowest ebb could flourish into the crest of a gathering community, rural, and national identification, if not spirit.
Again, where is that hard unrelenting, non-negotiable position?
In institutions that indicate of some palpable resemblance to national ethnic demographics, there is simply, and only, the satisfaction and convenience of collecting children and go. And then keep going, as though nothing of supreme urgency has interfered and menaced. Nothing more.
Is it unfair and inaccurate to say that hundreds of parents across the racial spectrum are unwilling to say: hell no! Not there! Not the children! Not so fast! Not so cute! Not ever!

If this is only February, then what of the last week before the elections? During the elections? During the usual crippling, inflaming aftermath of final results? And then what? This much is certain: no winners.

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