To stop monsters, we need good citizens
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:58:00 01/07/2009
Filed Under: Social Issues
I remember when I was young and dreaming of becoming the president of this country. Today I no longer hold that dream. I just wish to become a good citizen.
I think what we imperatively need more nowadays are good citizens who know how to care and love for this country, make it safer to live in, who know how to voice out their grievances without fear and who are prepared to die for their rights and principles.
There are only a few of these people now in our country. There are more of us who rest content with our private lives and are unmindful of the issues of the day. There are many of us who cannot leave our comfort zones and instead decidedly remain spectators to what is happening in our country. They don’t bother to ask why their families starve, why there are broken families, why crimes abound, why classrooms are not enough for their children, why textbooks are scarce, why there is graft and corruption. Our society is becoming a voiceless society. It is this voicelessness that created roaring monsters in the government. While we may have heard the voices of some who appear to be messiahs of this country, theirs are irritating noises and are out of tune because of their self-seeking interests. What we need is a unison voice likened to the biblical passage that says “people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat.”
For the year 2009, it is my prayerful wish that we learn to become good citizens. It is my prayer that we should learn to be more aggressive about our rights, freedom and dignity as a people. I do not wish to leave this country even when it is filthy to live in. That would be unpatriotic. There is hope for this country. Let us start contributing our fair share by caring for and loving our country, making it more decent and respectable in the eyes of the international community and God. And we can do that by learning to become good citizens.
Thank you.
REGINALD B. TAMAYO, member, Sangguniang Bayan secretary general, SAVE Cagayan, Aparri, Cagayan
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Hi Regie:
ReplyDeleteNice to know that you write quite well about a lot of things happening in the world around us.
This is a timely topic that you have written about. My view is that education has a lot to do with the way people behave in society.
I have always been a strong advocate of the return to basics when it comes to education, especially basic education.
I call this the 5Rs approach: let's teach our youth the value of READING (how to read, understanding what one reads, relating what one reads with previous knowledge,etc. 'RITING (how to write, good grammar, how to organize one's thoughts, how to express one's views in writing, etc. 'RITHMETIC (basic operations, fractions, decimals, ratio and proportion, etc., RESEARCH (basic curiosity and inquisitiveness, searching for answers, looking at options and alternatives, science and technology, etc. and RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP, rights and obligations of a citizen, patriotism, nationalism, social responsibility, family, friends, honesty, cleanliness, etc.