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Go easy on policeman, Ms DPP(Paula Llewellyn)Many will frown on it, but the police sergeant in St Elizabeth who forgot his 18-month-old daughter in his vehicle which led to her demise, should be shown some leniency.Frankly, based upon all that has transpired in this saga of overwhelming sadness, the Director of Public Prosecutions should not even consider recommending that the detective be charged in relation to the death of the toddler.The man has been punished emotionally. To charge him with manslaughter, as some legal minds have suggested, would only add to the excruitating pain that he has been feeling since that fateful day. The memory of the event will stay with him for as long as he shall live, so why make it worse for this man who, from all accounts, puts everything in his job to serve, protect, and reassure?Oh yes, I can already hear the hypocritical mouths shouting to lock him up and crucify him ... but to what end? Here is a clear-cut situation of a man who possibly will not even gain the strength again to serve, at full blast, the police force that he sacrificed his daughter's life for. He was caught up in his job - just like any professional, committed member of the Jamaica Constabulary would - in trying to crack a case that threatens the country of his birth.Look at how the guns for drugs trade between Haiti and Jamaica has caused so many weapons to enter our shores. In this specific case, the sergeant was on a mission to probe the presence of a former Haitian politician, his wife, and children in Jamaica - totally devoted to getting relevant information that caused him to forget his domestic duties. If that isn't commitment to duty, then I need a drink.So Ms Paula Llewellyn, this is not an attempt to force your hand...far from it. That will never happen, and can never happen. But here is a case that begs for sympathy...not crucifixion. Meadows and the FLA tragedy Last Tuesday I listened to Nationwide at Five when hosts Cliff Hughes and Tyrone Reid invited Chairman of the Firearm Licensing Authority, Colonel Audley Carter to discuss a few matters relative to the organisation.At the end of it, the Colonel put so many things into perspective and won me over with his verbal elegance and style in answering things thrown at him by the two acclaimed broadcast journalists.I cannot remember ever meeting Colonel Carter. I suspect that he, a retired army man, served the Jamaica Defence Force, which has produced so many outstanding officers who fit easily into any area of society when they move on.After the conversation, I was led to draw certain conclusions, among them, how daft the former deputy chairman of the board, Dennis Meadows could have been in the two years that he served the FLA.One matter in particular stood out - that was the granting of a firearm licence to Meadows's brother-in-law while he sat on the board. Meadows admitted that it was a dumb move to have authorised his brother-in-law's firearm application, but it must also have been a dumb move by Meadows too, to have accepted an invitation to join the FLA board in the first place, and then a further 'boo boo' to have become its deputy chairman. He was clearly not cut out for something like that.The facts are that Meadows's brother-in-law applied for a gun licence in 2014, but he did not declare a conviction in the United States on that application and it was subsequently rejected by the Robert Gregory-chaired board in 2015.The fellow did not appeal to the Review Board, but with a change of government in 2016, he wrote to the FLA board, asking that his application be reviewed, though not by the official Review Board. His application that was dumped from the previous year was resurrected from the registry, the matter was heard and approved that same day. That did not look good.Meadows said that he recused himself from the meeting that made the decision. The board comprises five people, all with the power to sign, although three signatures can get a matter through.Now, if as he said he recused himself and stayed outside the room, why then did he go back into the room to sign? Maybe Meadows forgot that he never left the room. Such a matter though is quite serious and after the fleshing out of that example, Dennis has surely been left stranded in that grassland called a meadow.Farewell Winston, Dr Paul(Winston Witter, Dr Paul Robertson)Two men of substance were among those who demised last week.Winston "Babatunde" Witter, the journalist, talk show host and university lecturer; and Dr Paul Robertson, a past vice president and general secretary of the People's National Party went home to the great architect of the universe, leaving legacies as large as ever.Witter was as good as any while he served the print media, writing and reporting for the Daily News, Gleaner, and Jamaica Record/Herald; and had broadcast stints at KLAS Radio, Hot 102 FM, Irie FM, and Bess FM.Always the talking kind, there was never a dull moment when Witter was around. Years ago, he was one of the primary figures behind the weekly discussions a group of us held at Delano Franklyn's house, called Highbury, in Barbican each Friday, with some of the fine minds involved, among them another distinguished journalist Cliff Hughes; lawyer/judge Chris Cheddar, other professionals, and university students.It was where I met a young Andrew Holness for the first time. He had accompanied Edward Seaga as the main guest for that night, and although he hardly said a word during our deliberations, he admitted to being well entertained in the end. I can't even recall if it was the night when Witter, whose turn it was to prepare the food, got a deaf mute to cook, as his culinary skills were far from chef Lumley's.All the dumplings in the pot that would be accompanied by stewed chicken, stayed at the top like elegant swimmers. When we 'landed' the pot, apparently the woman had used baking powder, instead of salt, to knead the dough. Witter was banned from cooking, or arranging for anyone to cook for a while.Some of us too will remember his militant approach to addressing racist and classist behaviour by the dean of the school of journalism, and one particular senior lecturer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where a group of Jamaican journalists had gone to do a programme of study in 1988.In later years, a serious motor vehicle accident struck, which, primarily, threw him on the heap of hard times, from which he never quite recovered.But he played his role in a bid to lift up Jamaica, for which, respect is due to him.Dr Robertson, a brilliant Jamaican scholar, was a man who followed success wherever the word went. He had been involved, at various levels, in all the victories of the PNP since 1972, and to this day, constituents speak positively about his performance as Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Eastern.Even those who served in the Cabinet of Michael Manley and PJ Patterson speak highly of Dr Paul, who, in all his dealings, found time to serve the Freemasons of this land.The PNP would do anything to have a thinker like Dr Robertson in its camp now. TVJ's Journey to the Past - a winnerTelevision Jamaica carries a programme on Monday evenings, I think repeated the following Sunday evenings, that represents a part of Jamaica's history that many would do well to watch and learn from.It's called Journey to the Past, a documentary series which captures life in Jamaica from those early days, I believe from the 1950s, but certainly through the 1960s.Produced by Louis McLean, it is one that should not be missed. As good as I credit myself on being someone who does a lot of research on Jamaica's history, that programme would put me to shame.Last Sunday evening, for example, having watched the episode the Monday before, I was forced into visual action again. What captured my time in particular though was a segment on former Jamaica national football coach Jorge Penna, a Brazilian who is said to have laid the foundation for Jamaica's football to thrive, despite limited funding, in the 1960s.Penna came to Jamaica as coach in 1965. Sadly, by 1967, he was forced to head back home, as the Jamaica Football Association at the time, now Jamaica Football Federation, could not pay his measly salary.But he left his mark, and people like George Thompson, who succeeded him as national coach, and Winston Chung, both now deceased, sung Penna's praises at the height of their coaching careers.My hope is that the people of this country aged 10 and older will tune in and keep in touch with some of the things that happened in years gone by on the programme, so that they can appreciate the great past, and use some of it to help shape Jamaica's future.Journey to the Past covers as many areas as you can imagine, with a particular emphasis on news of the day, entertainment, and sport.The conceptualisers of that programme ought to be commended for not only thinking that something like that could happen, but also for pushing it to implementation stage. It is an absolute winner - one of the great history lesson treats that anyone could imagine.