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Mission
possible with 3 Cs
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The criminals believe they are winning the battle.
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Country needs honest leadership.
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Honesty a very unpopular value.
Part
2
“I’m
sorry for what I’ve put you through. I never meant
to hurt all of you so much and I don’t blame any of
you for disowning me”—Robert Hawkins, 19, in his
suicide note found after he shot and killed eight people
at the Westroads Mall, Omaha, USA.
Of course the latest cluster killing at the Northern Illinois
University must have brought back horrific memories of US
mass shootings in 2007. Let us examine some of these:
n Cho-Seung-Hui, 23, killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia
Tech University.
n Asa H Coon, 14, shot four people at his school in Cleveland,
Ohio, before committing suicide.
n Sulejman Talovic, 18, killed five people in Salt Lake
City, Utah, before being killed by the police.
Before we get to the latest tragedy, there is a statement
made by Debora Maruca Kovac, mother of the friend of Robert
Hawkins, that merits an enormous amount of attention:
“He
was introverted, a troubled young man who was like a lost
pound puppy that nobody wanted.”
How many of our teenage killers in T&T are despised,
lost and confused vampires? The assassins are now training
their guns on police officers. There must be a swift and
clinical response to this ugly state of affairs.
We need inspirational, honest, bold and trustworthy leadership
in the areas of national security. The criminals believe
they are winning the battle and we have allowed them to
kidnap people, houses and vast territory in some communities.
They have no problems firebombing several homes. Fear is
the name of their game. They do not even bother to wear
ski-masks anymore. They are bold and ugly. They intimidate
and intimidate and intimidate. They believe that power lies
in the barrel of a gun and they are not thinking about using
the reverse gear. It is forward ever, backward never.
But let us return to Steven Kazmierczak, 27, who blasted
five individuals and then killed himself. Pause to look
at the ages of the victims: Daniel Parmenter, 20; Cataline
Garcia, 20; Ryanne Mace, 19; Julianna Gehant, 32; Gayle
Dubowstu, 20.
Think of the Caribbean. Think about Jamaica, Antigua. Think
about the massacres in Guyana. Think about teenagers dying
before they have discovered their true potential. Think
about grieving parents. Think about sons who never knew
their fathers. Think about gang leaders who never went to
university but operate like psychological gurus, manipulating
and exploiting the achilles heels of several youth.
And we think about sports as being the best alternative,
but even that is flooded with anabolic steroids and other
drugs of choice. Roger Clemens, baseball star, traded blows
with his ex-trainer Brian McNamee, who claimed that the
baseball icon asked him to administer HGH: human growth
hormones.
Clemens, who seemed to have strong Republican connections,
denied these claims in a super-vigorous manner. You may
recall the Barry Bonds saga that has not reached closure
as yet.
Hollywood stars are not worried, including Sylvester Stallone,
Mr Rambo himself. At 61 he looks like an Olympic star, more
like 41 than 61. He praises human growth hormone injections.
And he is not the only celebrity in Hollywood that has turned
HGH into a “survival idol”.
Marion Jones has been disgraced beyond measure. After the
shocking revelation and stout denials, she eventually admitted
her betrayal of the sport and recently returned her gold
medals, crying all the way to the media-infested global
press conference.
O what a tangled web we weave, when we first set out to
deceive.
When you see the collapse of these icons, analyse the shattering
impact on their teen worshippers, you realise that honesty
is a very unpopular value. Humanists and atheists must realise
by now that you cannot eat your cake and have it too.
The problem with this world is that we want morality without
spirituality, discipline without obedience to God’s
Ten Commandments. Many want peace without the Prince of
Peace.
However, my theological understanding leads me to the conclusion
that there is a real battle taking place between the devil’s
soldiers of misfortune and the righteous ambassadors of
Jehovah Jireh. It is a real struggle and we must not rationalise,
running away when we should be on the battle front in the
heat of the battle. This is no video game with cartoon characters.
We have to fight, not engage in remote control strategies.
However, our weapons are not physical, they are not carnal
but spiritual. We need to shut the mouth of ferocious lions,
cut more highways through our red seas, install more air-condition
units in the fires that are raging through our communities.
We need to place more microphones in the burning bush so
the wilderness and solitary place can rejoice. We need more
youth to give them five loaves and two fishes so thousands
can be fed. We need more Mount Carmels, more fire to consume
more sacrifices.
We need more Daniels to stand in the courts of Babylon,
more Johns to confront Herod, we need more Sauls to become
Pauls based on the Damascus experience, as we need more
Mordecais to guide the Esthers.
We need more Josephs to influence the palaces of the Pharaohs
and more Davids to confuse and conquer the Goliaths.
The giants may reign for a long time but when the Holy Ghost
rains on a shepherd boy, mission impossible becomes mission
possible. This must be the vision. This must be the passion.
Remember the three Cs—courage, compassion and conviction.
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