Emmanuel B. Catabas Page 2 11/13/2008It is very sad to say that our culture has been heavily damaged by corruption. In everylevel of the citizenry, this scourge has been permeating its ugly head. Devouringwhatever little hope we still have. We are losing our core values of discipline,temperance, self-reliance and honesty. Our communal value of social responsibility isbeing forgotten; pushed behind our self-consciousness. Thereby producing a deficit of empathy in the country.But whenever we feel disheartened, we must gather our wits and continue to fight not anyexternal foes, but ourselves. We need to cultivate that attitude of communal activismgirded by persistence and empathy. We can only transform our world if we can transformourselves back to our core values - from apathy to empathy; from passivism to activism.We need to redevelop our communal values that will bring about social justice.We have to effect that transformation we need ourselves; no one will do it for us. Wehave once shown to the world that we, as a people can do it peacefully when wedethroned a detested dictator during the first EDSA revolution. We have revolutionizedrevolutions – transforming them from being bloody agents of change to being peacefulagents of change. Our example led to the downfall of many communist regimes inEurope.We can still do what we need to be transformed. It is still not too late to redeem thatelusive Filipino dream. However, this time the political transformation has to be done notin the streets but in the way of the democratic processes – the prudent use of our power asa transformed electorate to select the best people that will run our government based on aclear platform of governance.The people of Pampanga have shown to us how they were able to organize themselves touse that power. The people of Isabela have proven to us that it is possible to choose aleader worthy of their trust. They have had enough of political dynasties and they wantedchange. Change they got. The Filipino also wanted a transformed Philippines – culturallyand politically. And we can do it!There are many ways how we can do it. There are already many reliable organizationsthat we can extend our time, talent and expertise, as well as money. They can help usorganize the way for our social and cultural transformation – for poverty alleviation andcommunity organizing, there is the Gawad Kalinga (GK); for crime watchdog, there isthe Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and many others, each an expert intheir chosen fields. Let us volunteer in any of these legitimate organizations, we need tomake sacrifices and pay a price for our values. This is the only way we can show that webelieve in those values.We do not have to wait for an Obama to lead us through our miseries. Let us use ourcommunal values to scrutinize the character and ideas of each politician claiming he orshe has or is the answer to our nation’s problems. These kinds of people are the problemand not the solution. We already have too much of them in government, we do not needanother one. Let us not be deceived by their empty promises and eloquent oration. Let us
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