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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Cervantes: Valentine's Day, humbug!
By Ding Cervantes
IF MOTEL bedrooms fill up on Valentine's Day, it's because families, who can ill-afford to billet themselves in five-star hotels and have meals together in five-star restaurants, opt for a cheaper version to bond and knit closer ties; because sweethearts find in the rooms some holy privacy conducive to prayers for enlightenment on whether they are fit for matrimony; because friends regardless of gender want contemplative ambience in their search for the true meaning of platonic relationships.
Humbug! As if the government and you and I didn't know. Motel rooms filled up last night because Valentine's Day has already warped many minds, moulding the day into one for and of concupiscence, libido, lust in the name of love, excuse for sheer sexual gratification.
It's a day when both government and parents and wiser elders fail. We've heard stories that pregnancies rise after Velentine's, many unmarried teeners resort to abortions, yet Valentine's Day comes and goes yearly without us getting a bit alarmed.
If I were government, I would wage a pre-Valentine's Day campaign urging parents to be a little more wary about the activities of their teenagers or on about that day and parents ought to heed that advise.
But no, neither government nor parents do anything of that sort, so motels through the years have been filling up with teeners, all deluded by Valentine's fashion, overwhelmed by that oh-so-powerful magnet of love which, finally, is intermixed with lust. How many will end up with remorse if not pain?
But otherwise, Valentine's Day could have its good points. It's one way for wives to know whether their husbands are philandering. Overtime on Feb. 14 or thereabouts? If this is done consistently over the years, are forbidden liaisons not far off? The day is also a barometer of the strength of will of one's girl or boyfriend amid the "fashionable" sexual liberty trend inculcated into our minds, especially the young, vulnerable minds of teeners, by watching too much US television programs that stresses "personal liberty" and self indulgence.
And other good things. Marrried couples find time to renew love for each other by sharing pancit at a fastfood chain or watching a movie together, little kids jump to their parents for a Valentine's kiss, friends text each other with greetings without malice, and many more go on with their lives as if Valentine's Day never existed.
* * * * *
Senior Superintendent Carmen Trinidad of the security and fire department of the Clark Development Corp. ought to wake up. More and more people in surrounding communities are talking about the inefficiency of her police force, if not the lackadaisical, flabby actuations of her blue guards.
You get negative impression immediately as soon as you enter Clark's main gate where you encounter sentries slumping, gossiping with each other, sneering over something if not at you, standing but leaning on a post a la James Dean, at times even gulping mysterious substance from a small glass. If at all you find them where they're supposed to be.
The entire city of Angeles is also buzzing with talk on the activities of her organic police personnel who cannot, it seems, explain why those metal coverings of canals and sewers are gone, and other more serious matters that might one day burst on their faces in a big controversy. And I mean real big controversies.
There are details, including names, being passed around and it will not be a surprise when someone comes out with the stories in full reports, with annexes to establish allegations. For many are those who are interested in Trinidad's post and some of them are not really liars.
(February 15, 2005 issue)
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