HEROES ALL

November 30 has passed. We commemorated Andres Bonifacio’s 149th birthday in many ways: from official “ceremonies” where we were called on to emulate Gat Andres in being resolute to fight foreign oppressors despite not having appropriate weaponry (yet); to politically opportunistic “rites” that used the hero’s name for or against one candidate or another; to street-action marches, sprinkled with foreign participants, calling for fighting (“pakiki-baka”) against the favorite “isms” and “ills” of each organizing group; to complaints against the added traffic jam and street junk; and even pure disregard and unconcern…

One message seems to reverberate beyond the day: that Andres Bonifacio has not been given the praise and the honor due him, compared with other heroes.

On surface this sentiment appears justified. But it comes from the assumption that we all are separate and distinct, one is better than the other, and that national society and its many rituals of honor ought to have rankings as in first, second, third, etc., forgetting altogether the Master's direction that the first should be last.

I submit we might want to take a closer look at this assumption. For it appears to spring from the depths of ego and self-importance, not from equality in our individual uniqueness.

Science shows that the distinct and separate colors of a rainbow are but the refracted and differentiated pieces of one white light passing through a prism (whether glass or water particles suspended in the air). Thus the separateness we see of the many resplendent colors actually begin and end in their being one, as indeed they are. There is no pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. There is only at-one-ment, oneness, and unity of the single light.

Based on this idea of equality in unity, we happily mouth that line in the US Declaration of Independence saying: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  We have incorporated the idea that “all men are created equal” as foundational truth and premise for governance in our Constitution's Preamble by mention of a "regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace". 

Then, in actual practice, we behave from the assumption that “I am better than you” and that “my idol or my hero is better than yours”. So we end up complaining about our hero not being given due honor or otherwise insisting others should give more honor to our favorite.

Can we henceforth treat our heroes equally although with due regard to their unique contributions? And can we just “get along” by not using adjectives and other modifiers indicating superiority or inferiority but simply honoring them as heroes all, even as we memorialize them on their respective days of remembrance?

Besides, going by the rainbow analogy, we all are unique beings, coming from the One-Source-Of-All, given a time-span to: “live, move, walk” and do the things only we each can and should do, and like a mist that soon is gone, return to the Alpha and the Omega. Each is a resplendent unique color. In the unending stream of generations, we too are heroes all, if we choose to, for the rest of our years. The Filipino is ONE NATION with different heroes (in the past) and manifestations (in the continuing present).