I read Alice Walker's Anything We Love Can Be Saved a few years ago. While I have forgottten most of what was written there, I clearly remember her observations on the discord of her generation from the younger generation of African-Americans. not only was the younger generation separate from her generation, they were also separate from the African-American race. She questioned whether this was because the younger set did not have people like Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X as a source of inspiration, of belongingness. But she contends that one doesn't have to look for grand figures for heroes.

I think the same can be said for our country. There is a discord between the older and younger generation. With the older one frustrated at the indifference of the young and the younger one frustrated at the lack of inspiration from the old. I think that the older generation has failed to inspire and encourage the younger ones to continue the work they have done in the past, mostly because many are very unwelcoming to the idea that the younger set could effectively take part in nation-building.

The younger set may be indifferent. but I also think that they lack that central figure that encourages them, mobilizes them towards a certain goal beyond their own. People need heroes. The younger generation may be having a difficult time of finding their own because those who profess to be knowledgeable are not credible or those that are credible and knowledgeable are virtually invisible in their consciousness. But just like what Walker said, we don't always need grand figures (e.g. the likes of Ninoy, Diokno etc) as our heroes. They can be our parents, our neighbors, our friends.

So while I value and herald the great figures in Philippine history, I have another set of heroes. Those people who allow me to dream, whose work and character refrains me from walking away from my social responsibilities. I attribute my sense of social responsibility to my professors. they have given me back my belief in my capacity to think, my right to ask questions and get answers, or even search them for my own. I think they are my previously missing link. They allowed me to reconnect with the Filipino collective.

3/24/06