RES GESTAE
One vote has power (3)
(A series of thoughts and perspectives about May 10, 2010 national and local elections)
We can be the metamorphosis of Andy Warhol’s 1968 statement: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” We can be Andy Warhol’s word made flesh. We can be “world-famous” for 15 minutes, and maybe less. And this feat can happen in any moment of May 10, 2010 national and local elections.
To use “world-famous” to describe our experience on May 10, 2010 suggests exaggeration, but doing something great for the country deserves nothing less of the description. Though it may be fleeting according to Wharhol, the impact of what we can do this May 10, 2010 will last for generations next to us. On May 10, 2010 we will be drawing nothing less than a future, our future as Filipino nation.
According to the Commission on Elections, the average voting time for each voter with the automated election system is about seven minutes. Fast, but maybe not as fast as how we did it with the manual elections. Nevertheless, those minutes can bring us to fame because as we fill in the ballot we are actually making ourselves heroes of our country. And why not? As I said, voting is the first way for a citizen to exhibit good citizenship and civic responsibility. And every good citizen is a hero to his country.
This May 10, 2010 national and local elections is a moment to fame. We can be world-famous because our vote this election could mean the end of an empire, of corruption, of poverty, of injustice, and of the all things we hate to see in the bureaucracy.
While it is said that change cannot be left alone to the shoulders of one man, it is still necessary that change will start to one man – who is me, you, and every Filipino people. This reminds me of the words of our hero, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino: “We should not depend on one man. We should depend in all of us. All of us are expendable in the cause of freedom and therefore I say – stand up now and be a leader. And when all of us are leaders then we will expedite the cost of freedom.”
The May 10, 2010 national and local elections is a moment that every Filipino can become a freedom fighter. Yes, every election should be a fight for freedom. It is a fight to free us from the bondage of corruption, of poverty, of injustice, and of all those we abhor in the present bureaucracy. And election is the best way we can advance our cause of Freedom. Election is the best way we can fight without shedding a drop of our precious blood; we only have to deliver a careful, conscious drop of our ink as we pick our choices among the long list of candidates.
This is no wishful thinking. This can happen. Our vote can make it happen
(Send reactions and comments to rogatepnp@yahoo.com)
