Valle: Threat more real than imagined

Sunday, February 5, 2012

"DO YOU hear the news?" I have heard this question repeated not once but several times for the past few days as some youngsters in our school seemed disturbed by something that they have heard circulating, not only in campus but also in the airwaves. Curious, I asked one girl who at first hesitated to tell me anything, but eventually, she obliged me.

The "news" was that, purportedly, some military elements threaten to spread "black propaganda" against this particular school for displaying the tarpaulin that condemns the killing of the environmentalist priest Fr. Pops.

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News in the campus have it that one particular news outfit came to the school wanting to conduct an interview about this particular buzz.

Reportedly, some irate military officer did not like the tarpaulin and its message and have gone to the media to blow up the non-issue. Decrepit bamboozle. In a society where cowards hide their identities when they kill or hurt a good man whose only "weapon" was the truth (as the "truth" that makes a people free), simple expressions of outrage will always be considered a "security" threat.

What they do not realize is the fact that the real threat lies in ignorance, the people's lack of knowledge, and the loss of interest to learn about things that matter or concerns survival for the community.

What could have been the "threat" in a small condemnation written in a sign that is even so insignificant-looking to be easily ignored? As a saying goes a guilty conscience needs no accuser. Who else would react on something that is even ignored by many except those who knew about the truth behind it?

As for me, what really consumes my thoughts these past few days are not mundane things such as those noticed by the men-in-uniform. It is the fact that for the past few months that I have been journeying with the youth in their aspiration for "education", I noticed that they have not been really truthful with themselves.

While the students want passing marks in subjects they are required to take, most of them are not really interested to know about the subjects they are taking. I could say that because even if the answers to the test have been discussed in class over and over, still, they could not see or understand the things that are laid before them.

Their attention span it seems is even shorter than those in lower grade levels. The youth seems so distracted with a million and one thing that nothing could penetrate the ‘haze’ in their minds, like the smog that hovers in the city that threatens to choke us these days.

Is this not more life threatening than that small voice of protest in a mute tarpaulin? It seems that the youth does not put any importance on the written wisdom such that they would rather “copy/paste” things in the internet and forget about it. The value of books seems lost among them, such that even if they are told to read and read a lot, they would just ignore the reminders.

I wish (as I have been trying to bring this to their attention) the youth of today will learn to discover the wonders of the written word. It is much, much more pleasurable than any stories ever made into films. The hard copy is more vivid in description and one cannot but enrich the imagination with the written word.