Published 5 December 2017
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
RISE ABOVE !
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Commentary by Hon. Akilah Byron-Nisbett
I’ve never been one to shy away from expressing my thoughts and feelings. As a matter of fact when I was younger I can recall my mother asking if I always have to answer when I may have disagreed with my dad on some point or another ( those debates went on for hours). With that said, I have been observing that here, in 2017, we as a people still seem to be unable to disagree without malice, hatefulness, brutality and down right disrespect.
The one thing that tend to uproot the most hatefulness within us always tend to be politics. It was Madeline Albright who said “if heaven were open to those who agreed on politics, I imagine it would be largely unoccupied.”
Politics is one fact of life that will always have opposing views but those opposing views should never be allowed to continue to mean that we should hate or disrespect or be hurtful in anyway to our brothers and sisters. Let us begin to raise the bar. The divisiveness must end and that can only happen if we as a people decide and believe that it will.
I was lucky enough to be raised by parents who instilled, from very early, that another’s view may not always be shared by you but that’s ok. Learn to accept that we will disagree but don’t make an enemy of someone simply because you disagree. Because of that teaching I went through life with friends on all sides of the political divide. I would even dare to say that some of my best friends were of the opposing political view to mine, but that never mattered and even during elections we understood that we won’t see eye to eye but that’s ok.
In an earlier post I asked what are we feeding our young people. Well l, I will ask that again. What are we feeding our young people? Are we telling them that a differing view is grounds to hate your neighbor, family or loved one? Are we telling them that division is the only option? Are we telling them that anger and disdain are healthy ways of resolving issues?
We all agree that we want a St.Kitts and Nevis that stands as a beacon of goodwill, togetherness, where hate is replaced with kindness and love and where the division of politics is no more. I hear this uttering outside of election season. So let’s do it! Let’s agree that we won’t all agree and let’s agree that healthy debate is better than “busing” which some say have no rules.
Our youths are paying keen attention. Let us start changing that rhetoric. Let us be civil. It’s time to change the view that politics is a dirty game, it isn’t! It’s the people and their choices that make it dirty! Rise above!
