The Fierce Urgency of Now
Being president is an honor bestowed upon an individual who gains the trust of the people. The presidency is a position of trust, and without trust, the position is compromised. The people have been second under the Arroyo administration, it has been second from the very beginning. And as I have contemplated on why we mustn’t wait until 2010, the simple answer is that tomorrow is never certain, and today is the only day we have control of. There is an urgency in our nation, the longer we wait, who knows what may pass us by.
Arroyo has had all the chances, but chose the road that many of her predecessors have chosen. So then why must our decision be any different from the brave Filipinos of the past who chose to stand up to the tyranny of that day. We may be technologically more advanced from the past, but I doubt that our reason, patriotism, and love of country are any different.
Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech “Beyond Vietnam”, spoke of a fierce urgency of now.
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood-it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.”
Two more years, may not be a long time, but in that time, it could mean billions of pesos down the drain, more lives lost to extra-judicial killings, more human and civil rights violations, a more brazen government, more intimidations of a political nature, so on and so forth. Two years may not be a long time, but think about where we were just a month ago. The name Jun Lozada was not a household name, we knew nothing about the 11 halted projects, knew nothing about northrail or southrail. A month ago, we didn’t know Jose De Venecia would no longer be speaker and would then start his own moral revolution. And a month ago, we knew nothing of moderating greed.
Imagine what we will know next month.
The decision is upon all of us, not if we can take action, but what that action will be. There is a debate of impeachment, revolution, or resignation. Of these choices, we need only but one to accomplish our goal. We need to decide today the choice we are willing to make, then make our voices heard, for today is moving and we will never have it again.
tags: arroyo administration, martin luther king jr, president gloria macapagal arroyo, Rodolfo Jun Lozada
You are right. Today is what we can control. My choice of action is to write about it in my blog about the choice I make in participating in the crusade of truth. Let’s see from there as events unfold in the following days. I take it one small step at a time.
Ewan ko lang Nick, pero I think I choose the last choice, pwede nalang sana, resign nalang si Gloria. hindi na kaya ang bayan natin na isa na naman Edsa revolution.