(Part 2: The Colour Vincy)

Patriotism.

What it is – a quality of having vigorous support and loyalty for one’s country.

What it isn’t – (a) an annual flood of events swelled by national Independence celebrations, or (b) a call to arms (of party colours), triggered by the announcement of general elections.

EDITOR: How we have cut, knitted, tangled, twisted and turned every fibre that supports the weight of our duty to country. Our moral compasses are so completely shattered, we now depend on magnetic compasses, of all things, to point us in the right direction… compasses which, by the way, are misoriented; thus up is down and down is up. Needless to mention left or right.

The time, it seems, is far spent when a man was proud to earn by the labours of his own hands. Forgetting that four walls and a roof is just a house and that it takes much, much more than that to establish a home and, consequently, a strong nation, we have now openly adopted the pirates’ code to always “take what you can, give nothing back.”

How is it that we are still being fed the hand-out mentality by those whose duty it is to give proper representation without partiality and, moreover, without conflict of interest? For, if the interests of those who should represent us conflict with the interests of our fundamental rights and freedoms, as outlined in the constitution, what then?

You may have heard it said “keep them in ignorance and fool them”. What you may not have heard is the unwritten half that reads, “tell them what they want to hear and watch them make fools of themselves”. The question is, which are we – the ones still being fooled, or the ones willingly making fools of ourselves? And for what? Should we simply resign ourselves and “give Mr [So and so] [our] honest regard for disregarding [us]?”

With lips tightly sealed open, eyes wide shut, we hide in the shadows of those who dare to stand for truth, but as the dust settles an emphatic applause, irrespective of the victor, as if all along we were rooting for the same. Oh, Vincentians! Know ye not that “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter” – our families, our freedom, our integrity, our nation, our God? No-no; at times like these the golden silence is in effect and befits a deafening thunder.

Truth is that if the truth offends, then the offended is an offender for “[while] bad men [continue to] combine, the good [also] must associate; else they will fall, one by one… in a contemptible struggle” waged by selfish decisions, swayed through shaded lenses of politics and political affiliations, with sole intent to suppress.

Though the labours have not changed, our attitudes certainly have – drastically! An honest $2 is now scorned and shunned by those who seek to “buy-out” and substitute integrity for questionable methods of so-called “hustling”. Yet, if we should all seek to earn an honest pittance and “lift where we stand”, consider how much stronger this nation will become, for, regardless of the size of its borders, “a great civilization is NOT conquered from without UNTIL it has destroyed itself from within.” Sadly, history keeps repeating itself. No one’s listening.

Whether we fly red, yellow, green, pink, black or blue flags, the only colour we earn the right to bleed is an undiluted blend of blue, gold and green in perfect proportions to that illustrated on the national flag. Now that… that right there is the colour VINCY!!

ACD Franklyn