Revolution Revelation
MANILA: It seems everyone, except me, is crying "Revolution!" over the Kidapawan incident, which some people call a "massacre" over at Bulatlat, Davao Today, Freeman, Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, Manila Times, Manila Standard Today, Philippine Star, Rappler, YouTube – I don't know whom I may have missed reporting. (Above mage from mubi.com, which I posterized)
To some of you, it is right to cry, or point to:
"Violent dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan provokes condemnation" – Janina C Lim (01 April 2016, BusinessWorld Online, bworldonline.com).
"Policemen fire at protesting, hungry farmers asking food aid assistance in Kidapawan City; 30 injured, 1 dead" – ANN (author not named, 01 April 2016, BicolToday, bicoltoday.com).
Jose W Diokno's old outcry of "Food and Freedom, Jobs and Justice" – Ted Te (04 April 2016, Rappler, rappler.com).
"The Kidapawan massacre and Aquino's blindness to farmers' plight" – Yen Makabenta (04 April 2016, Manila Times, manilatimes.net).
Commission on Human Rights Chair Chito Gascon's belief that "authorities overlooked crowd dispersal protocols given the use of live ammunition during the dispersal" – ANN (02 April 2016, "CHR to look into violent dispersal of Kidapawan farmers," ABS-CBN News, news.abs-cbn.com).
"BIFF, NDF sympathize with drought-stricken Kidapawan farmers" – Mart D Sambalud, 05 April 2016, Davao Today, davaotoday.com).
"#BigasHindiBala | Youth groups storm agriculture dept" – Anne Marxze Umil, 08 April 2016, Bulatlat, bulatlat.com).
Maybe, but you are calling "massacre" with only 3 dead? ABS-CBN called it "violent dispersal" while GMA News called it "violent protest-dispersal" and so did Interaksyon. It was the networks, not the newspapers, who showed "balanced news, fearless views."
But if you insist on a Revolution, let me humor you.
In the mid-1960s, I did a book review of Robert Traver's novel Anatomy Of A Murder. This is the story of Army Lt Coleman Peterson, a husband who shot Mike Chenoweth, owner of the Lumberjack Tavern in Big Bay, the one who raped his wife and was tried for murder. After a 6-day trial, the people's jury declared Peterson innocent, by reason of "temporary insanity." He had pleaded that the killing had been an "irresistible impulse" because of his anger.
Now then, those who are angry and want to wage a Revolution could always plead temporary insanity before doing it and in doing it plead irresistible impulse. The problem there is: Would the People's Court return a verdict of not guilty at all? It is the people who must judge, because you cannot wage a Revolution except in the name of the people, right? Otherwise, you wage a Revolution in your own name.
Why not instead wage a Revolution for Seeing Beauty despite everything? Eleanor Young has written "Seeing Beauty: A Necessary Skill For The Future" (Films For Action, filmsforaction.org). Try it on yourself first! "And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything? And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for? And have you changed your life?" Eleanor is firm:
We find ourselves now on the cusp of a rapidly changing world, one which seems awash with greed, distrust, imbalance and disconnection. In this time it seems now that seeing the beauty in life is no longer an easy thing. Yet it is not just a throw-away new-age thought but a necessary skill to be cultivated now more than ever before. A skill which we must add to our tool box in order to evolve in consciousness, make connections and to make good with the earth and with each other.
It is an absolute truth that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It all comes down to perception and attitude yet goes deeper than that. Most of us all have the inner wisdom to feel what resonates as beautiful, good and sacred in this life. It is drawn up from the well of our souls and like finger prints, individual to us all and simply requires tapping back into. This is what keeps us dreaming and creating new ways of being. We need to want this more. We need to ache for beauty and it's moving and inspiring qualities.
Still, if you insist on a Revolution, I will advise you that, like a lawyer, you have to bring the case to the court, this time The People's Court.
And yes, when you wage a Revolution, as in fiction, you have to have a plot. The author of the book warned:
Plot these days is anti-intellectual and verboten, the mark of the Philistine, the huckster with a pen. There mustn't be too much story and that should be fog-bound and shrouded in heavy symbolism, including the phallic, like a sort of convoluted charade. Symbolism now carries the day, it's the one true ladder of literary heaven.
In other words, you don't announce a Revolution! Or, which is the same thing, you can't.
When you do wage a Revolution, pleading like the defendant in Anatomy Of A Murder, you can always plead that you were made temporarily insane by events. But remember:
Revolutions devour their own children.
Now then, here is part of the Prologue to the book Anatomy Of A Murder:
This is the story of a murder, of a murder trial, and of some of the people who engaged or became enmeshed in the proceedings. Enmeshed is a good word, for murder, of all crimes, seems to possess to a greater degree than any other that compelling magnetic quality that draws people helplessly into its outspreading net, frequently to their surprise, and occasionally to their horror.
After you wage your Revolution, I am sure I will write a book not unlike Anatomy Of A Murder with this part of the Prologue:
This is the story of a Revolution, of a trial Revolution, and of some of the people who engaged or became enmeshed in the proceedings. Enmeshed is a good word, for Revolution, of all crimes, seems to possess to a greater degree than any other that compelling magnetic quality that draws people helplessly into its outspreading net, occasionally to their surprise, and frequently to their horror.
Let me just note that I began and finished writing this essay in 3 hours today.
If you include the research (surfing), that would be 4 hours - Frank A Hilario
If you include the research (surfing), that would be 4 hours - Frank A Hilario
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