The Editor, Sir:

In an interview on Nation-wide on May 26, a man from August Town related an experience that changed his life.

He said he returned home on the evening of May 5 to find his girlfriend with their baby standing at their gate talking to a friend.

Just as he went inside to have his dinner, he heard a barrage of shots. The end result: his baby was shot and killed and his girlfriend got her two legs smashed up.

On the same morning of May 26, the Rev George Simpson, of the Mt Carey Baptist Church, was at his home when he was shot several times. Thank God, he is not dead.

This shooting happened the Monday morning following the weekend when three members of the security forces were shot and killed while on duty.

What sort of disrespect?

The shooting deaths of the young woman in Half-Way Tree and the man in Portia Simpson Miller Square in broad daylight are only a few of the catalogue of homicides in recent times.

What has brought us Jamaicans to this point of disrespect for human lives? What can we do to restore respect for life in our society?

In the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the government of the day made what I consider a concerted effort to deal with the drug trade.

With help from abroad, equipment was imported to scan persons going through the airports, extensive searches were made to find drugs hidden in products for export; a couple of the drug lords were taken out of operation and the security forces continued their campaign to demolish the ganja fields.

If such an effort can be made to deal with drugs (albeit the effort is still on), why can't similar effort be made to deal with homicide?

Every day, persons grieve the loss of their loved ones, while coping with the task of burials.

The police are trying to get the gunmen, but what of the sources of the guns?

When guns taken by the police are shown on television, the majority of them are not home-made. Therefore, they must be coming into the country from somewhere.

Collaborative effort

The Government needs to show that it has the will to take the necessary measures, i.e. supplying the security forces with needed equipment, and bringing the justice system up to standard, so that cases can be dealt with in a shorter time.

I must also call on the church to collaborate in the effort to bring down this scourge of homicide in the land.

The churches must come together to organise marches, and open-air meeting in all the major towns and villages and days of fasting and prayer.

The verse from second Chronicles 7:14 still holds true even in these days: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land."

I am, etc.,

LOIS BRYCE

Falmouth P O

Trelawny