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Jamaica as family
Henley Morgan
Thursday, June 07, 2007
A family is a group of people united by ties of marriage, blood or adoption and dwelling together. Family is often confused with household and with kindred. People can live together in a house and not be related in the ways described above (some could be boarders, for example).
Henley Morgan
On the other hand, people can be related by marriage, blood or adoption and not live together or if they do, hardly speak to each other. The duality in the relationship connoted by the definition makes much of what we call family these days a farce; in other words, they are family in name only.
If it is so difficult for members of a small group of people to maintain family ties, how much more difficult it must be for citizens of a country to do so. Yet, that's what our national motto calls Jamaicans to be - a family.
"Out of many one " describes a people from different ancestries who have taken a new name and a common identity (adoption) that tie the members together as a family. Juxtaposed against the great America, one gets a measure of the power of the philosophy of national life conveyed by the Jamaican motto.
Americans boast in the fact that theirs is a country of immigrants. That is a misguided philosophy for it perpetuates differences in the original culture often to the detriment of the collective will to build a better country. The racial divide is one area of American life that clearly demonstrates how such a philosophy can work against unity.
Booker T Washington, the most influential black civil rights leader during the period 1895 - 1915, professed the belief that African Americans should abandon the seemingly futile goal of assimilating into the American family (the attainment of full civil rights) and settle instead for the partial right of being allowed to pursue their economic well-being. "In all things that are purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in those things essential to mutual (economic) progress."
That pronouncement by Washington gave birth to an era of "separate but equal", which guided social, economic and political policy towards black people in America for two generations. The result was to perpetuate discrimination and segregation.
COKE... when she calls on the nation to hold hands it is more than symbolic
The framers of our national motto wanted better than that for Jamaica. Singleness (not separateness) and togetherness are its hallmarks, just as it is with any proper functioning family. Battle-weary and acquiescing to the white power brokers in America, Booker T Washington could not grasp the concept of the nation as a family. Seventy years later, another great black American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, proved he understood it very well.
On August 28, 1963, in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Dr King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech. Two years later after visiting Jamaica he returned to the theme. The words of his sermon delivered at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on America's Independence Day (July 4) in 1965 should be like music to the ear of every Jamaican. They are worth replaying again and again. "In Jamaica they have a motto, 'Out of many, one people', and they say, here in Jamaica we are not Chinese, we are not Japanese, we are not Indians, we are not Negroes, we are not Englishmen, we are not Canadians. We are all one big family of Jamaicans.
One day, here in America, I hope (dream) that we will see this and we will become one big family of Americans."
By any measure, Jamaica's status today falls short of the vision of patriots like Father Hugh Sherlock who penned our national anthem, and is a far cry from what Martin Luther King Jr saw when he looked in our direction. We have failed at doing well the two functions performed by the family. Socially, the family provides a nurturing and caring environment, particularly for those not able to care for themselves.
Economically, the family provides food, shelter, clothing and physical security for its members. The failure to adequately meet the basic needs of family members (citizens) has led to a proliferation of houses: the poor house, the alms house, the crack house, the gambling house, the whorehouse, the mad house and the ever busy dead house. The Bible declares, a house that is divided against itself shall not stand. Neither does it a family make.
When Yvonne Coke of "Hands across Jamaica for Righteousness" calls on the nation to hold hands, it is more than symbolic. It is an active demonstration of an unbroken chain of love and mutual support; a neurological umbilical cord connecting kindred spirits; putting us in touch (pun intended) with each other and saying we are family.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com
Henley Morgan
Thursday, June 07, 2007
A family is a group of people united by ties of marriage, blood or adoption and dwelling together. Family is often confused with household and with kindred. People can live together in a house and not be related in the ways described above (some could be boarders, for example).
Henley MorganOn the other hand, people can be related by marriage, blood or adoption and not live together or if they do, hardly speak to each other. The duality in the relationship connoted by the definition makes much of what we call family these days a farce; in other words, they are family in name only.
If it is so difficult for members of a small group of people to maintain family ties, how much more difficult it must be for citizens of a country to do so. Yet, that's what our national motto calls Jamaicans to be - a family.
"Out of many one " describes a people from different ancestries who have taken a new name and a common identity (adoption) that tie the members together as a family. Juxtaposed against the great America, one gets a measure of the power of the philosophy of national life conveyed by the Jamaican motto.
Americans boast in the fact that theirs is a country of immigrants. That is a misguided philosophy for it perpetuates differences in the original culture often to the detriment of the collective will to build a better country. The racial divide is one area of American life that clearly demonstrates how such a philosophy can work against unity.
Booker T Washington, the most influential black civil rights leader during the period 1895 - 1915, professed the belief that African Americans should abandon the seemingly futile goal of assimilating into the American family (the attainment of full civil rights) and settle instead for the partial right of being allowed to pursue their economic well-being. "In all things that are purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in those things essential to mutual (economic) progress."
That pronouncement by Washington gave birth to an era of "separate but equal", which guided social, economic and political policy towards black people in America for two generations. The result was to perpetuate discrimination and segregation.
COKE... when she calls on the nation to hold hands it is more than symbolic The framers of our national motto wanted better than that for Jamaica. Singleness (not separateness) and togetherness are its hallmarks, just as it is with any proper functioning family. Battle-weary and acquiescing to the white power brokers in America, Booker T Washington could not grasp the concept of the nation as a family. Seventy years later, another great black American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, proved he understood it very well.
On August 28, 1963, in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Dr King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech. Two years later after visiting Jamaica he returned to the theme. The words of his sermon delivered at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on America's Independence Day (July 4) in 1965 should be like music to the ear of every Jamaican. They are worth replaying again and again. "In Jamaica they have a motto, 'Out of many, one people', and they say, here in Jamaica we are not Chinese, we are not Japanese, we are not Indians, we are not Negroes, we are not Englishmen, we are not Canadians. We are all one big family of Jamaicans.
One day, here in America, I hope (dream) that we will see this and we will become one big family of Americans."
By any measure, Jamaica's status today falls short of the vision of patriots like Father Hugh Sherlock who penned our national anthem, and is a far cry from what Martin Luther King Jr saw when he looked in our direction. We have failed at doing well the two functions performed by the family. Socially, the family provides a nurturing and caring environment, particularly for those not able to care for themselves.
Economically, the family provides food, shelter, clothing and physical security for its members. The failure to adequately meet the basic needs of family members (citizens) has led to a proliferation of houses: the poor house, the alms house, the crack house, the gambling house, the whorehouse, the mad house and the ever busy dead house. The Bible declares, a house that is divided against itself shall not stand. Neither does it a family make.
When Yvonne Coke of "Hands across Jamaica for Righteousness" calls on the nation to hold hands, it is more than symbolic. It is an active demonstration of an unbroken chain of love and mutual support; a neurological umbilical cord connecting kindred spirits; putting us in touch (pun intended) with each other and saying we are family.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com