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22nd
October 2011
Lives are
more than just statistics!
Rhyesa Joseph
She
was a daughter, sister, classmate, friend- she
was a human being. It has been nearly a year
since 17 year old Kerisa Maximin and 19 year
old Jason Joseph were brutally murdered, found
charred beyond recognition in the trunk of a
motor vehicle, near Bois Chadeux beach. Yet
within these 365 days after this horrific event,
with the exclusion of the usual 3 month expression
of public outcry, there has been a heart-wrenching
silence.
They like the countless victims which came before
them have been added to the cemetery of youth
who have been silenced in the most atrocious
ways- involuntarily inaugurated into the club
of which Valerie Lorde, Trisha Dennis and Verlinda
Joseph had joined so many years ago. They lay
as bloody representations of how the justice
system has failed us, how society has failed,
but most importantly how we have failed ourselves.
In the months which followed I could not help
but feel utterly disgusted by the issues which
were being discusses surrounding the case. The
inquiries did not pertain to how appalling or
chilling the crime was, neither was the arrest
of the fiends who committed the act. The nucleus
of conversation centered on the alleged promiscuity
of the young woman in question. Someone has
been murdered, defiled in a manner I thought
only existed during slavery and in the southern
United States during the Jim Crow years. As
a result I asked the question; when is a murder
ever justifiable? Be the individual a self-proclaimed
saint in the public eye, delinquent, misunderstood,
wayward, Christian or Muslim just as existed
in past generations, the fact remains that no
one has the right to take another human being’s
life. Perhaps if we comprehended what it meant
to be empathetic or grasped the saying “to
put yourself in someone else’s shoes”
the focus would shift beyond trivialities. |
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We
would see instead, the daughter who was loved
immensely by her parents, who visited her grandmother
regularly, cared deeply for her little brother
and whose warm personality and bubbly character
made her a joy to be around.
There exists a murderous fear within Saint Lucian
society against speaking out against crime and
those in the process fuel the ones who perpetrate
it. We are tolerant of it until and possess
a conceited “We Pou Ko” mentality
until the elements come knocking on our doors
and our shoe sizes become a little too tight.
To my memory, I can recall no politician on
a political platform denounce the vile act,
there were no civil rights activitists/humanitarians
on the local news, youth-based organizations
protests, neither was there a unified voice
of abhorrence by church leaders within our various
religious denominations.
These silences, are defining moments, which
perpetuate a system in which the youth who are
the present are robbed of their life, and St.Lucia
deprived a “future” which has frequently
been lauded and supported in acoustically appealing
drafted speeches but contradicted in action
and policy. Our inaction will most certainly
be the measuring stick which generations to
come would estimate us by. I am forced to realize
that within the context in which we live, the
only justice, is God’s justice. Until
we are able to face the individual who we see
in our mirrors and make the conscientious decision
that change is necessary and progressive for
our development and the creation of a society
worthy to be inherited by our children.
And to the many persons who knew Kerisa Maximin,
the best homage which could be paid to her is
remembering her for who she was a daughter,
sister, classmate, friend- a human being.
Please
comment respectfully and responsibly as we reserve
the right to remove any comment we consider
inappropriate. Refrain from personal attacks
and using any offensive language.
Discuss
Story
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