DAY 16: ECQ

There are so many ways to rephrase it but the gist is still there:  if you do not learn from your past mistakes, you will be caught in a spin cycle that will worsen with each turn.

You will keep making the mistakes over and over again.

That is why there is wisdom with age.  That is why when a Millennial sarcastically sneers, "Yes, Boomer ..." I smile back and marvel at his naivete, his ignorance, his cluelessness.  Yes, this Boomer has been through a lot.  I do not only know my history. I have lived through it.

The funny thing about this generation of national leaders is that we are, more or less, the Children of Martial Law.

I was in freshman college when Martial Law was declared that day in September.  And we never expected that it would take over a decade before we would return to what was perceived as freedom.  

What I remembered the most was that there was a media blackout and that the violent protests happening in the streets during my high school senior years was simply wiped out and replaced by this ... this silence.  This dreadful, threatening silence that was only marred by government sponsored broadcasts and the booming of a new anthem called Awit ng Bagong Lipunan sung by a choir of what looked like hundreds.

Those memories are still embedded in my mind.  

Those were the turning points of my personal history only to be followed much later by the First People Power experience. I was not in EDSA but at PTV4, manning the communications and monitoring events.  

Those few days in February 1986 were unforgettable: we were literally spending sleepless days and nights inside what is now ABS-CBN in Mother Ignacia Avenue, trying to put order into what was like a spontaneous combustion of protest and almost a decade long desire for change.

From my freshman year in college all the way to the time I finished my graduate degree and teaching in the University, my mindset was shaped by the decade of Martial Law.  

I cannot explain exactly how that affected the way I looked at my country, my response to authority or my attitude towards dissent and criticism.  I do not know either what I could have been had I been braver or not pre-conditioned to think that anything that goes against the grain of authority is not merely being critical but subversive.

Those were days of history. And we Boomers lived through it.


Unfortunately those stories are not told anymore.  

Instead they are replaced by new mythologies of families and personalities who are perpetuated as messiahs of the nation.  As it is said, history is written by the victorious ... and history has always been subjective.

Apparently we Boomers failed to extract the lessons of what we have gone through to repair whatever political, social and cultural damage done.  Instead, we did not look back under the pretext of moving ahead --- and repeating the same mistakes all over again.

Now on the sixteenth day of the Enhanced Community Quarantine, there are so many dormant issues that are slowly rising to the surface.  These require careful analysis and hopefully a palatable kind of understanding.  The Boomers should be the first to know this because we know how divisiveness destroys people ... and the nation cannot be defined by the leaders alone but more so its citizens.

We need to be objective and understand.

This understanding is not to be tainted by partisanship, by being judged for your loyalties and affiliations --- but by an objective look at what is happening in the here and now. 

Nothing substantial can come out if everything is oversimplified as a case of Black or White.  Life can never be that reductive --- in the same manner that we cannot discuss national issues by having a knee jerk prejudgment as to whether one is a DDS or a Dilawan.

We should think as Filipinos, not defined by parties or colors. We should think as a people.

If you are talking about the future of a nation, you cannot just be shackled down by political affiliations and loyalties.  

You cannot be blinded by one's devotion to cult figures or allow yourself to be exploited by tests of unwavering devotion or hallelujah promises.

Perhaps that is what is disturbing this Boomer.  

I have seen too many clowns perform ... I have gone to so many circuses which include dancing bears and elephants standing on two legs. I do not want to turn cynical so that nothing amuses and impresses me any more because I know everything is an act. It is so easy to impersonate leadership.

That is why each time somebody in public office render a grand gesture, I give it a double take.  I ask myself if this act of benevolence is a sincere manifestation of this man's or woman's capacity to do goodness or is this an investment for a much bigger dream, a much greater ambition ... or for a future plan? Is he or she campaigning by accumulating papogi points?

With the birth of social media, the eyes of the public are focused on what it wants to see --- and there are those who know exactly how to play with the magic of the cameras peering into their each and every move.  

I would rather judge a leader when nobody is looking and listen to what he says when there is no microphone aimed at his direction.

Yet we know that it is no only the showcase of these grand gestures of charity and selflessness that define true leadership. You can tell the significance of a leader not through words and actions alone but by the vision that he shares, the inspiration that he gives those entrusted to his care.  

Inspiration should not be mistaken for reckless adulation which is on the eve of fanatic devotion. Inspiration encourages growth in individuals ... not the retardation of their thinking into blind faith.

As a Boomer who surveys the political landscape, I still arm myself with hope that the next generation of Filipino leaders will do a far much better job than we have done. 

I take no shame in admitting that my generation --- we Boomers, we children of Martial Law --- could have done so much better and we should no longer make excuses for how much we really screwed it up.  We could have made great changes but we chose to dance to the same song just rearranged to sound like a different tune.

After this pandemic, we have crossed another landmark of history.
Are we going to really sit down and learn from it or are we just going to relegate what we are all going through, seeing and realizing as part of a shallow collective memory?

Yes, Boomer. We can still do something about it in our own little ways.