BECAUSE of how convoluted the history of Edsa has become, no thanks to partisan bloggers and columnists, how to explain Edsa People Power to millennials?
Try Star Wars: "A long time ago, in a country not so far away, a group of young fighters called the Resistance fought a leader who was once promising and was even called the chosen one but turned into a tyrant who conquered communities and crushed critics with his iron grasp.
Fighting the Empire, the Death Star and Dark Side was a daunting task, as Resistance members disappeared, lost limbs and faced exiles. But one last charge by the Resistance aided by other groups who banded together finally brought the Empire down.
It was supposed to be a happy ending. But sadly the young padawans forgot the Force and were enticed by stories of the great leader or the chosen one, and fed on the power of the Dark Side that crept back again to the earth.
But two young people, concerned with the tyranny, sought the past to unlock the present. They found the last fighter of the Resistance. The Force is awakened again, as the need to restore the balance again. And the struggle continues…."
Why I thought of this analogy is because of the way People Power or Edsa 1 has been re-interpreted in many ways.
There are those who glorify Cory Aquino. There are those who reduced Edsa 1 to a mere power grab conspiracy by the Aquino-Cojuangco oligarch from the Marcoses.
We forgot the millions who fought the dictatorship of Marcos: the activists, the First Quarter Stormers who went underground and to the mountains, the church people and the lawyers who defended the poor and the prisoners, the journalists (from the campus and communities and the mainstream) who became the voice and eyes of the oppressed.
Which goes to show that the narratives we have been reading do not show the whole picture.
I guess it is a challenge for us journalists, and to historians and academe to make the real stories of the struggles against the dictator be heard to the next generation, who are so caught up now by the stories and videos turned up by social media which twist the facts of the people's struggle.
While we engage the people, we should find answers to their questions like what happened after Edsa and why the failure? Why the mention of Edsa is about traffic and not about the memories of a culminating struggle against Marcos? We also have to lead this to questioning why and how our leaders have failed to address the real intent of the resistance which is to uproot the inequality.
Cory Aquino once promised agrarian reform but Mendiola happened. And then there's Luisita.
Presidents promised change and peace but brought wars and unfulfilled promises.
There are four rallies today: a rally for Duterte against his critics, and three rallies from different political alignments like the anti-Marcos coalition, the millennial group, and the Left who share a common call in protesting the Marcos' burial and warnings of the Marcos return to power. This shows how Edsa before was a unifier, but now Edsa is still a battle ground.
Through all this, the young generation has to learn much about history before moving forward. They have to be like Finn who broke away from the horde to find a better purpose in life. Or they have be like Rey who finds the better purpose in life is not to scavenge to survive but to fight for a better place to live. May we find the Force to fight.
tyvelez@gmail.com