‘Kill it before it grow…’

“Say to them/say to the down-keepers/the sun-slappers/the self-soilers/the harmony-hushers/‘Even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night.’"

These lines are from a Gwendolyn Brooks poem titled “Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward,” and the last time I quoted them was in 2012, when Gaston Browne “won” the political leadership of the Antigua Labour Party over Lester Bird.

Clearly, I had no horse in that race; but, as a teacher and parliamentarian, I felt, then, that such encouragement of the young was in order.

The very next line of this poem says: “You will be right.”  But in this case I was wrong. Very wrong. However, I’ve since chalked it up to my own ignorant optimism and have forgiven myself accordingly. Ignorant of the true nature of the man and optimistic because I’d believed what he then professed….

Fast forward to 2026, and the literary lines that best apply to the current situation come from the Bob Marley classic “I Shot the Sheriff”: Sheriff John Brown always hated me/For what, I don't know/Every time I plant a seed/He said kill it before it grow/
He said kill them before they grow/And so-and-so/Read it in the news!”

I’m referring now to what is being done to the young Senator Jonathan Wehner, on whose chest a bull’s-eye has been painted– literally and figuratively.

Sure, one might think that his fellow senator’s “hit list” remark might simply mean targeting the youth in parliamentary debate.But we all know that – together with the prime minister’s nakedly hostile and demeaning remarks about Wehner – it could also serve as a “dog whistle” to slavish followers to do him harm.

It’s not farfetched in this suddenly violent society where killings go uninvestigated; known perpetrators go uncharged; cases languish un-prosecuted; and even child disappearances go unreported.  This is a society in which names like Chantel, Yennifer, Achazia, Noah, Khaleel, and Manny have become bywords.

The irony here is that, on Facebook last week, a ruddy acolyte warned the young senator not to short-circuit his political career like his father had. But did his father, really? Or was that an orchestrated attempt to silence a loud voice and criminalize a patriot?

It was not so long ago that we cannot remember how the Cabinet– one fine day –abruptly decided that its members were being menaced by an old promotion for an Opposition radio program. Flexing its muscle, it even got the then-compliant police commissioner to issue a “wanted bulletin” that painted the senior Wehner as a dangerous militant versed in the use of firearms.  

When he “turned himself in”– as demanded – to find out what the sudden commotion was about, the eager-to-please police then put him in a mosquito-infested cell at Headquarters and eventually brought charges.

Now, it appears that it’s the junior’s turn to be trimmed down to size.  Why? Clearly, his intelligence and articulation at such a tender age are evidence of the weight he brings to the Senate’s Opposition Bench.  He is literally and academically above the youth cohort on the other side – as well as the “mature” ones among them.

Clearly, it is because of the potential and promise he represents: the fact that he has been predicted to be prime minister one daywithout the director of communications needing to grease the wheels and without any chance of a dynastic, matrimonial handover.

I remember the prime minister used to say he’d rather be an ordinary citizen in a prospering nation than the ruler of a failed state.  That was then.  But now it’s clear, as the years have rolledhim close to 60, that he’s become a lion prepared to sacrifice the young and the restless in order to hold onto power in this lost State. “Kill them before them grow….”

And don’t tell me I’m wrong by pointing to the new crop in his party; because you know, as well as I, that their selection is predicated on devotion and, in special cases, financial preservation. That’s why their boss could declare one of themunfit for public office over the loss of public funds, so that he could install one who has to be even more devoted.

That she, having been safely ensconced in office, has been unable or unwilling to account for $15 million of the same public’s money while he has been recalled for service elsewhere must have God laughing uncontrollably. The taxpayers? Less amused.

Meanwhile, as he lambasts the young senator and denigrates him in vile fashion, the prime minister is raging and ready to defend his own undistinguished seed, snarling that private land transactions are nobody’s blasted business, and telling the curious to “go seek nourishment…” – but in his signature coarse language, as usual.

So, yes, while they mouth platitudes about the youth being the future, they’re busy making sure that only their young inherit it. Is it any wonder that our best and brightest leave and stay gone,dooming our systems to mediocrity and mek-out?

But it is a fact that black hair in Parliament is often more an indicator of dye than it is of strength; just as some grey heads are no guarantee of wisdom or intelligence.

If your party and your administration are all that, and since the Executive has captured the Legislature and the Judiciary, in addition to the ballot, the media, and the economy, why are you such sore winners? Why do your dissatisfaction and unhappiness persist?  

Why can’t you make the youth-man strive?