Time to Heal

Nov 22, 2020 Editorial

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Kaieteur News – We have heard it before, from one triumphant politician after another, those ringing words and phrases that stir and inspire. We heard them again last week, and because they mean so much, there is bringing that again in placing before the public, this Guyanese public, because we need it so much. Just like America and like so many other torn and weary places in the world.
With victory assured, barring some extensive, and inexplicable, U.S. Supreme Court judicial gymnastics and sword fencing over words and phrases, among the first words of President-elect, Joseph Biden, were, let there be a “time to heal.”
Finer words and nobler intentions were never said, given the circumstances raging across the length and breadth of most of America, what has been so hurtful and the source of so much anguish. Then came the sunrise of reality and the sobering that unsparing light brings. That is because grand soothing words about healing are always uttered with powerful intentions at first, only to be fade way because of the indifference and malaise, the shrinking from the hard challenges involved in healing that come later.
For healing to occur at anytime with anybody, there have to be those deeply interested in being healed, or making a genuine contribution towards the healing so urgently needed in America, the whole world, it looks like for most of the time. It is a time of bloody conflicts on the ground in many places; also, a time of bloodless ones when many anonymous participants utilize the marvels of technology to rip others to shreds. The hating multiplies and like the first stirrings of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world, there are those cataclysmic storms created that sweep all before them.
We know what is happening in America today, just like we know very well what is happening and similarly missing in Guyana today. There are leaders, who speak of healing and unifying, only to turn around and preside over that which ruptures and fractures. We know that all too well. And, we just as well also, that any spare thoughts reserved for healing are sabotaged, rendered meaningless.
This is so when official actions at the State level go against the grains of healing spoken about, but which were never intended to be gathered together, to do something and mean something more inspiring and uplifting.
To gather together into a tightly knitted whole that binds an anguished community, then another one; or a worn segment followed by the next. In this way of small steps, and not grand speeches, a nation could be helped and healed, in time. That time is neither swift nor smooth, but long and filled with everything that ranges from the ridiculous to the rancorous to the renting asunder of the good intentions, the stated objectives, and the little progress painfully eked out.
We agree that it is a time to heal, not only in America, but also right here in Guyana. But to get there, leaders have to demonstrate concretely and consistently – perhaps, to the point of constancy – that he or she is willing to commit genuinely to serious attempts at enduring healing. Pretty speeches and sweet words told to the adoring and rapturous are not going to make healing happen; certainly, not anywhere near to the degree and scale that make a difference that sets the tone and stage to build much more.
In America, Mr. Joe Biden, the leader in waiting has called for such a ‘time of healing’. In Guyana, Dr. Irfaan Ali, the leader from the official title he is carrying, also has called for unity, which could only come from thinking of and doing those things that heal first, and which mend and tighten and seal in the best sense of togetherness. Cells are fused, things hold in place, because there is a mutual need to be in that particular place and to desire strongly to hold steady in that same place.
In essence, what we at this publication are saying is simple, and it is this: the people talking about healing have to be about a kind of seriousness saturating every fiber of their being. And, no less importantly, the entire audience of peoples addressed must desire fervently to want to be healed. Everyone involved must recognize that there is a deep great chasm that inflicts still greater pain, and which can either be left alone or be dealt with straight up and in the most courageous manner. That alone is what will give a chance to some form of genuine, lasting healing.
To leave alone at the national level divides; wherever such exists and flourishes, leaving alone is not an option for any society that harbours thoughts of growing and lifting up all of its diverse, most times, clashing components. To speak only and do little else is not only unconstructive, but it also cannot be about what is comprehensively productive in the longer term. And because, this cuts both ways, those in need of healing, those agonizing over the hurting, must be receptive to what is extended, what could be possible and positive, if only in the honestly trying.
A time for healing is what Guyanese need today. Not tomorrow, but today. Those that won must be open to reaching, those that had to step-down must be welcoming of where healing can take us, be willing to walk towards, and through hands, stretched out. First, the hands must be forthcoming, and from both sides. Then, the words about healing, which resonate so much could have a point from which to start. It is always a time for healing, and that starts right now. Not later, but soonest.

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