Save the children

Dear Editor,

A troubling incident has been brought to the public’s attention via social media. A young teenaged lad is murdered in the wee hours of the morning. As I gazed at his face in the newspapers, I said to myself: “he’s just a baby”. …then a series of questions ran through my mind…What was he doing on the road at that hour of the morning? Does he attend any school? Shouldn’t he be preparing for CXC exams? Where are his parents or guardians?

Recent episodes in the press of young people being (sexually) abused and mutilated, tell me that we parents are failing this generation. Most of us adults know what it is to go to “Sunday / Sabbath school” at weekends, where the fear of God was instilled in us. Some of us were fortunate to have Religious Education taught in school in our time. But strong moral values were instilled in us AT HOME. Our boys were taught to respect females, and we females never allowed boys to “touch, touch” us! We learnt and insisted on boundaries! Perhaps we need a national thrust to educate parents on their role.

We fail our children, or rather, demonstrate that we have failed them, when we give them condoms so that they can experiment at will! This is not the way to go! They must be taught self- respect and self-control!

I’ve said it before and I say it again.^[1] The fear of God must be a national characteristic if we are to survive as a nation. For what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul.

I remember our president some time ago reminding us of the fact that we are all moving toward the grave, so it does pay to have a ‘good report’.

We are conscious that social media, though profitable for information and research can affect our youths negatively as they waste valuable time scrolling and exploring sites that are detrimental to their well- being, thus necessitating greater awareness and vigilance on the part of parents and guardians.

Let us rise to the challenge, and purpose to make stringent efforts to rescue this generation. Can we, do it? Yes, we can.