Dear Editor,
It is always refreshing to encounter the brighter side of America, which was what shone through in the United States Senate confirmation vote for U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Ms. Ketanji Brown Jackson. Ms. Jackson has made it all the way to the pinnacle of the American legal system, the first Black woman to do so. Her trial by ignominy should not have occurred; she should have been spared the ordeal of dark ugliness that overtook the U.S. Senate. It was refreshing-indeed, inspiring-that Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney, three Republicans could have broken party lines and stood for decency first, integrity next, and what is right and appropriate, all circumstances considered. I looked for decency and integrity, not in Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, for they don’t have that in them. But I expected a little of both of that, decency and integrity, from Mitch McConnell, who I thought would not stoop so low as to allow rancorous, dangerous politics to get the better of him.
That a nominee of the quality of Ketanji Brown Jackson had to go through the wringer is an indication of the bottomless pit into which what American politics has deteriorated. Thank God for Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski, and Mr. Romney. America once had more of them, but it now is dragged down into the sewer by names like that of the last Chief Executive (so repugnant as to not be dignified by name, and he a former American President). Republicans have them, Democrats have them, and there are tens of millions of the same savaging, divisive mindset at the extreme ends that represent America’s political poles. Politics is now war by other means. The outlook is bleak. For compromise and working together. For progress and moving a torn society ahead.
Regrettably, with this as harrowing context, I have no choice but to examine the mirror that is my other home, Guyana. It is as stark and as tragically depraved as the American political scene. Like America, the racism is piercing and a sprawling spiral of wretchedness, dastardliness, and monstrousness. For evidence, dare to look at the Gorgon that is our parliament, and there is the risk of being turned into stone. Women are insulted, and the partisan cluster is so thick with suffocating pus that even women are unmoved when a sister (a political adversary) is demeaned by their comrade. This citizen of a peculiarly outstanding kind is a lawmaker.
He is one that most Guyanese would shudder at having as a neighbour, even if he were identified on a public register. It would be the worst of comforts. We have also a lawman, who is so consumed about prioritizing and rationalizing what is right for the party that he has lost all touch of what his duty to this country is. Guyana has its own Cruz (es) and McConnell(s). We have a leader who makes an utter spectacle of himself on each occasion that he speaks, one that none takes seriously. And he will make Guyana great some time. We have men and women, like Crux and Greene and company. They are near universal in presence, in effect.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall