Monday, November 21, 2016

When we no longer cry | INQUIRER.net

See - When we no longer cry | INQUIRER.net


"x x x.

Today, as the death toll continues to rise—and as the killings remain unsolved and uninvestigated—people are becoming inured to them, numb to the ramifications of condoning, or even just tolerating, the murder of our countrymen. And just as martial law has been unjustly reduced to a clash between two families, the war on drugs has been reduced to a political issue, even as it has become a fight for our collective conscience—the heart and soul of our nation.

In the face of this crisis, the least we can do is to preserve our sense of right and wrong: to recognize evil as evil; to remain indignant at things that require indignation; to condemn acts that call for condemnation. And in the face of routine violence, to reject the notion that it is normal for people to get killed.

It is sad enough that people begging for mercy receive no mercy, and that people crying for justice are met with injustice. It is sad enough that children have to weep for their parents, deprived even of knowledge of who killed them, or why. It is sad enough that parents have to mourn their dead children, the loss of their families’ best and brightest dreams.

But there is hope for as long as we regard the killings as wrong, and as deserving of rebuke, reprehension, or sorrow. There is hope when we weep with those who weep, for there are tears that can move us to action, tears that can cleanse and open our eyes to the truths we refuse to see.

A greater tragedy is when we no longer cry.

Gideon Lasco (www.gideonlasco.com) is a medical doctor and anthropologist.
x x x.".

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/99206/no-longer-cry#ixzz4QdpkuSyS
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