Bernard Inocentes S. Garcia
WITHOUT quotation marks, a friend wrote on her wall: I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken - and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.
Friends and the friends of her friends commented on her new “status”.
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“Breaking up is not easy.” “Past is past.” Others simply wrote “Wow!” and praised her for the depth and beauty of what she has written. My friend replied to every comment and thanked them all for the flatteries she received.
I, too, admired what was written, although I doubted whether the statement was hers or was a quotation from someone else.
Because there were no quotation marks, maybe people presumed that the statement was her own. Or, maybe they all knew that the words were written by some forgotten author but just didn’t care.
I googled the statement and learned that the words were written by Margarett Mitchell, who won the Pulitzer prize in 1937 for “Gone with the Wind”. The words were spoken by Rhett to Scarlett as he was about to leave the latter and start a new life somewhere.
Sadly, I have neither read the book nor have seen the movie; thus, my unfamiliarity with the quotation.
My friend could have made my life easier if only she had not forgotten her quotation marks and the name of the writer.
Worse, she “unintentionally” plagiarized the work of the American writer and “unintentionally” basked in the glory not due to her.
She reminded me of the controversial graduation speech given by businessman Manny Pangilinan.
Worst of all, this practice of plagiarism is rampant on Facebook. In fact, after I called her attention, my friend didn’t budge. Instead, she gave me a smiley face, telling me to check her new status, which reads: To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches - not I.
She meant her past boyfriends, she said. Ah, the late American president must have turned in his grave.
