By Max Sterling

I want to personally commend the editor and staff of this newspaper on its consistency at mirroring the decrepit society that Grenada has turned into especially during the last twelve years.

I pray earnestly that Editor, George Worme will not veer away from the steady course he has been on as a responsible watchdog of Grenadians' business even though many of them have turned a blind eye on the corruption, nepotism and down-right nastiness in public office which seem to go unabated.

Let me personally say that your last editorial was the bomb - that indeed and in fact, if the NDC wants any respect from Grenadians who still have some measure of decorum and decency in them, they need to put aside Hon. Kenrick Fullerton.

I must say that I accept his public apology which he delivered last Sunday on   George Grant's programme. In as much as I come across harsh and caustic against immorality and misbehaviour of any kind, I want to hastily add that I am a forgiver even though I would use the lessons of any experience to inform my forward movement on any related issue.

It takes a big man to come out as he did to seek the forgiveness of our general population.That said, I believe that if the NDC has any set guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour of operatives/card bearing members let alone Parliamentary Representatives, they should be enforced thus giving Mr. Fullerton the opportunity to learn from his errors/mistakes.

Enough on that insignificant matter! Let us now turn our attention to something more substantive, something which hits at the core of our value system ­ hence the situation we find ourselves in today. To me the time is now to anticipate and provide for reform in every sense of the word. Even if "we the people" a majority of whom I have every confidence to believe resist the generally perceived unscrupulous nature of Mitchell and his Cartel administration, were a minority we would have been treated with equal disdain and contempt as the entire nation is treated with as a matter of course.

We can never in this lifetime expect Mitchell and his goons to encourage our citizens to be on the alert to point out their faults and do better than they would have them. Anyone who is deeply moved to remain connected to morals, ethics and sound values are considered an enemy of Mitchell who is known to be allergic to good people.  

I don't know about you, but I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. What I do know is that while living in it, my commitment is to remain steadfastly on the side of that which is true and correctly value centered.

I will never be one of the converted Grenadians who now know the price of everything and the value of nothing. As I have said many times, not only to convince others that I believe in it, but I will rather fail with honour than to succeed by fraud. No man has everything to do, but something, and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong.   

This epidemic of corruption the Mitchell Cartel has visited upon us over the last twelve years ought to be resisted vehemently through organised protest. Some may ask, doesn't our constitution provide for such checks and balances? Or is our very Constitution evil?

Depending on which side of the fence you sit, arguments can be proffered one way or another. We have to remember our Constitution is inanimate and it gets the life we give it. If those who are selected/elected to office to give life to our constitution lack good character and are not inclined to follow the path of integrity and honesty, then we will end up having the experience we have been having on account of our carelessness election after election.

Do not for a moment mix up education with certification in that the latter certifies that one has either been present while sessions on a particular subject were in session, or for the more committed, it attests to the fact that this person has displayed enough discipline to participate in those sessions on a particular subject.

Education, on the contrary is according to Greek philosopher ­ Aristotle as made popular by Dr. Raphael Fletcher: "Constant association with right things and right, itself."

Are you satisfied that the many people you perceive to be educated are really capable of associating with right things and right itself?   For our nation to sit idly by and allow the image of our nation to plummet into the abyss of nothingness without any effort to resist same ­ proves our people to have shifted from the values they once stood for.  

It was Eller Wilcox Wheeler who said: "To sin by silence when one ought to protest makes cowards out of men." Every time the few Grenadians who have the courage of their conviction to stand up and point out the villainous nature of these thugs who pose as government in and over Grenada, they are branded destabilisers and unpatriotic. I don't know 'bout you, but I will never recognize a patriotic t'ief!

Frank criticisms from caustic critics of the "marquiavelanous" nature of this administration (from leader to janitor) may seem harsh and un conciliatory, but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that appreciates or deserves it.

I do not hesitate to say, those who call themselves patriotic Grenadians should at once effectually withdraw their support ­ both in person and property or cash from the generally perceived corrupt NNP Cartel against whom there is strong incriminating evidence to be locked away several times for misbehaviour in public office.

Such people who continue to support such nastiness in office must be themselves "nastinesses" aiding and abetting corruption while perpetuating the culture of seemingly mugging the State. We the majority who would like to see Grenada sanitized of all this contained nastiness need to take a stand and not wait until we constitute a majority by one before we suffer the right to prevail through them.  

I always believe that one man with courage is a majority if we have God on our side since, we can never suffer at the hands of anyone with ill-will. Any man more right than his neighbours constitutes a majority of one already. We hear talk of the opposition wanting to seize power in Grenada form the corrupt NNP Cartel and wonder if that is really not a bad idea after all.

I too, join Sen. Chester Humphrey in calling for no hostile take over with arms and ammunition but bide our time until the "chief sufferer" for the last twelve years has completed his suffering ­ and trust me he is suffering!  

Do  you know what it is to be holding the highest political office in the country and the intelligent segment of the population, yes, the educated ­ (those associated with right things and right itself) not wanting to have anything to do with you and show you total disrespect and disregard daily? That must be hard, hence the outbursts which shows the true nature of the beast.

I can hear the jail door banging loudly ­ all in the fullness of time!