Today is a very special day for Filipinos because today we celebrate the Ninoy Aquino Day. Ninoy was known as a former Philippine Senator, Governor of Tarlac, and a strong opposition leader against President Ferdinand Marcos who was known for a number of corruption and human rights violation cases. Knowing fully what he was up against, Ninoy still continued to go against Marcos through nonviolent initiatives of hunger strikes and rallies which led to his insidious imprisonment during the declaration of Martial Law, exile to silence him for good in America and, eventually, only to be greeted by a bullet when he came back to our motherland. He was, indeed, a great president we never had.
I was watching and reading a documentary about the life of Ninoy Aquino and I can't help it but feel moved by his unwavering love for the Filipino people and courage in the midst of chaos he faced. It makes one wonder why such person went all the trouble of being threatened, imprisoned and assassinated. What makes Ninoy an image of inspiration is that every time he spoke or acted one sees a person who was working not for the immortality of his name nor dominion over people but a someone who has came to a frame of reality where he knew what he was doing was not only for himself but, in fact, bigger than himself. Just like Mahatma Gandhi who could have stayed in the monastery meditating all his life or Martin Luther King Jr. who could have stayed in the comforts of his church preaching on civil inequalities, Ninoy Aquino had that option of just getting out in the way and live the quite life but, instead, he chose to be a nonviolent activist who underwent a lot of unheard, hard and painful consequences of torture (mentally, physically, socially and spiritually) and death. But just when the world thought it was the end, Filipinos all over the nation started showing their real faces by banding together to oust Marcos from the seat of Presidency and setting the stage for Cory Aquino's leadership. The face of the world and, ultimately, the Philippines will never be the same for what transpired were real evidence that, indeed, ideas of love, nonviolence and democracy were, are and will always be possible.
Men like Gandhi, King or Ninoy are no different from us. No different in a sense that we, too, have decisions to make. Decisions that we need to decide on which is easier or right. Decisions on which is safe or uncertain. And even between ourselves and others. And with these decisions, a chain of events follows which will either make our lives worthwhile living or forgetting.
What I would like to focus is on the decision of becoming a hero, an everyday hero. In the modern world, we are no longer looking for the likes of Jose Rizal or Ninoy Aquino in a sense that we don't need heroes who need to be shot by a volley of bullets or assassinated. The world doesn't need the flashy, loud or save-the-cheerleader-save-
I was watching and reading a documentary about the life of Ninoy Aquino and I can't help it but feel moved by his unwavering love for the Filipino people and courage in the midst of chaos he faced. It makes one wonder why such person went all the trouble of being threatened, imprisoned and assassinated. What makes Ninoy an image of inspiration is that every time he spoke or acted one sees a person who was working not for the immortality of his name nor dominion over people but a someone who has came to a frame of reality where he knew what he was doing was not only for himself but, in fact, bigger than himself. Just like Mahatma Gandhi who could have stayed in the monastery meditating all his life or Martin Luther King Jr. who could have stayed in the comforts of his church preaching on civil inequalities, Ninoy Aquino had that option of just getting out in the way and live the quite life but, instead, he chose to be a nonviolent activist who underwent a lot of unheard, hard and painful consequences of torture (mentally, physically, socially and spiritually) and death. But just when the world thought it was the end, Filipinos all over the nation started showing their real faces by banding together to oust Marcos from the seat of Presidency and setting the stage for Cory Aquino's leadership. The face of the world and, ultimately, the Philippines will never be the same for what transpired were real evidence that, indeed, ideas of love, nonviolence and democracy were, are and will always be possible.
Men like Gandhi, King or Ninoy are no different from us. No different in a sense that we, too, have decisions to make. Decisions that we need to decide on which is easier or right. Decisions on which is safe or uncertain. And even between ourselves and others. And with these decisions, a chain of events follows which will either make our lives worthwhile living or forgetting.
What I would like to focus is on the decision of becoming a hero, an everyday hero. In the modern world, we are no longer looking for the likes of Jose Rizal or Ninoy Aquino in a sense that we don't need heroes who need to be shot by a volley of bullets or assassinated. The world doesn't need the flashy, loud or save-the-cheerleader-save-
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