Dear Editor,
Despite the alarming homicide statistics, it is my submission that crime is not as bad as it might appear. I am the first to agree that with some 120 recorded alleged murders for 2013 that this fact is cause for concern.
Without meaning to sound cold or callous, however, because the loss of one life is too much, it must be kept in mind that 99 percent of these homicides are being committed, based on empirical evidence, between young black males who are known to each other.
As a Christian-minded individual and a person who abides by the law of the land, I personally do not know many of these young people who are, obviously, leading a life of crime and mayhem. It grieves me, however, to the very core of my being when I pick up the newspaper or access the daily police report to learn that yet another youthful life has been taken.
Who is to be blamed for this alarming spiral? I had hoped that I would not feel the need to submit an editorial letter before January 2014 but the urgency of this crime matter and the gunning down of over 10 people, in one event, has forced me to go to my computer keyboard.
Police are not to be blamed. The politicians, while most of them seek to ascribe blame to their political opponents, bogusly, are not to be blamed. The blame is to be laid at the family structure, or lack of it, and the collective church. Of course, one must also consider the responsibility of the individual perpetrator.
Why do I postulate that the family structure or lack of it is the primary causation of criminal behavior? A generation ago, we still enjoyed the traditional family unit of a mother and a father, not necessarily within a marriage but cohabitating under the same roof. Not so today in over 75 percent of the known cases, according to social workers.
Vulnerable women, young and not so old, are entering into relationships with dubious men and having multiple children for them. In the majority of cases these men, youthful and not so old, have one objective in mind. Once they have achieved that, by any means necessary, if a pregnancy results, the female is often abandoned and left to fend for her and the child or children. The male goes on to the next sexual escapade and the cycle repeats itself.
In 65 percent of the reported cases to social workers, these mothers either did not complete their education or picked up no marketable skills or talents. They and their out-of-wedlock children are then forced into a lifestyle which is not conducive to wholesome living or the development of the right attitudinal outlook.
The females in this category, not all mind you, get involved in the remy style and the bling life experiences while leaving the child or children to fend for themselves. The progeny of these relationships are often left behind in the educational system, which itself is very badly broken, and quickly fall prey to the same elements which infected their putative fathers and mothers.
The young nubile and persuadable female hooks up with a much older man or a youthful one, sometimes both, to finance her lifestyle. The cycle repeats itself. The young males, mama's boys in far too many cases, were never taught how to be "real" men by their absentee fathers, so they act out the tough guy role; they either evolve into petty crime, drug dealing or male prostitution.
Society needs to find the ways and means to encourage the development of the traditional family unit post haste. If we, collectively, fail to do so all hell will break loose within the next decade or so. We have developed a culture of the killing fields and are now so insensitive to murders and other crimes that it is no longer funny, if it ever was.
The church is also to be blamed big time for this dysfunctional breakdown in our nation. The church is mandated to motivate and encourage individuals to seek salvation and to rehabilitate how they think. It would seem to me that the only things most churches are concerned with are the sizes of their edifices, the sizes of the congregation, the money collected on Sundays and the perks of the senior pastors and deacons.
The other day the Bahamas Christian Council, comprised of a bunch of political sycophants, were all over the place pontificating about web shop gaming. Not one of them has addressed the issues, so far, of sweethearting, homosexuality in the pulpit and behind the altar, teen pregnancies, rampant homicides and, for sure, alleged corruption, politically, in low and high places.
The church is supposed to act as "the watchman" of society. What has it evolved into, however? A den of vipers. There must be a balm in Gilead and I am more than persuaded that there is a spiritual Joshua who stands ready to lead Bahamians back to the ancient landmarks.
I wish all a Happy New Year but, in the mean time, to God then, in all of these things, be the glory.
- Ortland H. Bodie Jr.

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