"Oh ina Jah children, Jah people your salvation lies, oh save the children." I don't know if you're old enough to remember or sharp enough to know the song from which that line is drawn. It's a sweet vintage reggae tune called Ina Jah Children by the late Dhaima Mathews, produced by Joe Gibbs in 1977. That haunting, melodious and instructive song was my personal soundtrack yesterday as I shared in the vibe of the walk from Busta-mante Hospital for Children to Emancipation Park.

No, I wasn't there to actually make the walk physically, because I'm all the way over here in Toronto. But I made the walk vicariously through team IFC: Ity & Fancy Cat, Jawara and Ronald, who made the statement with their feet and kept me posted with their tweets. That walk, spearheaded by Brandon Allwood and his Help Ja Children initiative, was an important collective symbolic move. It saw hundreds of people from all walks of life joining together to shatter society's shameful silence surrounding sexual abuse of children. It was an important walk, and as a walker, I really wish I were there.

Look here nuh peeps, if I wasn't born an Ellis, you know say my surname would probably be Walker? Yeah, man, because I love to walk. Walking is my favourite form of exercise and it's also great for clearing the mind, easing the soul and calming the spirits. More times when my spirit get riled up with anger I know say I may start some serious fire or unleash some irreparable hurt if I talk. Yu know what I do dem times deh? I just shut my mouth and walk. Some walks are easy and some walks are hard, but every walk takes you somewhere.

wicked walks

I really do enjoy walking, and I've put down some wicked walks in my time. For example, several evenings, I made what now seems like a long trek from school to home during my high school days, just for the fun of it. That walk from Vineyard Town to Trench Town meant going up Mountain View Avenue to the National Stadium, then down to Cross Roads via Arthur Wint Drive and Tom Redcam Avenue, then behind Carib cinema, though Avon Park and Arnett Gardens, then down Collie Smith Drive from 14th street to 1st street.

During college, I also walked many nights from Arthur Wint Drive to New Haven - going along Oxford Road to Half-Way Tree Road then down Molynes Road to the Washington Boulevard, and then all the way down beyond Duhaney Park. But I didn't make those walks for fun, I made those walks because bus fare money done. The beautiful thing, though, is what usually comes after those long walks - the solace of home, rest and refreshment; collective security and some degree of contentment.

Yesterday's May Day march and rally against child abuse is really the beginning of a hard walk. It's a wake-up walk that beautifully signals intention to speak out and act against a growing and horrific situation. Of course, it has to go a few steps further. This walk needs to evolve into further action that leads to transformation. For one, we have to kill the 'informer fi dead' mentality and start exposing the sick men and women who, through rape and abuse, are robbing our children of their innocence and creating a future of sexual dysfunction.

box-mi-back@hotmail.com.

This walk needs to evolve into further action that leads to transformation. For one, we have to kill the 'informer fi dead' mentality and start exposing the sick men and women who, through rape and abuse, are robbing our children of their innocence and creating a future of sexual dysfunction.