General Admission
Where the heart beats best, stay there
By Al S. Mendoza
IT can’t be helped that wounds brought on by defeats in the last elections are still too fresh to ignore. After all, we are human beings.
We have feelings.
We can be hurt.
We can’t heal that easily. At least to many among us.
That is why when we hear of a loser stepping forward and promptly saying, “I concede,” he doesn’t only deserve a pat on the back.
He needs our collective applause – resoundingly at that – in the name of sportsmanship.
That can be readily said of both Nani Braganza and Art Lomibao.
Realizing the trend leading to their imminent defeat even very early on in the counting of votes for the two highest positions in our beloved Pangasinan, Nani and Art readily gave up the ghost.
Like a true officer and a gentleman, Nani acknowledged his defeat at the hands of Guv Spines and Art, a retired police general, to the also incumbent Vice Governor Ferdie Calimlim.
Light a candle for the art of losing gracefully.
When one knows when to toss in the towel, that sanamagun can stand 10 feet tall anytime.
Surely, Nani and Art know by heart the immortal dictum in chess: Grandmasters know when to resign.
So that, if all candidates are like Nani and Art, then there is, indeed, hope in this country.
For, by promptly accepting defeat without hesitation, Nani and Art had definitely debunked the oft-repeated joke that in this benighted land of ours, nobody loses in any election and one is only defeated because of cheating done by the opponent.
Nani’s natty gesture becomes doubly noteworthy if we also take into account the trouncing his son, Lean, absorbed in the mayoralty race in Alaminos City – not to mention that Nani, if reports are to be believed, also lost in his own turf.
If that was not a double whammy, what is?
It really hurts, and it cuts “like a knife.”
But surely, Nani – and Art, too – will learn a lot from this debacle. One defeat is not the end of the road. In fact, many defeats only lead to the road of redemption.
Both Lincoln and Clinton suffered numerous setbacks before finally becoming presidents of the US.
I remember my Pareng Teddy Cruz.
After a rousing triumph a while back as congressman of the second district of Pangasinan, Pareng Teddy dreamed big and gunned for the governorship.
He was soundly beaten.
In his assessment, he discovered he was ill-equipped, his arsenal horribly inferior to his well-entrenched foe.
But he didn’t sulk. He mounted a comeback. He just won a third term as mayor in my beloved hometown – again, by a landslide.
You serve either small time or big time, it makes no difference.
Bottom line is, where your heart beats best – stay there.
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