The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Yesterday I had the most traumatic experience that I’ve had in many years. I stopped at a little store off East Street near the COGOP Cathedral to purchase a case of canned gas that’s used in the camping stoves. Outside the store was a little girl who was probably about ten years old. She looked disheveled and very unhappy. When I got inside the store another little girl who was probably about eight-years-old and obviously related to the young girl on the outside was at the register purchasing four Ramen noodles (the little flat packs) and a gallon of water. As the cashier put the change into her tiny hands my eyes welled up with water.

At that point I asked the cashier how much was the case of noodles and requested one. I told the little girl not to move while I went into the cooler of the store and added two packs of chicken hotdogs to the case of noodles for her and her sister to take to whomever was waiting for the four packs of noodles. I then got into my car to go and collect my 18-year-old daughter from the airport who has just completed her 2nd year at Georgia State University.

My fellow citizens by the time I got to the traffic light at East Street and Wulff Road, my shirt was soaked from the tears running down my face. As the father of three young women who’ve never known lack of any necessity, my heart bled for those two children. As I type this note the tears are freely flowing!

As a society we should feel a collective sense of shame and disappointment for how we’ve allowed ourselves to become so comfortable with the huge disparity in levels of prosperity in our country!

In this day I will return to that little store to see if the cashier or another employee can link me with that family. I feel so torn that I didn’t do more yesterday. I’m imploring all of you, who are able, to please assist some underprivileged person or family today. Yes, things are harder now than they ever were BUT the majority of us have not had to miss a meal or lower the quality of those meals!

This may be an unpleasant message but maybe we’re too comfortable with and immune to the plight of our fellow citizens in this Bahamas that we claim to love so much!

Let’s all commit to doing and being better!

AARON WOODSIDE

Nassau,

May 2, 2022.