All lives matter

Dear Editor,

Bahamians so like to follow fashion.

During the last few weeks, following the white police officer killing of African American George Floyd, there has been a blizzard of posts on local social and news media with regard to racial inequality in The Bahamas with crusaders and lunatics alike, thankfully nonviolent, coming out in imitation of our neighbors to the north.

To gratify their newly discovered sense of outrage over perceived racial injustices in our society today, their solution is to tear down some historical statues, sanitize portions of our early and colonial era history that they are uncomfortable with, and call for the defunding and demobilization of our law enforcement agencies in sympathy with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement abroad.

While some of these agencies are badly in need of their bad apples and corruption being weeded out, they are still necessary to preserve what little of civil society we have remaining.

The last few weeks in The Bahamas have seen a 79-year-old Haitian grandmother chopped to death by a cutlass wielding teenager, a 10-year-old school girl killed in a drive by shooting, a 40-year-old man shot to death while standing in front of his mother on her porch and on the weekend, a two-year-old girl shot and critically injured while held in the supposed safety of her grandmother’s arms.

Not one iota of sympathy or outrage has been forthcoming from our posturing local BLM zealots and bandwagon politicians.

Where are the protestations and demonstrations over these victims, or are the loss of a few locals lives not worthy of our anger?

Yes, black lives do matter, all lives matter regardless of whether they are lost to white supremacist hate crimes abroad, black on black criminal acts or police brutality here at home.

No lives lost to race, gender discrimination or criminal violence should be acceptable in civilized society.

However, we need to confront and deal with The Bahamas’ own social shortcomings, which for the most part have nothing to do with racial discrimination. Rather class, economics and lack of education resulting in poverty, crime and social disintegration.

We need to address some of these issues before involving ourselves in those of our neighbors and the world at large.

Sincerely yours,

— John Anthony

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/07/01/all-lives-matter/