Think about it
The billboard
By Jun Velasco
“Freedom is like the air we breathe. Without it, we die,” Anon
OVER at ABS-CBN Friday, we recalled our unforgettable incarceration at Camp Aquino and the Lingayen barracks in the early days of Martial Law… from September 23 to October 24, 1972, to be exact.
That experience left a lump in the heart.
We said “you won’t know the value of freedom until you experience being deprived of it.”
We, Filipinos, have a great heritage of freedom. Take it away, and we die. We lay down our life for freedom.
Our heroes – Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo and Aquino – consecrated their lives in the name of national salvation and freedom.
You saw the film starring Mel Gibson. When pressed on the last thing he would ask before the blade fell on his neck, he shouted “freedom.”
Of course, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we are guaranteed freedom and our inalienable rights, human as well as political rights.
We become less human if deprived of these.
* * * *
The Punch’s billboard on page 1 that reminds certain Dagupan officials of their liabilities has caught the attention of a Fil-Am visitor who wonders why they, our officials, continue to ignore it.
Criticisms from a newspaper with a high credibility have the force and effect of public censure.
Have they become callous or resigned to shame, deluding themselves that the public doesn’t really care?
But the public cares, is turning its head in dismay.
They take criticism for granted? Why? Have they become indecent? Uncivilized?
By its cosmopolitan character, Dagupan is a show window of the Dagupenos’ soul.
Ignore the knockings of criticism, and you are no better than a beast.
The fact that this is happening shows how low or how crass their self esteem has sunk.
It’s time to wake up.
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