By Sir Edwin D.
Bael, KGOR
What’s the point
of celebrating independence day?
One point could
be to refresh in our minds some consecration to a great ideal. For: “it is a
useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone
wasted in the field without becoming part of an edifice.” (Jose Rizal, El
Filibusterismo)
Perhaps we can
bring alive once more, in our minds and hearts, Dr. Rizal’s cause and vision of
a free, dignified, self-respecting, and respected Philippines for which he
died.
As we recall,
Jose Rizal wrote in his Last Farewell: “My dreams when scarcely a lad
adolescent, my dreams when a young man all filled with vigor, were to see you
one day, jewel of the Sea of the Orient: the dark eyes dry, the smooth forehead
held high unbent - without frown, without wrinkles, without stains of high
color.”
In the following
stanza of the same poem, Dr. Rizal poignantly exclaimed: “Dream of my life, my
ardent, living passion and rallying cry: Health, shouts to you the soul that
soon shall go and depart! Health! O, how beautiful it is to fall to give you
power to fly, to die to give you vigor to live, beneath your heaven to die, and
in your enchanted land, to sleep in eternity never apart.”
And what dreams
they are! They see Inang Bayan cool, calm, collected, and confident (like the
pearl-jewel from living matter formed by enfoldment of loving, iridescent nacre
of things that irritate) in overcoming whatever life may throw her way (the
dark eyes dry, the smooth forehead held high), without any reason for worry
(frown), doubt (wrinkle), or shame (blushing color); they observe her moving
with self-esteem as her children mutually respect each other (with power to fly
together); and they notice her standing with dignity (with vigor to live)
respected by other nations, as she knows how, and has the wherewithals, to fight
when it is right.
As Dr. Rizal
envisioned our capabilities in the Hymn to Talisay, we are a people “… who,
none can intimidate: not waves, nor hurricane, nor thunder; with speedy arm and
serene feature, we can fight when in difficulties.” xxxxx “There is
no darkness, no pitchblack night, nor fierce storm or typhoon that we dread;
and should Satan himself come to sight, he shall be captured alive or
dead.”
These are the
dreams and visions worth keeping in mind as we continue putting into effect the
Preamble of our 1987 Constitution where we declare we want “to build a just and
humane society and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and
aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and
secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and
democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love,
equality, and peace…”
We note that we
have rolled into one the “blessings of independence and democracy”. This brings
to mind the importance of the coming electoral exercise in May 2016 when we
shall, as a people, select our new crop of leaders to spearhead our nation’s
direction(s).
Being able to
stand on our own in self-respect and self-esteem as Dr. Rizal dreamed, is our
vision of being independent, and of being the proper basis for our
inter-dependence with other nations.
That vision
shall come to pass if we, the sovereign voters live that dream in our own
respective lives; and thus, it shall be the main criteria for our votes for
those who eagerly claim they want to be our representatives and “abang
lingkod”.
For those of you
ambitious ones with some money who now think of joining the contests for
leadership positions in the coming May 2016 elections, please make sure you
have not added to or been part of the cause, in any way, to the damage, decay,
decline, deterioration, impairment, slowness, stagnation, or weakness of Inang
Bayan… for “the glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to
its ruin” (Jose Rizal, El Filibusterismo).
For us sovereign
voters, let’s make sure not one of those who by selfish, corrupt, and other
actions have contributed to our country’s continuing weakness and inability to
firmly stand for itself in self-esteem in such a way as to command the respect
of others.
On the above
conception of ideals and purposes, perhaps we can re-consecrate ourselves this
Independence Day 2015.
Indeed, “a life
not consecrated to some rational, lofty purpose is like a tree that affords no
shade, if it is not like a poisonous weed” (Emilio Jacinto, Kartilya ng
Katipunan).
