A Little Less Dogma All Around Doesn’t Hurt

One of the prob­lems fac­ing our coun­try is the inabil­i­ty of peo­ple to think out­side the box, or even allow them­selves to enter­tain oth­er ideas out­side the opin­ions they ini­tial­ly formed on any range of sub­ject mat­ters.
We form opin­ions, and noth­ing else will change what we made our­selves believe, facts become mere points to be countered.

In a September 24^th, 2018 Jamaica Observer Article titled: Railway Corp sup­ports devel­op­ment of Kendal crash site, Chairperson for the Kendal Crash Committee at the Municipal Corporation, Angella Edwards, said that the vision is that vis­i­tors to the pro­posed memorial/​recreational park will be able to park their vehi­cles and take a rail car to the area. 
Find the link below.
http://​www​.jamaicaob​serv​er​.com/​o​b​s​e​r​v​e​r​-​c​e​n​t​r​a​l​-​n​e​w​s​/​r​a​i​l​w​a​y​-​c​o​r​p​-​s​u​p​p​o​r​t​s​-​d​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​-​o​f​-​k​e​n​d​a​l​-​c​r​a​s​h​-​s​i​t​e​_​1​4​5​0​4​1​?​p​r​o​f​i​l​e​=​1​606

Not a bad idea for an actu­al area where vis­i­tors to a shrine could hon­or the dead who fate­ful­ly lost their lives in that hor­ri­ble crash. But why are Jamaicans so pre­oc­cu­pied with parks?
So I flip­pant­ly wrote the fol­low­ing in response to the [park sug­ges­tion]

ME
Memorial/​recreational park !!!
In oth­er words, build a park for sound-sys­tems to blare and semi-nude bod­ies to gyrate.
Why not?
Nothing trumps the need to be enter­tained, not even a solemn event as the Kendal crash.

Like bait on a line, it did not take long for one par­tic­u­lar fish to take me on indi­rect­ly.

JamaicanDawta Mike Beckles 

Castleton Gardens & Emancipation Park are recre­ation­al parks and I don’t see what you describe there. Why would you think that the Kendal site would be dif­fer­ent?Ahitschoo ah kun­tri it deh?

No dear­est, the idea of a recre­ation­al park is okay, but in a trag­ic event like the Kendal train crash in which over two hun­dred peo­ple lost their lives in that sin­gle event don’t you think that a mon­u­ment is more fitting?

Nikanta JamaicanDawta • 
Nikanta speak­ing to me through some­one else.

I was at a loss when I read the com­ment too was too dumb­struck to respond. Because my thought is that this thing should have been con­cep­tu­al­ize decades ago. At the time when this occurred it was the worst train dis­as­ter of that time with over 200 per­sons los­ing their lives dozens of fam­i­lies affect­ed to date. I often heard my grand­moth­er lament about that inci­dent my neigh­bour had lost his moth­er and yet out­side of that grow­ing up I hard­ly ever heard any­thing for­mal­ly about the Kendal Crash we rever­ie noth­ing in this coun­try that’s why our relics and most of our his­toric buildings/​monuments look like crap.

Now after cor­rect­ing some of the mis­spellings I responded.

ME

Instead of a “RECREATIONAL PARK”, how about a fit­ting mon­u­ment which appro­pri­ate­ly hon­ors the dead, and takes into account the grief of the peo­ple at the time this unfor­tu­nate event occurred?
I too heard about it, the gory details and all, I would sug­gest that we have a fit­ting mon­u­ment to remem­ber the event by, not a recre­ation­al park.

JamaicanDawta Mike Beckles • 

I agree with you on this one, Mike. But yuh no know how di ting go: appeal to which paat yuh get votes.

ME 
Precisely!

So far so good right?
Naaaa.

Nikanta Mike Beckles 

So the mon­u­ment can­not be placed in the Park giv­ing it a more tran­quil set­ting while you stand there reflect­ing.? We so small mind­ed when it comes to things of sub­stance but we have no qualms about politi­cians spend­ing our tax dol­lars on their own friv­o­lous pur­suits.
.….….….….….….….….….….….….….
Actually, that is not an unrea­son­able posi­tion to take but I am think­ing the cost would prob­a­bly be astro­nom­i­cal so let’s focus on an edi­fice which hon­ors those who lost their lives.
So how about some­thing like the Lincoln Memorial, how about some­thing like the Holocaust muse­um, the civ­il war memo­r­i­al, the African-American Museum.
I don’t know some­thing sub­stan­tive, like a pres­i­den­tial library, just not a park.

ME

Okay, it seems that your brain, what’s left of it, is a stuck in a per­ma­nent a state of [park], hence your obses­sion and pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with parks.
Can you think out­side what the stu­pid politi­cians pro­pose for a change despite the blinkers?

Nikanta Mike Beckles 

FYI You sir seem to have less of a clue as to what a brain actu­al­ly does and I am pre­sum­ing it has do with your lack of oxy­gen intake after all there isn’t much decent green spaces left in this coun­try to assist you with that (which is what I am more in agree­ment with so if you want to call it a MEMORIAL PARK…what the hell ever). I for one don’t give a hoot about what politi­cians rec­om­mend and clear­ly, you don’t give a hoot about any­thing real­ly except to open that space in your face.

Again I had to cor­rect the mis­spellings but anyway.

Now he/​she went there, (smile). 
Okay, I don’t mind dis­cussing issues but when you are los­ing and you decide to engage in ad hominem attacks, I take off the gloves.
Really?

ME…

The nuclear response.

I’ll tell you a lit­tle sto­ry after which it will be radio silence, my time is far too valu­able.
In parts of Africa, they would catch mon­keys by cut­ting a lit­tle hole in a pump­kin, enough to accom­mo­date the mon­key’s paw.
They would then use a spe­cial stick to loosen the gut of the pump­kin and leave it where the mon­keys would find it.
The mon­key would force, it’s paw into the squash and scoop all the entrails it’s lit­tle paw could hold and it would not let go.
The only prob­lem is that with a paw full of pump­kin entrails, the mon­key was unable to get its paw out of the tiny hole, but the mon­key would not let go of the prize and so it went, the trap­per would catch the mon­key, paw still trapped in the pump­kin.
If only it let go of what it ini­tial­ly grabbed.……

You are that (mon­key)