My youngest son is only 12 years old. And yet at his age he has to grapple with the turmoils of his society in a way much more stark than even I have to deal with it. And as he puts it, he has so many teachers and classmates who seem to love the new president. So why shouldn’t he and I? This question was hard enough to answer off-hand. But he adds one more question even more difficult to answer: Has the world become evil? I was driving when he asked me all these. And so I knew immediately how my immediate answer would not be good enough. My answer would have to be well thought out and written down.
And so: Dear Elias, Your questions do not have easy answers. You must have to search for the complete answers on your own. But it helps if you think very seriously about this word: Judgement. Judgement is your ability to think and feel your way through the most difficult questions of life and then make a decision based on what you know and feel. Take care to remember that because you are human (and not God) your judgements will always be imperfect and you must have to rethink them all the time; even change your mind about them.
But it helps if you believe in God. God has many things to say about judgement. It helps also that you try to know more about human laws and such things as the Constitution. The Constitution is the basic law of our people. All other laws must be based upon it. Christianity teaches us to love. It teaches us not to kill unless in self-defense. The Constitution tells us mainly the same thing. It teaches that we all have basic rights to life and freedom.
That all people, rich or poor, must be presumed innocent unless proven guilty by a court of law. Whether or not you believe in God or the Constitution, you have to realize that these contain the most important lessons we and our ancestors learned over many thousands of years of human experience and history. They are not perfect. But they are as perfect as we can make them for now. They ensure that even if our society is imperfect with its many problems, we will always remain civilized, we will always make sure we make the most of what we have in order to become better and more civilized in the long run. Our problems can only be solved over time and sometimes very slowly.
But from time to time, humans are overcome by fear and greed. Sometimes they want an easy and quick solution to their problems. There are many cases when humans would rather forget what their Gods say about killing and begin to do things against the Constitution. They are not evil people.
They are simply wrong. They are wrong because they are too impatient and make the wrong judgement. As you grow older, please read about what happened to the Jews in World War II. Read also about what happened in China in the Cultural Revolution and about the killing fields in Cambodia.
Read especially about what truly happened to us in the time of martial law under Marcos. All these are examples of humans trying to speed up history by thinking that our problems can be quickly solved by murder and violence, and forgetting God and the Constitution. History tells us how their judgements were wrong and will always be wrong. And yet millions of people suffered and died because of their wrong judgements.
You are old enough now to search for the best God to believe in, in the same way you will now have to make the best judgement you can about what you are experiencing now with your teachers and classmates. The best I can tell you is to use your best judgement always. Never stop knowing more, reading more, and talking about problems like this. Always stand up for what you think is good for yourself and for others. Never believe that what other people say is good is always what is good. You have to make your judgements by and for yourself. Question everything. Question even what I am telling you now. Find out more about it. I pray every day, your judgements will always be right not just for your sake but for others around you. I pray also you will not grow up to be a person who never changes his mind about anything. These are people who are fanatics. They seldom ever make correct judgements. I have faith in you and the God who watches over you always.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
