Arlene WintThorpe of Greater Portmore, in her letter to the editor, lamented her plight with the 'stop-light extortionists'. I, too, have been and continue to be a victim of these vagrants of the streets.

It has now become a depressing exercise to drive on our roads. Alas, it is not only the windscreen harassers we (especially women) have to worry about, but all the other 'sufferers who want food fi eat'. These persons somehow feel that by using intimidatory tactics they may just get their food.

Ensure discipline

I don't want to appear insensitive to the plights of the very poor in our country but the authorities need to ensure that discipline is not tossed aside because of hunger. Every Jamaican has rights. Each of us has the right to travel freely on our roads without harassment of sorts; to not feel responsible for the mistakes and misgivings of others, and to live without fear, period.

Child labour

Another writer to a editor, Richard Brown, referred to 'a nation of children making a living at stop lights' and the need to change this culture. Can we really do it? I mean effectively deal with the problems facing our tiny nation? I, often, wonder if it is a refusal to acknowledge the real issues plaguing our country or whether it is downright ignorance. Either way, we are in a serious pickle.

I am making an appeal to all well-thinking and capable Jamaicans who can make that difference that we crave so badly to knock heads and use social interventions and whatever other means necessary to save our country. Believe me, we can do it.

I am, etc.,

JANNETTE CLARKE

clarkejanette@hotmail.com

Stony Hill

St Andrew