I’m Legal Already*

I’m Legal Already*

I just turned 21. Yes. I am aging, as most humans do. That’s part of nature. Everything has a dead end. We have just to abide with that rule.

I'm 21 already.

We all go through this phase: maturity. I view maturity as the threshold of full growth of a person. Many people fall shortly in equating maturity with age. Old men always claim that they are mature enough, and that the younger ones must oftentimes follow them --- blindly. Remember the men in the Senate? They always think that they all know everything and that they can always conduct inquisition on anything. Yes. Just anything: NBN-ZTE Scandal, AFP ‘Pabaon’, PCSO Anomalies, Kho-Halili Scandal, Unclad football players’ billboards, and many others. You choose! But clearly, most of the cases are just cases: no resolution, no justice. I am a fan of the cliché ‘justice delayed, is justice denied’. True enough. I have one word: lame.

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Maturity has nothing to do with age. I would rather say that time have something to do with it. Time is the very culprit when we blame something all because we couldn’t explicate something to ourselves extensively. Just like in “we have the right love, at the wrong ‘time’”. Poor time. She always doesn’t know what to do.

Except age, we presume that wisdom is the by-product of maturity and time. We regard people of high intellects as superior (if you don’t value monetary wealth) than those who lack schooling. And so whether you were hindered by poverty or not, you’re useless if you didn’t go to college. Wrong.

Maturity for me is to read, not between the lines, but to comprehend the gist what is beyond those lines. I am an observer, and I have witnessed the worst-case apathy of the youth today.

And I always ask questions like this, “What can you say about PNoy’s second SONA?”

The replies were:

“I like him. He’s very very honest and straightforward.”

“Fair. He did a good job in a year.”

“I just don’t care.”

“Sorry I didn’t read that on Trending Topics. No idea.”

“What is SONA?”

These answers were provided by people, who by far have reached the so-called ‘bachelor’s’ level. They took, or at least they are taking General Education subjects, like Philippine Politics, Philippine History, Taxation, Sociology, or any course that shall interest them with regards to socio-political issues.

 How come they don’t know? Oh you have a cable TV and you just could not manage to watch for local news. Or maybe you are very busy tweeting and that, if it’s not on trending topics, you are a moron to it?

Remember, you don’t need to be a politician to watch local news. You just have to be a Filipino in mind, heart, and soul.

As a pro-active member of the youth sector, we must at least know what the heck the government is tweeting, oh I was joking, that was supposedly doing. Yes they do stuffs too, I mean they work. Doing work that they will let us know but really do not matter. And the conspiracies that remain undisclosed to us.

Oh frantically, we are moving in a sphere where we should learn to build human relations. We are in a society. Yes, we have that in university: Math Society, Astronomy Society, Hotelier’s Society, Pet Society, and many others. Many societies permeate to the extent that we are now unable to fathom what society is really a society.

We don’t leave our constitutional rights at the door of our school. (Findlaw, 2006) Similarly, we do not, also, leave our logical reasoning when we exit the university gates. (Andrion, 2011) We are imbued into a larger society outside. And it is only proper to think why many people could not afford to buy food for their family in spite of the exaggerated claims of the government that we have a growing economy.

I am exposed to the illness of this society: where people rarely trust their government because the government could not trust its own people.  I must agree with Inquirer Columnist Randy David, that we are living in a society where ‘institutions are weak’, and that, we could only do is, activism.

We will go back to the ‘traditional’ way of vigorous and aggressive action in pursuing political and social ideologies. Activism, as I know it, is ‘not the enthusiasm of the moment, but a philosophy for a lifetime’. That part was from a biography written by Bertolt Brecht.

 2011 Labor Day Rally at Angeles City.

There’s much in activism. If thousands of youth didn’t walk out of their classrooms last November 2010, will the government have the time to listen that higher education funding is not enough? How about the MRT-LRT fare hike? Oil price hikes? Union-busting? Land disputes? Agrarian reform misfits?  The PUP 5? Morong 43? Calamba 7? And where in the world did the government hide Karen and Sherlyn? Do you know Jonas Burgos? Ericson Acosta? Randy Malayao? Where are these noble people?

 The government will pursue anti-people policies if you don’t shout at them. Just like an old man with his hearing being impaired. He will never know, unless you shout.

I have been into rallies. Maybe 6 times, 7, 8, or more, I couldn’t count. What’s behind rallies? What are the ideologies that the noisy activists cling to? You will never know unless you know what causes the plight of the people. 

 

We are not anti-government. We are pro-people. They are way different and not inter-changeable.

Finally, last night, I said to my mom, “Aktibista ako.” After months, I am legal already.

*For the people who are still hoping that it is not too late to save the world. Padayon!