Embers of hope glow again?

It seems to me that it is only when things get darkest in our country that our citizens begin to find their voices, and indeed some even begin to act responsibly.

Our shrinking economy, coupled with the growing awareness among the previously deluded that the PNM cannot save us from ourselves, has spurred a few to speak, behave and maybe even to act responsibly? But what is interesting in the current stirrings is that enlightened, mostly younger persons are speaking out against the ranting of our socalled religious leaders, as well as against our political failures.

Politicians have always been fair game, indeed “required game,” as they attack each other and we attack all of them.

But our religious leaders of all persuasions (and this is a sort of hedge-your-bets attitude of our people) have been customarily granted a pass by the media and the critics on most of their behaviour and their pronouncements.

Yes, many years ago people were upset at the priest who played mas’ one carnival, but issues like paedophile clergymen have failed to spur the Christian church faithful into protests of any kind.

However, when the current head of the gathering of our religious leaders decided to speak on behalf of the Inter-Religious Organisation in support of continuing child marriages, we shocked ourselves by the intensity and volume of citizen outrage and protest.

We can be proud of the way our citizens showed their new enlightenment and strength, in condemning the leader of the IRO.

And this caused many of our religious bodies to deny they were supporting the concept of child marriage and the pronouncements of the IRO Leader.

But more so, it was our women — those who have traditionally bowed obediently before every religion and religious “tradition” — who spoke out as individuals and as groups, inclusive of the religious groups whose dogma had created the laws for things like child marriages and the like.

The objection by our women to the concept of child marriages crossed political and religious boundaries, and the largely disinterested government and opposition are now joining forces to repeal the child marriage laws in this land.

And I am confident that this alliance of our women will continue their activism to expand the concept of full justice for our women, children and other persons disadvantaged by some of the primitive laws still on our books.

Laws on gender issues, abortion, spousal and child abuse will not only be revised, but enforced.

The growing awareness of abuse in our society will be the initiative to bring this ongoing atrocity to an end.

I thank and praise all who have been pushing for this enlightenment and for quietly building the foundations for the recent final thrust against cruel laws of primitive dogma still being in effect.

We are not a nation of courage, where individuals or groups would challenge estates like our religious institutions, which threaten dissenters with an eternity of suffering or reduced status, so all credit to the brave.

But I have noticed, especially among the Facebook generation of political or social activism, a tendency for FB posters (poseurs?) to ridicule others who are on the same general course, but who are concentrating on different issues.

Is this part of the tremendous insecurity we all harbour, that we need to shout down, and shoot down others whom we fear may eventually outshine us, even when we are really committed to the same course? The issues we fight are not, as some suggest, “distractions” from the really major concerns of crime, corruption, and the failure of all of our ministries to deliver to the population. The campaign against child marriages, which suddenly caught fire and is burning out an evil in our society, is a just and credible initiative undertaken by concerned citizens who deserve our gratitude.

To condemn them or to call out to any group who we believe to be silent on something is to give comfort to the supporters of the status quo — government, opposition, business, labour and religion: the estates which continue to keep us backward.

If you have an issue which I or others have not “taken on,” do not condemn me or the others.

Get off your FB and do something about what you claim to believe! Do not, I enjoin, let this current glowing ember die before it brings light to our society. You know what is right, so work to support all the initiatives of our enlightened women and a slowly awakening society.