Think about it
Unforgettable high school
By Jun Velasco
WE had a delightful fill of a grand summons to a virtuous life in an oratorical contest that pitted high school talents from Dagupan and Urdaneta Cities last Wednesday.
Let us congratulate the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals especially the Dagupan chapter headed by Engr. Romeo C. Rosario and wife Jane, and the 11 schools that joined the contest.
While we were glued to the young Demostheneses as they speak and gesticulate, as chairman of the board of judges, our thoughts flashed back to our days at Dagupan City High, now National High School, where we joined almost every contest like this one.
No, we didn’t excel in the Demosthenic art, but in campus politics, winning elections from first to fourth year, including the supreme student council.
High school life, to us, is most memorable in a person’s growth, especially in the molding of character.
We are melancholic about the greenhorn days when we lustily absorbed the wondrous peaks and valleys of knowledge, and the simple truths, the virtues, the teachings of Christ, Confucius, Gandhi, Rizal, Honest Abe including all those precious nuggets that have helped form our outlook, character and paradigm. We thought we were taught the verities, but actually, caught them in our souls. Our exhilaration is due to our undying faith that happier is the man who has behaved according to the rules than he who has indulged in short-lived pleasures, which often ended up in guilt, pain if not failure.
The champion orator, Edellyn Aurelio from the DCNHS, began her piece with “What profit is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul?”
The message is most relevant in these days of Joc-Joc Bolante, police officer Eliseo dela Paz, NBN ZTE deal, and what we have been made willy nilly to swallow against our will, such as this most excruciatingly disturbing label of la patria as “most corrupt” in the world. The ugly label makes us vomit, and we should presume any self respecting Filipino wants to do something about it. .
What the BCBP is doing is a commendable one. Its Dagupan officers including long-time friends Nelson Yuchiongtian and beauteous wife Lily; Betz and Edith Singian; William and Flora Cua; Fred and Nenet Rosal; Lito and Mila Ang; Cesar and Neng Cabison, and Alex and Jing Hortaleza should not only be commended but in fact, also “commanded” to stretch their influence farther to the other advocacy groups, the civic and business clubs, student and youth councils, professional, religious, media and every group and everyone to embark on a similar campaign and arrest the downward spiral of our beleaguered country and “defeat the enemy.”
But who or what is the enemy? The orators have denounced in no uncertain terms the dishonest, the corrupt, and the liar. One contestant remembered rather admirably a poignant song, “Honesty,” such a “lonely word,” underscoring whatever has been ailing our society today. We should shudder at the import of that song, .
The imminent and real danger, if truth be told, is that we seem to have grown weary and tired fighting for what is honest, what is virtuous and what is right as if it were like that song , “The Impossible Dream.”
Is it? No, a Big NO!
The words of the young orators still reverberate in our heart.
The Brotherhood group deserves our salute for issuing the call: “Be honest even if others are not, even if others will not, even if others cannot.”
We congratulate the two other winners, Eiya Marie Paragas of Mother Goose Special Science High School, and Prexy Lou Pascual of Dominican School, and all the other eight orators who did equally well. Hello to our fellow judges who must have been student orators and leaders during their younger days, former Rotary Governor Alvin Gonzales, Judge Alicia Decano, Judge Teddy Fernandez and ABS-CBN’s Myrna Palaganas, who represented her boss, Abigail Querubin-Aquino, a lawyer; and the city officials who inspired the audience, Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez and City Administrator Alvin Fernandez.. .
* * *
City High is in our mind these days because the alumni grand reunion on December 28 is just around the bend. Reunion grand helmsman, Manny Roy, has been telling all and sundry he “will fill the city plaza with warm bodies on the Big Night.”
See you there, balikbayan Caloy Cuison.
Meanwhile, our Class ‘63 headed by Class Governor Ope Reyna plans to don a color black costume — probably subconsciously in deference to Black Obama and in Ninja outfit, (“for a change,” says Jorge Estrada).
Black, indeed, has descended on our class due to the shroud of sadness on account of two classmates who recently died, only a week apart. Julius Vinluan and the former Fe Tolentino, wife of another classmate, Herminio Gomez.
In a sense, the duo have just gone ahead to a lasting reunion with the Lord, a real homecoming, if you please, where no weariness forever dwells.
* * *
Public Works and Highways Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., had his own grand homecoming at his alma mater, University of Luzon, last Wednesday, while we were having the oratorical contest. UL prexy Dr. Macky Samson and chairman Ope Reyna couldn’t hide their pride for having sired partly an outstanding cabinet secretary. Congratulations! Jun Ebdane, by the way, used to be station commander of the Dagupan police and provincial director of the Pangasinan police. This probably is why he has many fans and admirers hereabouts.
(Readers may reach columnist at junmv@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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