Dear Editor,
The story is stark in its content, troubling in its context and searching in its meaning. Despite the clarity and seeming finality of the title, ‘Man killed after throwing himself under truck,’ the reader is still unprepared for what unfolds. This is not intended as a judgement; neither should it be mistaken for justification; it makes no pretense at analysis and has not benefited from an ‘investigation.’ It is an anguished appeal to whatever is left of the human in us to do whatever we can to find ‘community’ again, to make our Guyana – home – resemble a society once more. But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.
According to the journalist’s report, a young man met his demise by throwing himself under a moving ten-wheel truck. Earland Hinds’ end was preceded by some measure of comfort or consolation which he, though described as mentally unstable had passed on to relatives as he stood with blood dripping from his head: “You all don’t worry with me man, I gon dead just now.”
Reportedly, this 29-year-old had been dealt a blow to his head as he lay on the stairway of the neighbourhood church, St Thomas’ Presby-terian. The alleged instrument: a clay brick covered with concrete. The reported encouragement: “Buss he head man, buss he head.” The attributed response of a relative of the alleged assailant: she “had to do what she had to do.” The sick man’s alleged crime: throwing something at a child who had been seen pelting him with a brick. One reported concern from many on the scene was that the parent whose blow preceded Earland Hinds’ suicidal action “did not reprimand her children when they did wrong.”
Hinds apparently sought to earn his keep by helping a relative to sell on a daily basis, and also assisted stores in the vicinity, especially when they brought in containers. How-ever, according to the journalist’s report, he was the target of some youths in the area who would torment him from time to time.
Do these details sound familiar, perhaps without the final, fatal, suicidal plunge for refuge and a cessation from misery? I’ll be honest with you. A passage comes to mind from the book of Proverbs (24: 11, 12), but I’m not sure if it applies to Earland’s surviving fellows in the register of the mentally challenged, or to our children, our parents, our teachers, churches, government agencies or really to Guyana as a whole: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘but we knew nothing about this,’ does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay to each person according to what he has done?”
Is there any sane and sober thinking left, or is the society itself “not too right upstairs”?
Yours faithfully,
Loris Heywood