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One dead. Four wounded. What was the point of the killing? There was no point!  Just one more pointless death.

All of us Bermudians have just been freshly spattered with yet another batch of hard evidence that we have a definable and active underclass. Though we may argue the semantics, the bullets and the body tell the truth. The truth is that the underclass is here and won't suddenly turn to Jesus in one mass conversion. Hasn't happened anywhere or anytime else.  It won't happen here.

Each member of this underclass is a human being who will live until he dies - however he dies. Each member will either remain in the underclass or he will get out of it.

If he remains, out of sheer self-preservation, the rest of us have to deal with him lest he causes harm to us as an individual; or us as a community. 

The only real and possible action here is defensive. More police action, more jail cells, and longer sentences so that the people in this underclass are put away and then kept in human warehouses - prisons. That process buys serial peace.  Each time one is released, we have to wait for him to act violently again; or we have to find a new pretext for re-warehousing him.

If the people in the underclass take their only other choice - leave the underclass and get into mainstream society - we have to provide education, training, and then help them find some kind of work so that they can meet reasonable aspirations. If all three objectives are not achieved, they'll revert - and then, see above!

Who chooses? Unfortunately, they do. Can we influence their choices? We can. Generally, do we care enough to influence their choices? I don't think so.

Main reason? Many of us believe that the 'problem' isn't yet on our actual threshold. That it's happening in a place in Bermuda where 'other people' (i.e. the underclass) live. But in 13,000 acres, there is no 'other place'. Everywhere is here. Everywhere and anywhere is right on our - your - my - doorstep.  

Last and only other action? Drastically, radically, and quickly revamp public education so that we stop feeding that underclass with an ever-renewing draft of fresh new 'high-school dropout recruits'. In the meantime, we have to keep the warehouse full.

But the first thing we have to do is take our individual, collective, religious, and political heads out of the sands and see reality. Over the next few days, we'll see - yet again - much of that reality.  

We will all see, or have a chance to see, Bermuda's underclass go through the public rituals of its "death ceremonies". We can all see the graffiti'ed walls, spray-painted roads, air-brushed sheets, and bandanna'd or T-shirted pallbearers.

Cynical? No. It's reality.  We'll see it as soon as we pull up our heads, open our eyes, and engage our brains. But will we?

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