HERE I am licking my wounds. None of my candidates for senators and mayor passed the wringer in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer,” says Denis Waitley, an American motivational speaker, writer and consultant and author of the bestselling non-fiction books “Seeds of Greatness” and “The Winner's Edge.”
Except in this age of Amazon online bookstore, I don’t have neither.
The next best thing is to check my Facebook. From my newsfeed, I chanced upon the thoughts “The Morning After” of Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino, the Dean, College of Law, San Beda College.
I read his lengthy post. Begging his indulgence, I would like to cite some of his thoughts of reality checks.
“Digong’s endorsement makes a difference,” Fr. Aquino writes, “whether we hate admitting it or not. And the continuing appeal of Digong, despite his rudeness, his uncouth manners, his vicious attacks on established religion—particularly the Catholic Church, his shady relations with women, is a matter that social theorists and phenomenologists must study with greater attention.
As a priest, Aquino writes, one of his priorities would be the evangelization of government. CBCP never endorsed any slate or list of candidates—and for this, it must be admired. But none of those who many bishops preferred to be elected were not elected.
He adds that the adults have overestimated the so-called “youth vote.” Many of those who were expected to reach out to their peer groups failed to impress the larger population as credible.
Then another post was that of Atty Jemy Gatdula, a professor at San Beda in Manila.
Prof. Gatdula writes, “If for you the yellow flag is the most important, more important than faith or country, then go ahead and just vote for them. It’s your right.”
In my case, I refused to be pigeonholed as a yellow. I voted many in the ocho derecho slate, but I voted out of the box.
In fact, I voted as a Catholic voter. So, I find it easy to connect with Gatdula who warned that I might end up voting for people that are publicly and avowedly against Catholic moral teaching. In fact, Atty. Chel Diokno vowed to push for same sex marriages, divorce and SOGI (sex orientation and gender identity).
Truth is, I’m a bit wary of human rights advocates. In fact, many have come out in social media promoting late-term abortion. How can that be construed as being pro-Catholic?
With that, I think I came out from a loser to a winner.
(bqsanc@yahoomail.com)