“It’s so important to realize that every time you get upset, it drains your emotional energy. Losing your cool makes you tired. Getting angry a lot messes with your health.” –Joyce Meyer
The “nabutang kami sa tunga (we are caught in the middle)” excuse does not hold water in politics. Friends and allies of the Defensor, Biron, Garin, Tupas, Zulueta, Espinosa, Treñas, Gerochi, Nava, Ganzon, Alim, or any other political clan claim they cannot decide which group or candidate to support because “they are all our friends,” “they are close to us,” “ and “they are all good” – baloney!
Choose the lesser evil.
Once the layers are peeled off an onion, one can separate chaff from grain; the charlatans from the public servants. In the “Divine Comedy,” Dante warned, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
With several politicians already filing their certificates of candidacy for the upcoming 2019 midterm elections, it is becoming clear who will be vying for which position, ending all the speculation of the past few months. With many local candidates campaigning among close-knit communities, expect friendships and relationships to shatter – in the Philippines, friends are not a guaranteed vote. Even when it comes to families, it’s been proven, some candidates do not even garner support from siblings (and sometimes parents).
Politics has always been the top destroyer of camaraderie, kinship, and fraternal ties.
To the candidates: Keep your cool
If a candidate is shunned by friends and family, they should not retaliate with aggression – do not be vindictive. Don’t use social media to confront a person on previous affairs or bring up favors offered to them in the past; it does not help resorting to “kiss and tell” tactics and showing one’s sour grapes.
Also avoid phrases like “I thought you were my friend” or “Your true colors have surfaced now that I need you most,” because those are the rants of a child – don’t be a cry baby. Move on.
Along the way, relationships will sour and “utang na loob,” or debts of gratitude, diminish and are forgotten easily during challenging times. Jesus lost Judas when the Lord needed him most, Caesar lost Brutus, Andrés Bonifacio lost Emilio Aguinaldo, and former President Ferdinand Marcos lost then-Philippine Constabulary chief Ramos and then-Minister of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, to name only a few.
Politics has always been a dirty, nasty, and heart-rending game; as the cliché goes, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Strong people endure many trials and heartaches and overcome them because they are brave. Sometimes, however, we get tired. When that time comes, when we can no longer walk on our own, God helps us carry our pain. As long as God is here, giving up is never a choice./WDJ