THE Christmas season has passed, with the much anticipated Old/New Year’s festivities on the immediate horizon.

As is customary, most people make resolutions to embrace new thinking and behavioural patterns that are most often genuine efforts to enhance their lives and lifestyles.

But, unfortunately, more often than not, those well-meaning resolutions gradually dissipate and the status quo resumes, with old ways and habits – bad or good, remaining unchanged.

God showed mankind two pathways – one that is easy, but morally degraded; and, conversely, the other extremely difficult to traverse, but holding true to the doctrines of all that is representative of the Christ child. Then he bestowed upon the human family the gift of choice. Sadly, the misuse of this gift that is a blessing from the Supreme Father has caused agony in the human condition since Eve succumbed to the blandishments of Satan in the Garden of Eden, thereby propelling man in a direction where Cain could opt for the choice of slaughtering his brother Abel.
Thus it seems that man is preconditioned by the choices made by original man to seek personal pleasure and satisfaction at the expense of his fellow man.
The tragic consequences of selfish choices run like a meandering river of commingled blood and tears down the corridors of history; so much so that the Garden of Eden has been transformed into a veritable hell, inhabited by the denizens of the abode of Satan.
During the Christmas festivities, because of the selfish choices made by Satan’s brood, many homes are left in perpetual darkness.
Thus it was that 13-year-old President’s College student Cojoe McPherson was killed as a result of his being struck off his pedal cycle by a car, the driver of which persons in the area allege was speeding at the time of the accident.
Sixty-two-year-old Alfred Branche was reportedly driving a wagon last Tuesday night when it collided with a parked vehicle on the Number 29 Village Public Road, West Coast Berbice, resulting in the death of his daughter, Yonette, 16, from massive head injuries.
Relatives said that the man had been continuously distraught and inconsolable after the accidental death of his daughter.
Yonette Branche, 16, was a student of the New Amsterdam Multilateral School, and had gone with her parents to uplift a barrel and two boxes of gifts sent her by an aunt who lives overseas.

The family had collected the items in Georgetown and were on their way home around 20:00 hrs on Tuesday, the day before Christmas Eve, when the wagon driven by her father collided with a parked Canter Lorry on the side of the road at Number 29 Village.

Reports suggest that the older Branche had been dazzled by the lights of an oncoming vehicle and had pulled into the corner of the road without seeing the vehicle parked there.

There were two culprits responsible for the accident that took the life of Branche’s beloved daughter, which precipitated his subsequent suicide – one was the person(s) who parked their vehicle on a public highway without leaving on hazard lights, and the driver of the vehicle who did not adhere to traffic courtesies and dim his lights, thus blinding Branche: And those two culprits were responsible for the deaths of both Branche and his daughter, as well as the terrible consequences to the family that would ensue from this double tragedy; that too at a time of great joy, a joy that has been eclipsed forever for this family.
Jerome Franklin and his son, Timmy Franklin, were both charged with murder following the triple murder at Tuschen several days ago when the cane-harvester allegedly ran amok. Franklin broke his way into the home of his reputed wife and began a chopping rampage that left his reputed wife hospitalised, and his 55-year-old mother-in-law, Bibi Zalima Khan; nine-year-old stepdaughter, Ashley; and 30-year-old Drakes dead. It is reported that, based on the evidence available and the case put forward by the police, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has recommended the capital charge for the father and son.
The allegations are that the younger Franklin physically restrained Floyd Drakes, one of the three victims, from escaping so his father could “finish him off.” He is also reported to have instigated his father into his murderous rampage by informing him that the man’s estranged spouse was in the company of a man with whom she had moved on after ceasing the abusive relationship and obtaining a restriction against the perpetrator.

Many crimes have been committed in a fit of rage that spiraled out of control because of the machinations of gossip by rumour-mongers and troublemakers.
From the political leadership to the common man resolutions to strive for peace and goodwill instead of destruction and distrust should be paramount considerations in the promises one makes to oneself to strive to be better human beings in the New Year and henceforth.