If you can’t respect the dead, you will have nothing but contempt for the living

Apr 18, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – Years ago, I witnessed a scene that has remained with me ever since. A funeral cortège was making its way slowly along a public road, led by the hearse.

Scores of vehicles driven by impatient motorists were overtaking the cortège, seemingly oblivious to the need to show respect to the dead. One minibus moved alongside the procession, loudly blasting irreverent music.

Such behaviour would have been unthinkable decades earlier. In those days, no one attempted to overtake a funeral procession. Cyclists and pedestrians, upon seeing a cortège, would stop and stand aside. Men would tip their hats and women would bow their heads.

People then showed respect for the dead. And because of this, they valued life.

Some years ago, there was a film shown on cable television called Taking Chance. It is a remarkable movie, devoid of spectacle or drama, yet carrying a powerful message about respecting the dead, especially the men and women who served in the Armed Forces and gave their lives for their country.

The film tells the story of a desk officer who volunteers to escort the body of a Marine killed in Iraq back to America. It portrays the extraordinary care, ritual and dignity with which the Armed Forces prepare the body and transport it to its final resting place in Wyoming.

As one review noted, the movie chronicles how Americans, civilians and servicemen alike, honour and respect those who die in service to their country. It is about loss, both personal and national, but it also reveals the great lengths to which institutions and ordinary citizens will go to show reverence for the dead.

Yet, in our society, particularly in Guyana, we appear to be losing the traditions of showing respect for the dead. And this loss of reverence for the dead, and sensitivity toward grieving families, is also translating into a dangerous disregard for the living.

But there is also a reverse side to the problem. At some funerals, it is not passing motorists who are inconsiderate, but mourners themselves. Roads are blocked for long periods while vehicles are parked haphazardly across lanes, loud gatherings spill into the streets, and confusion reigns as other road users are left stranded. Respect for the dead should never mean contempt for everyone else trying to pass.

There are also occasions when drinking becomes part of the funeral atmosphere and judgment quickly disappears. Some mourners become loud, disorderly and wholly unconcerned that their behaviour is impeding traffic and creating danger for pedestrians and motorists alike. Grief should not become an excuse for recklessness or public disorder.

Nowhere is this more evident than on our roadways.

Hardly a week passes without reports of fatal crashes, reckless overtaking, speeding, drunken driving and pedestrians struck down. Families are shattered in an instant. Lives are cut short because too many treat the road as a battlefield and driving as a contest.

The death toll on our highways and streets continues to mount. Each statistic represents a mother, father, child, sibling or friend whose absence leaves pain that cannot be measured.

Yet too often, there is little public outrage. We shake our heads for a moment, read the headlines, and move on until the next tragedy occurs. Recklessness has become normalised. Impatience has become accepted. Carelessness has become routine.

What is the country coming to? How do we explain this indifference to the daily carnage taking place on our roads?

Perhaps it has something to do with the decline in respect for the dead. That loss of respect translates into a loss of respect for life itself.

The recklessness so often displayed on our roads is closely linked to this growing disrespect for the dead. A society that cannot pause for a funeral procession, lower its music, slow its speed or show simple courtesy to those in mourning is a society that is also losing regard for human life itself. When patience, restraint and consideration disappear in moments of death, they are unlikely to be present in moments of driving. The same selfishness that leads a motorist to overtake a hearse or a mourner to block a roadway without concern is the selfishness that fuels speeding, dangerous overtaking and careless driving that continue to claim innocent lives.

When haste is more important than safety, when arriving a few minutes earlier matters more than another person’s life, this is the result. When selfishness outweighs responsibility, this indifference will follow.

The failure to show reverence for life can often be traced back to the decline in respect for the dead. And this may be one of the reasons why so few seem genuinely troubled by the fact that so many are being killed on our roadways.

If we cannot pause for the dead, then we will not slow down for the living.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• contempt, living, Peeping Tom, speeding, wreckless driving

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