ALL the anger from without but where is the love
from within? I opted out of two election-related Facebook groups (in
the Philippines and the US) because of obvious reason/s. There are so
much negativity in there. I don't need to be reminded how horrible
the past was. The Martial Law and post-ML years (1980s mostly) back
home, yet the young need to know somehow without ramming `em down
their throats. They are not dumb either. Yelling those grim memories
of days gone over and over and over won't help. We need to pose
solutions and remedies so that the ills of yesterday won't be able to
find cracks to seep through the system again. The same with some
political groups in the US. So many spewing and spitting to the tune
of “My candidate is god and yours is Lucifer!” / “You don't
know shit, you are a Communist!” / “Damn Rightist freak!”
mud-throwing. Goodgollymissmiley! Chill, superhomeys! Grab some
chamomile tea and simmer down.
Where
are the issues? Where are the facts? Let us discuss economic
platforms and foreign policies. What have presidents done on the good
side and what do these leadership aspirants got so that a light of
hope gleams in the horizon somehow—than a pall of rabid cloud
swarming the glade? Some people got really intense precautionary
blahblah than the optimistic taps on the shoulder. I observed and
covered elections in the islands and in the US for years. Although I
kind of “retired” a bit to work on book/s, I still get news/info
feeds from the White House press relations and several media
organizations in Manila. I like to read stuff and know what's going
on around me. I sat down with political thinks tanks and listened and
spoke. Alongside that, I'm known as a hardline activist almost all my
life that it seems impossible to shake that persona. In Asheville I
even devoted my little newspaper to anti-war ideals and the Occupy
movement. But somehow we gotta sit down and look at the eyes of our
children or grandchildren—and the kids out there. What do we have
to hand to them? Anger? We need to hand them plans than promises, you
reckon? Let's lead them to the light of the field than pull them to
the dark of our shell. The past that I tried to heal from was a past
littered with deaths and mourning—yet I didn't hand these to my
kids. They will explore and navigate life and build their truths
based on what they got and not on what I had. I needed to raise a
mature mind than an angry one, a heart that calms the storm down than
one that provokes it. I still have so much anger in me but you know,
dafuq with that. LOL! My love poems and the ethereal music of the Bee
Gees get me by, feel me?
Meantime,
I do enjoy recent chats with my longtime buddies back home. Exchange
of views about language (we islanders got a lot!) historical puzzles,
even origins of food, carrot man nose and music. I also talk/IM with
friends in the US who offer objective discussion about Trump's
economic agenda beyond the wayward motor-mouth and Bernie's
brainstorm beyond the socialist pronouncements, and why Hillary's
centrist stance got some points to ponder as well. I love these
talks. I continually learn from listening especially with those that
I seem to disagree with. The chants of the choir can be boring
sometimes. In between, we got some cute cat videos, funny
posters/stickers, family jokes, and those sweet sentimental songs
like “Just When I Needed You Most” and “Sometimes When We
Touch” by these dudes Randy Vanwarmer and Dan Hill, you know them?
And yes—awesome blues-rock by Pinay rocker Sampaguita (who fondly
calls me Sampogito) and “kundiman” songs by my idol Celeste
Legaspi. Enjoy! Facebook is not a slogan chalkboard, right? It's all
fun. Dig? Cool. Now I digress...
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