Dr Martin Luther King Jr once proclaimed that “the time is always right to do what is right”. These words were spoken at Oberlin College in 1964 in order to inspire students in the struggle for racial equality. In affiliated words, Dr King said, “If we are serious about healing the divisions in the country, Republicans and Democrats need to acknowledge that it is not the first day of violence we have seen.
We have seen violence across our country for the last nine months”. In Trinidad and Tobago, we have witnessed, for a few decades now, an alarming rise in violence, both physically and verbally. Less than optimally toned statements by many of us who ought to know better have become increasingly frequent.
Many of us have been touched by violence in all of its iterations, whether directly or through the experiences of those we love. I doubt that anyone in the room remains untouched, whether directly or obliquely. The cycle of disrespect, abuse, and violence has become a permanent fixture, perpetuating a suffocating climate of near-constant fear and of division.
I am no stranger to violence in my own life. At the age of 18, I lost my father to a murder committed in furtherance of robbery. His two killers were apprehended, tried and convicted, but because of a major legal error made by the trial judge, the convictions were overturned on appeal and they were freed.
My career track, which he could not have seen, saw me traversing the paths of being a prosecutor, an occasio.