We must regain our moral courage

THE EDITOR: In a civil society children are trained and educated by the parents, teachers and religious leaders. The environment at home and in the school have direct impact on the mind of the child and make him useful to the society. In human nature, we have tendencies to both Good and Evil. It depends on the nourishment as to which way one will develop.

The society is guided by its rulers who have both the authority and power. The quality of these people is responsible for the development of the society. If the parents are not honest, the teachers are not responsible, religious leaders are not conscious and the rulers are not noble, one can never expect to create a noble character for the society. Looking at the behaviour of the current generation, we can deduce that everyone has failed in their duty when the elders surrender to their weakness; they have lost the power to guide the younger ones. Children learn rapidly from the behaviour of the elders than from their teachings. As a nation we have all helped to create an immoral society. In every creation good and evil souls are born. The only solace is that the number of evil is lower than the pious. Nobody is born corrupt or becomes unsocial by birth. It is the inherent weakness of the human that leads to corruption or unsocial behaviour in human nature. Thus social harmony is lost. The evil takes over and the noble are oppressed. When this transformation takes place we, the common people are suffocated and find ourselves in a blind alley.

There are two solutions to reverse the trend, the human effort and the natural process. As human beings we have to regain our moral courage and consciously try to inculcate good behaviour in our new generation. The parents and teachers have to sacrifice their comfort and selfishness for the cause of the society. Today’s children become tomorrow’s citizens. Religious leaders have to practise religion rather than depend on preaching only. For obvious reasons we do not expect the rulers to change on their own. It is the responsibility of the society to enforce change upon them. Evil characters are found in all species, that is the law of creation. The weeds are there in the field, ferocious animals in the jungle, cruel birds in the air and dangerous aquatic creatures in water even some of the plants are poisonous. The only redeeming feature is that their numbers are less and thus their capacity to harm is limited.

If the cruel elements multiply, they will destroy first the good elements and later on they will fight among themselves. The process of self-destruction will reduce their numbers once again and the nature will establish the balance on earth. This is a long process and nature does not care for time. It is the human intelligence that has to learn from this natural process. If the weeds are not cleared one cannot cultivate grain. If the number of evil characters is not reduced, the society cannot provide space for the good. To right evil one needs strength and, we know that moral and intellectual strength is more powerful than physical strength. Today it has become a paramount need of the society that noble and intelligent people unitedly fight evil with a sense of sacrifice and courage. Then and then only can we expect a cleaner environment for tomorrow.

C  RAMPERSAD
Charlieville