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For psychology purposes and a possible glimpse at the root of my

reasoning, I come from a family that is neither for nor against


Marcos. So when I look at the current situation, I cannot say that
there I hold anger in my heart towards him. At least not directly,
because he has not hurt me. But it is the ability of empathy that we,
not only as Filipinos, but as human beings, need to be develop, and
so we must push ourselves to understand what those who have
suffered at the hands of the Marcoses must feel as they hear of the
news on his burial. Unfortunately, as with the nature of morality,
where there is no absolute good or bad, we must also put ourselves
in the shoes of those who do support him, and rather than scold
them and curse them for their decisions, find it in ourselves to
understand why and build from there. This is why while I have not
rallied, I believe that it is important that we do. Realistically, a rally
is not going to have a direct effect on anything, but it is in the
gathering of the people, and the creation of a collective voice that
creates strength in the normal Filipino. This is not to say that rallying
cannot have an effect, because it can, but rather to oppose the
arguments that rallying is completely useless. It is through the
public expression of a belief that many who cannot find the strength
in themselves to express just the same, get to find strength. Yet it is
so easy to write onpaper or to tell friends to exhibit compassion and
love to their fellow countrymen who fight for the same goal but
through different methods. And yet it is because of that end we all
seek that we must assert peaceful methods. We all want to
experience peace and prosperity, it just so happens that many
people do not have the opportunity to be educated on such
methods. This does not exclude us, as there may be better ways to
go about things than those we follow at the moment. We must be
flexible and open-minded, because the people who throw hurtful
insults at us believe that we are insulting them. When we say their
opinions and worthless and hurl big words from the unexplored
pages of a thesaurus, they do not hear what we believe are sound
and fact-based arguments, instead they hear you are dumb or you
are not educated and we are better than you. We must put the
obligation on our shoulders and find within ourselves the initiative to
take the responsibility to ensure that the future will not be like this,
that people, while not necessarily adhering to our personal beliefs,
will be educated about theirs. This is easy to say hidden behind a
laptop with an anonymous name tag, but when people find your
name and hurt you past the confines of the internet, it becomes
hard to believe that there is hope for the country, that these people
are meant to be forgiven and loved, that these people are our
countrymen who we should hope for the prosperity of. But it is all
the more at a time like this by which we must remain strong, and
fight harder, study harder, pray harder, and hope harder than ever.
We must remember that freedom requires that everybody has it,
whether or not we have the same belief, and even if those people
say vulgar and mean things. There is nothing we can do to stop
them from saying nasty things to us, at least not now. What we can
do is teach the people within our circle of influence, our family,
friends, children, what we believe is right, and more importantly,
teach them to learn for themselves so that they can discern why we
believe certain things are wrong.
It is only through desperation that many Filipinos choose to
disregard our nations bloody history at the sound of what may
possibly be change for them. We must not forget that we are able to
see differently because the places from which we look are not the
same. We must remember that what we call selfishness in Filipinos
is not only reserved for those who choose to forget, but those who
refuse to understand why. Instead of watching, we must do
something to ensure that our future is not a repeat of our past,
whether that be on the streets, behind the legislation, in business or
science, we must not wait for the time that opens up possibility, but
become the opportunity ourselves.

It is because in my lifetime I have never slept hungry, I have never

slept especially cold or warm, I had never had to worry about going

to school, I had never had to worry about what many of my fellow

Filipinos have had to worry about, from their daily commutes to

quickly emptying wallets, I have never had to worry. I was, by

statistical chance, put in the position where I had not had to worry.

And so it is my moral duty, to fight for these people . Whether or not

I fcompletely understand their line of thinking, whether or not they

say the completely abhorrent things they say, these people are our

Vygotskys theory. No one and nothing has given these people the

opportunity to become something better, and that is where we must

come in. We must fight for what we can do in the present to ensure

that there is a future. We must fight to ensure that despite Marcos

burial, that the country, and his victims receive the reparation they

deserve. We must fight to ensure that the Marcoses receive their


justice. We must fight to ensure that our countrymen know well

enough to never let anything like that happen ever again. Marcos

was not a hero, but I genuinely believe that each and everyone of us

have the capacity to be, on the streets, even behind the screen.

Lets not stay quiet.

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