By Rex Catubig

 

IN Biblical times, God directed the Israelites to smear the doors of their houses with the blood of a lamb as a sign to set them apart so that the Angel of Death would pass them over and spare them from imminent harm.

Today, the blood mark takes the form of ghost projects and money trail, but are exposed not to save but act as a litmus to ferret out, identify, and should the scenario end the way it logically should, convict those bearing the scarlet letter.

But there is another twist. In the roundabout crucible of hearings and witch-hunting, from Pogos to flood control scams, the victims and oppressors alike are fair game. All other things being equal, everyone is deemed complicit and accountable. Because while it might be deemed prudent and cautious to turn one’s cheek in an act of nonchalance, under the circumstances, turning away from the unconscionable rape and desecration of man’s inalienable right to decent life is, without a doubt, a sure passage to Dante’s Inferno.

And thus, the rigmarole of subpoenas, in-contempt citations, house arrests and other hocus pocus if held as mere showcase bereft of compunction, may just end up in a safety net where all these criminal deceptions, moral posturings, along with political curses and empty promises, ultimately get hurled back into Pandora’s septic tank and sealed anew until the next matinee show.

In antiquity, there was a controversial eccentric named Diogenes who was much maligned and despised for his unconventional worldview and ascetic lifestyle. He was known to reject societal norms as hypocritical and skewed traditional morality. He indulged in shock tactics that were meant to provoke and jolt the public from its complacency and dilate its myopic vision.

In one apocryphal episode, he came out of the barrel that served as his shelter, holding aloft a lamp to look for an honest man. It was not ascertained if his quixotic effort paid off. But the iconic image of this symbolic act remains indelibly vivid and apropos across time.

In today’s time, the scenario of search, save, or destroy would have the biblical Angel of Death and the ancient Diogenes join forces in undertaking their tasks. The cloak-and-dagger Angel of Death would single out the culprits and bring about their swift comeuppance. While undercover, Diogenes would focus the spotlight on the honest ones who are smeared with the blood of good character and bearing the ideals of veritas.

In the ideal world, we wouldn’t need whistleblowers to sound off alarm and flash the warning signs on the legislative stage to reveal blood splattered rotten eggs–if only we ourselves would be valiant and vigilant at the outset and be immune and not succumb to the invasive virus of human foibles and frailty.

Neither would we need a cataract operation to see clearly nor hearing aids to hear the people sing. We just need to keep our eyes wide open and our ears unclogged of hardened earwax.

“Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums

There is a life… when tomorrow comes”.

We cannot be blind, hearing-impaired or tone deaf. All it takes is to keep brave crimson blood pumping vigorously in our hearts. Therein lies the salvation from the plague of floods and politics, contractors and politicos.

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