Letter: Grave error by Ken Gordon

Bright and early J'ouvert morning we received word His Eminence Pope Benedict had resigned. He gave his age, infirmity and limited mobility as his reasons. 

In his own inimitable way, by resigning as he did he sent a powerful message throughout the world to every person of Christian faith holding high office where scrupulous integrity required at all times. 

The message is: God always gives us Christians an early prodding when it's time for us to go: he takes away our zeal, our willpower, our firepower. Ken Gordon is a devout Christian. He recently lost his gun. To my mind, that's a clear sign from Above for him to call it quits and leave the Integrity Commission.

Today's Newsday indicates Ken Gordon is the licensed owner of a small handgun (a .380 pistol) which he misplaced on Carnival Monday afternoon somewhere near the Hasley Crawford Stadium. A .380 pistol is of the type which fits snugly in your hand. A schoolboy found Gordon's loaded pistol lying in the nearby roadway. 

The Newsday didn't disclose whether the loaded weapon was cocked at the time, all it said was the youth recognized it for what it was and promptly handed it over to the police. 

The youth therefore needs to be rewarded; Ken Gordon needs to be sternly scolded. 

Apart from the fact that failure to keep your weapon in check is a very serious offence, when one considers there have been leaks from the Integrity Commission, it doesn't take much to connect the dots and formulate a trajectory that places Mr Gordon under the gun. 

If connecting the dots doesn't apply, imagination does: what if, instead of his gun, it was someone's file that spilled onto the road that fateful afternoon?

Anyhow you take it, Ken Gordon has broken the law. He really needs to step down from the Integrity Commission right now as a result, since the Chairman of the Integrity Commission must be a person entirely without blemish. 

His present position is just as untenable as a certain member of a certain Commission of Enquiry. The Opposition Leader pointed this out to the nation the other day when he said, ”How could a commissioner appointed to serve on an enquiry be exposed in a very embarrassing way, and still have a right to adjudicate on people? If your conduct is questionable, you cannot examine my conduct!”

I ask you, what is more embarrassing than an upright man misplacing his gun only to have a little boy find it?

According to the precedents set by Pope Benedict and Dr Rowley, Ken Gordon needs to go!

Octavia Crichlow | Upper Ojoe Road, Sangre Grande.