Are we worthy of our heroes?
By Senator Richard Gordon
The question remains, are we worthy? In this day and age, in spite of all the martyrdom of many of our heroes, it would appear that we have not learned our lessons.
Corruption is still upon us; our military die and rebels die in war; there seems to be untrammeled assassinations in our country; motorcycle assassins abound; many mayors, many journalists, many politicians have been killed; apparently, we all know how to talk about the problem but we can’t seem to fix it.
My own father was assassinated and there was never any closure, neither was there any closure on Senator Ninoy Aquino’s assassination. Up to now, we can only suspect who actually had him assassinated. The essential matters, the sense of it all—justice—we have not been able to secure.
We need to have an attitude change in this country once and for all. That attitude has to come out from the fact that we have to learn our history, the fight upon which all our martyrs, including Sen. Aquino, had died for.
We have to start thinking of the common good. We have to think of the national interest. Even if we stumble and fall, we should rise together as a nation and learn from our mistakes. Maybe then can we prove ourselves worthy of all these sacrifices.
Today, we can see how the media and popular culture bombard us with advertisements and obligations that begin with the "self." Seems like everything can be solved if a person do a little act of kindness. One can notice that in the "Ako Mismo" publicity ad and the TV Patrol campaigns. But in my opinion, those kinds of ads only breed the "I've done my part attitude" wherein one person is becoming inattentive of what others do as long as he has contributed something from his own. It doesn't perpetuate "collective action" which I still believe can do a lot.
I do agree with Sen. Gordon's article, we really have to think for the common good as of the moment where our country is on the verge of a fall. And we have to know our history! In one article, I've read that both Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino went back to the Philippines to try to stop extremist acts because it is said that the country and the Filipinos are not yet ready for a revolution. But why? I think it is worth knowing the reason and that can be done thru knowing our history. Yes, that can be taxing but its better than endlessly rant about our government.
Hay... There's a lot to do.
