I visited the Silliman Anthropology Museum at the Silliman Hall and I found myself on the 3rd floor where historical events are exhibited. Two blown-up posters struck my attention. One was EDSA 1 with the military tanks and the crowds that met them. A younger Juan Ponce Enrile was on the tank. The second picture was Jose Rizal’s execution at the Luneta.
As I pondered on these two events, suddenly I was taken by an emotion so strong that tears sprang from my eyes. Because as I fast forwarded my thoughts to today, at the graft and corruption that has taken our country and its trusted leaders, a question arose regarding those two pictures. Was all this this for naught? Was the People Power on EDSA for nothing? Did Rizal give up his life for nothing? What have we become as human beings? Even the bad smell is closer to home. (See Metropost May 18, 2014 headline COA hits NegOr’s “excessive” spending, whereby certain projects exceeded allowable COA costs by as much as 43.37 percent).
About the rest of us who, it seems, are just bystanders watching the drama on TV of Napoles and company, are we really as innocent as we think we are?
There is a belief that we attract the kind of governance we deserve. How in our silence we have condoned the situation.
Already every election time, where the buying and selling of votes is taken for granted, we turn our faces away, and keep silent. There is so much disrespect for the right of choice when the poor are tempted where they are so vulnerable.
And yet, and yet, a day after the visit to the Anthropological Museum, I come to attend a Grief Management Seminar also at Silliman Hall. And I see and I meet all these wonderful human beings gathered together. Some of them touched by life and touched by illness, whether themselves or a loved one. I saw the likes of Dr. Erlyn Cabanag-Demerre who formed EPCALM, a foundation for helping leukemia patients and their families. I saw the big heart of Debbie Corton-Salem. I saw the bravery of Jerzlyl Jumawan-Quitoy. I could go on and on with my list of wonderful people with beautiful hearts, the people who work and live to uplift humankind.
These polarities are so extreme with the greed and betrayal in our midst. How do we bring the scales back to favour honesty and true service? How do we reclaim our beloved country, the country Jose Rizal died for? The country that People Power on EDSA stood for.
“A nation without a vision, lacking a sense of purpose and achievement, always complaining about its failures and addicted to its weaknesses and despair, will rapidly sink into oblivion. Its pessimism will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But a nation with a vision and commitment, humbly conscious of its moments of achievements and the creative essence animating its outstanding deeds, will change its present and future. And from this position of strength, it will make a positive and persuasive contribution to the general advancement of the world.” (www.truthforce.info)
I invite everyone to create by contemplating, by writing, by singing, by speaking among yourselves your vision of a Motherland and the communities in it, the qualities of our leaders, the peoples that live there, the education, the agriculture, the ecosystem, in effect, the way God intended us to live as true human beings. (Reprinted from MetroPost, May 25, 2014)
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Author’s email: [email protected]
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