Editorial November 1, 2020

By November 3, 2020Editorial, News

No reunion with lost loved-ones

PEOPLE’S minds wandered aimlessly since October 31 on realizing that they could not visit tombs of their loved-ones particularly during the period November 1-2 (All Saints Day and All Souls Day). After all, these two days are the only two days in the year that surviving members of families prepare for without fail every year.

This unexpected account has certainly ushered in the new normal for this generation but for a reason – crowding at cemeteries cannot possibly enforce the social/physical distancing being part of the health protocol prescribed by the government.

However, we fear that the closure of cemeteries across the country this year may yet lead to a change in our tradition during November 1-2. Suddenly, young families will likely begin to realize that life goes on without having to visit tombs of parents and siblings who’ve gone ahead. That would be a sad day for closely-knit families.

There have been changes in the tradition over the decades, from mere mournful prayers and lighting candles for souls of departed to occasion for holding fun-family reunions at the cemeteries, staging singing contests to holding gambling activities.

Would the closure this year lead to a return to quiet solitude, prayers while relishing joyful memories of our departed loved-ones in the years ahead? Hopefully.

But whatever, we just pray that that All Saints Day and All Souls Day will never be removed from our calendar in the next decade.

 

Unique U. S. election

AMERICANS will either re-elect Pres. Donald Trump or make Joe Biden Trump’s successor on Nov. 3 (Nov. 4, PHL time).  Biden has been consistently leading Trump in surveys, but figures can be deceiving. In 2016, Hilary Clinton lost to Trump after being ahead in pre-election tallies.  Actually, Clinton won the people’s votes. But Trump eventually prevailed after he got the nod of the electoral college (EC), whose voting by district representation ultimately decides the winner.  The impregnable EC is etched in America’s 200-year plus Constitution.  Filipinos being America’s second largest immigrants numbering in the thousands—some 80,000 of them alone live in New York—their votes are being wooed like mad.  And even as Trump appeared unpopular nationwide for his unorthodox, if not lies-laden, style of leadership, not to many Fil-Ams who find Trump’s economic amelioration suited to their needs.

Trump again?  We’ll see.

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