Consensus needed on family values
Published:Tuesday | May 3, 2016 | 12:26 PM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I was disappointed when our minister of tourism spoke of the brutal murders of the missionaries in a way that did not emphasise the gravity of the crime situation for our reputation as a country and impact on Jamaicans and on visitors. I think that by the time he was finishing his statement, the seriousness of the situation was dawning on him.
A passionate commentary was given by Theresa Turner Jones of the Inter-American Development Bank about the group of marginal, underemployed young men who provide a reservoir for crime. We must stop feeling happy to see that this group of youth and adolescents is ripe for criminal activity. Marginal young women are also contributing to crime.
At the top end of the society, we still seem to be unable to determine what kind of society we want. I am happy to see that the Values and Attitudes campaign is being revived, but that is not adequate in a society where lawlessness, disorder and chaos threaten to engulf us. In this month of thinking about the care and nurture of our children, we have to highlight the necessity for positive parenting. Otherwise, no amount of Mother's Day and Father's Day and Child Month talk will do anything to strengthen our fraying family structures.
Unity requires consensus. We do not have to agree on everything, but we must agree on our core values, the direction that we are going in.
HILARY ROBERTSON-HICKLING