AND so it has come to this.
A nation drowning in blood, a people sharply divided.
On one side, a howling, approving mob, although there are indications it is steadily diminishing, its ranks ironically and sadly thinned by the very monstrosity they cheer on.
On the other, a growing mass that was once the relative few who disapproved of the madness from the onset, their numbers boosted every day by those who once welcomed the promise of “change” or those who were once passive witnesses out of fear or the hope the carnage would be short-lived, and who had realized things were getting out of hand. And then there are those who have personally suffered, losing loved ones to the evil stalking the land.
Looking down from the growing pile of bones, the architect of the mayhem sees the force massing against the bloody tide and quakes in terror.
Not from their anger, though it is a righteous one, for he thrives on anger, revels in hate, feeds on a dark morality that allows him to judge who is or is not “human.”
No, it is goodness and compassion he fears, much like the ghoul or the vampire fears the light, for these give the lie to his twisted logic and demented vision.
Thus, he seeks to outlaw good and all those who strive to live by it.
First, he set his sights on institutions and organizations that work to defend and protect people from the likes of him, including the government’s own Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations, even as he exhorted his armed services to ramp up the killing.
Then he turned on the institution that, for all its many imperfections, remains to provide the moral compass for most of his people – the church – apparently believing that, if he succeeded in portraying it and its pastors as no better than himself he might rid himself of what could be expected to be among the strongest opponents of the carnage he let loose on the land. He even went so far as to besmirch – sans any proof – the reputation of a murdered shepherd as a fornicator.
Here’s the funny thing. He began his offensive on the church when many of its leaders were still actually timorous or groping for the proper response. But if he thought he could insult them to submission, he actually elicited the opposite reaction not only from the religious but also the laity. He even managed to offend the non-religious and atheists, who are mostly, contrary to popular (mis)perception, actually very tolerant of religion and religious differences.
So he shifted his aim from clergy to deity, calling their god “stupid,” succeeding only in stoking greater outrage even if, sadly, many of those he angered saw it their duty to defend their god but not his creation.
Now he and his minions are targeting individuals who have chosen kindness and compassion as their life’s work in the mistaken notion that they are the weakest link.
Thus, we have the effort to deport of Sister Patricia Fox, the deportation of three foreign Christian missionaries, and the detention and deportation of Australian law and human rights expert Gill Boehringer. And these are just those from other lands whose compassion transcends borders, whose good works are labeled “political” and therefore grounds to kick them out.
A cynic might say they are actually lucky for being able to return – albeit unwillingly – to the safety of their homelands. Sadly, that might be true.
For almost every day in these isles of our joys and greater sorrows, Filipinos are killed, threatened, harassed, arrested, tortured, falsely accused, for the grievous offense of defending the human rights of their brethren, from the thousands upon thousands mowed down by the insane “war on drugs,” to the farmers and the laborers, the fisherfolk and teachers fighting for a better lot, to the indigenous peoples defending their lands and cultures from the plunder of “development.”
Yet slowly but surely – slowly for the fear of death and violence admittedly remains strong; surely for the determination to end the deviltry gripping our land has become the stronger impetus – the end is coming. It is inevitable. For this is the paradox: the more evil triumphs, the deeper it digs its grave, while good can only grow stronger the harder it is suppressed.
If July 23 was any indication, this is NOT just one man’s opinion.*