The following is a Letter to the Editor from the Inquirer.
I remember when I was young and dreaming of becoming the president of this country. Today I no longer hold that dream. I just wish to become a good citizen.
I think what we imperatively need more nowadays are good citizens who know how to care and love for this country, make it safer to live in, who know how to voice out their grievances without fear and who are prepared to die for their rights and principles.
There are only a few of these people now in our country.
There are more of us who rest content with our private lives and are unmindful of the issues of the day. There are many of us who cannot leave our comfort zones and instead decidedly remain spectators to what is happening in our country. They don’t bother to ask why their families starve, why there are broken families, why crimes abound, why classrooms are not enough for their children, why textbooks are scarce, why there is graft and corruption. Our society is becoming a voiceless society. It is this voicelessness that created roaring monsters in the government. While we may have heard the voices of some who appear to be messiahs of this country, theirs are irritating noises and are out of tune because of their self-seeking interests. What we need is a unison voice likened to the biblical passage that says “people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat.”
For the year 2009, it is my prayerful wish that we learn to become good citizens. It is my prayer that we should learn to be more aggressive about our rights, freedom and dignity as a people. I do not wish to leave this country even when it is filthy to live in. That would be unpatriotic. There is hope for this country. Let us start contributing our fair share by caring for and loving our country, making it more decent and respectable in the eyes of the international community and God. And we can do that by learning to become good citizens.
Thank you.
REGINALD B. TAMAYO, member, Sangguniang Bayan secretary general, SAVE Cagayan, Aparri, Cagayan
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Definitely good citizenship is part of the solution.
2 comments:
The time has come for a radical step. We need those who truly love the Motherland step up the pace and weed out the corruption of the Filipino culture. Those who do not love the Motherland must be reformed or eliminated. Our unique culture, free from foreign influence, must be nurtured, and the rest repulsed. It has come to this, else we go deeper into corruption.
The Filipino does not need human rights at all; he abuses it.
The Filipino does not need freedom of ownership; he will sell everything anyway.
The Filipino does not need freedom of speech; he will slander his fellowman with it.
The Filipino does not need democratic justice; he will pay, cheat, and lie to get away with his crimes.
The Filipino needs firm rules; he will curse it but will nonetheless follow.
The Filipino needs painful punishments; he will protest but will learn to accept it, and will learn his lessons.
The Filipino needs to be pushed to work; he will complain but will still work, and will live because of it.
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