First a ban was imposed on dancehall music with 'lewd lyrics', as well as songs which were edited using bleeping. The social hypocrites were still not happy, and since the Broadcasting Commission aims to please, it also placed a ban on lyrics that glorify the use of guns and killings, as well as on soca music that is sexually suggestive.

What they have done is make this music illegal the same way marijuana is illegal. Does this mean that people will suddenly refrain from playing this 'banned substance'? Don't people still plant, smoke and sell marijuana, illegal though it is?

Wrong from right

What I am made to understand from this move is that our children and youth are so empty and impressionable that they take whatever they hear on the radio as a life lesson because the schools and families are useless in helping them to distinguish wrong from right. What I now believe is that parents in Jamaica have no impact on their children or on their values, whether positive or negative, that they will adopt.

As a nation, we should be ashamed of ourselves for not having the skills to instil morals and values in our children. We deserve to be punished for leaving our youth to the mercy of the dancehall artistes, who are apparently responsible for all the crime and violence and corruption in our society.

Overrated lyrics

I believe that these controversial lyrics are overrated. They are not responsible for half of the disciplinary problems faced within our schools. Dancehall and soca lyrics do not determine when a young girl loses her virginity or whether she becomes a prostitute.

The lyrics from dancehall and soca songs do not cause a young man to murder another, nor does it tell drug lords to accept guns for drugs.

What we need to do is desist from majoring in the minor and instead find effective solutions to the innumerable problems that are threatening to destroy not only our youth but our entire population.

I am, etc.,

S. TAYLOR

monachica13@yahoo.com