By Kedrick Lilweti White
I attended a wedding in Virginia, USA lately and my heart sank. This time, it hurt so badly. This particular wedding hit very close to my growing up years. Oh, my people ooo…, what a great loss to our Country, Liberia!
Come see beauty and class, all in attendance. As I looked around the room, all I could see was the real damage that befell Liberia 44 years ago. A brain-drain had occurred with epic ramifications that no one could have foretold. Here, were the real spoils of the 1980 coup and the subsequent war that followed in 1990 and thereafter.
The room could have been mistaken for a best dressed competition. Eloquence and style met high class living for a night of celebratory pleasure where a Liberian child was being wedded. They, just as well, could have been my kids. Back then, we were all coming out of high school in our very late teens, and now in our early sixties. Liberia’s legacy growing up, getting married, and moving farther and farther away from what it could have been.
I met the best of what could have been Liberia’s continued path to success with these doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, economics and financial professionals, and much more. And even if that wasn’t enough, the room was filled with decency, while fun and joy joined in this mixed age gathering.
So, after 44 years, we’ve come to accept our new place of residence away from home. A reflection point most of us must endure every time we attend functions like this. And especially now as we look at the parallel track of Liberia’s development, we can’t help but wonder if there’s any hope left. What’s worse is the no clue attitudes exhibited by our brothers and sisters left behind the lines.
But one lone close friend of mine yelled out to me one day “Your come take ‘your-thing’ back o, we’ve made a mess of it”. No matter which side of the fence you’re on, current trends does show that Liberia is getting “worser and worser”. I don’t suppose that anything can be “taken back” but for God sake, can there at least be some recognition of this great loss as a first step?
I, Kedrick Lilweti White come in peace ooo!
