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Waves of sadness; but love will see us through

EditorialWaves of sadness; but love will see us through

Sunday, November 20, 2022

When will the madness and the heartbreaks end? Each time there seems to be a lull in the reported cases of violent deaths and reckless tragedies leading to loss of life, here comes another wave of bad news, heartbreaks, and mourning for lost loved ones. There is so much news of violent deaths that our citizens who die of natural causes are sometimes overlooked, especially during the period of Covid-19 restrictions, except by very close family members and friends. The past couple weeks have been especially overflowing with tragic news of lives lost violently, but the reported deaths on the same day last week by natural causes of two sporting legends have seen fans on social media from across the Jewel and the diaspora sharing the grief, as their lives were intimately connected through sports to the excitement and joys they once experienced through the on-field performances and personal character of 1970s softball Golden Girl, Patricia “Pat” Bennett and 1980s football “Masterblaster”, Arthur “Goatman” Leslie. In times of such great heartbreak and sorrow, our religious folks seek guidance and strength from their faith in the Almighty, but perhaps it is the love we share in these troubling times, often through the vehicle of religion or spirituality, that helps us to bear the pain and burden of loss and slowly rebuild our emotional strength and zest for living.

Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed, and must try to suppress our feelings in order to cope with the avalanche of sadness that would engulf us. The Krem Radio newscasts over the past ten days have been especially tragic and depressing. According to a postmortem exam, a 35-year-old Belmopan waitress, reported missing on October 31, “was strangled to death;” a 23-year old male inmate at the Central Prison reportedly took his own life in his cell on November 10; early on November 14, a Toledo woman discovered the dead body of a 26-year-old man “partially inside her kitchen;” a 34-year-old male police corporal at a “scene of crime” investigation in Blackman Eddy was knocked down and killed by a vehicle driven at “high speed;” a 30-year-old man in Crooked Tree was lured out of his house at 9:00 p.m. by stones thrown, only to be shot and killed; a “triple murder in Sandhill” during rain on Thursday night, November 17, which claimed males of 43 years, 20 years and 19 years, “is believed to be a drug-related incident;” and just last night, a businessman on his way home in a golf cart was reportedly robbed and shot dead in San Pedro.

While this has been the norm for decades now, there are still moments when we realize that we may have been getting numb to the reports, until it hits closer to home. And the community pain and grief is no less when someone of outstanding social impact and achievement, be it in the arts or sports or community activism, has passed. “Natural causes” may be seen as a blessing to today’s youth, but life is full of surprises, and when a star, a legend of sports, is snatched away suddenly, it rocks our heart and soul, and leaves many of us with a heavy heart for days. Indeed, just over the past couple years of Covid-19 and its aftermath (Covid is still around, so don’t drop your guard too low.), it is quite striking, the number of top athletes from the 70’s and 80’s who have passed from natural causes, many of them even under sixty years old. The list is long, but noteworthy is the lack of any smear of violent crime among the athletic stars, whose commitment to discipline, hard work, fair play and dedication to their craft must have impacted their whole outlook on life, and restrained them from taking the smooth and easy but dangerous path on the road of crime. Some notables from the football world alone that recently left us include the great Gilroy “Coro” Usher, Larry “Charro” Bennett, Kent “Gigante” Skeete, Juvencio “Bud” August, Wayne “Bom” Jones, Eian “Coco” Henry, and Rudolph “Peru” Olivera. And there are surely others; but whatever their individual faults, all these stars of the game were good, law-abiding citizens, who were never known to be involved in any kind of violence or criminal enterprise.

The triple-homicide reported in Sandhill this week was a real jolt. When does it end? So many families grieving! What’s up with our youths? Isn’t anybody afraid of going to prison anymore? Is that what it is, where these murders are concerned?

Certainly, most vehicle drivers, people who don’t consider themselves outside the law, are terribly afraid of going to prison. But drunk drivers who cause death by their reckless behavior usually end up paying a fine. And apparently it is not enough of a deterrent. Commissioner Williams is adamant that jail time would give drunk drivers something to think about before getting behind the wheel. We’re losing too many precious lives unnecessarily due to carelessness or violent behavior.

In all this climate of grief and pain, it was a savage blow indeed, when we got the news of the sudden passing of legendary striker Arthur “Goatman” Leslie; and moments later we were hit with news of the passing of another legend, softball star and “Golden Girl” from Belize’s 1974 epic Gold Medal winners at the Central American & Caribbean Games, Patricia “Pat” Bennett. Both legends had been ailing for some time. Turo had received open heart surgery in the U.S. early in 2020, just before Covid-19 landed in Belize; and Pat had been battling cancer for a few years. These were two giants in their respective sports. Turo was one of the premier strikers in Belize throughout the 1980s. Pat was a longstanding member of the Belize National Softball Team in the 1970s and later had a distinguished career as an educator and unionist. A lot has already been written, and surely a lot more will be written about these two outstanding Belizean athletes, one female and one male, who during their sporting years exemplified the best in Belizean sports and are worthy examples for young athletes to try and emulate.

As Belizeans mourn our lost loved ones and come to grips with the loss of stellar examples of good, productive and law-abiding citizens, it is perhaps worthwhile to emphasize the importance of establishing an organized structure for recognizing and promoting the personalities of our most outstanding athletes, so that their good examples of citizenship and sporting achievement might impact and inspire the many youths coming up, many of whom would otherwise not even know that such persons even existed. Stories are meant to entertain and also to teach lessons and values, and to inspire. And a Hall of Fame is an officially sanctioned resource for documenting and enshrining for posterity the achievements of the best from among us. We didn’t “wait till di man dead” to tell either Goatman or Pat that they were “good”. We’ve said it to them many times, and in many ways. But a Hall of Fame is the result of a well-researched consensus, a repository that can be easily accessed by students and teachers alike, especially when it is placed on the internet. We’ve waited too long.

Some Belizean softballers, Pat included, have been recognized in an international Softball Hall of Fame; but we need our own Belize National Softball Hall of Fame. And it is high time that some of the FIFA money be dedicated to finally establishing the official Belize National Football Hall of Fame. Turo knew he would be in there; we often told him so. But the pain of his loss will be soothed a little bit for his immediate relatives with that knowledge, as with other departed stars, as well as those still with us, who are undoubtedly destined to be enshrined along with Turo whenever that Belize National Football Hall of Fame is established.

Our sincere condolences, strength and love to all the family members and friends of our brothers and sisters who have recently gone before us to the bosom of The Almighty. Rest in peace, all! Love will see us through.

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