EDITORIAL – There but for the grace of God goes this nation

The protest rallies held last September 21 to coincide with the anniversary of martial law which Ferdinand Marcos imposed in 1972 were "nationwide" only in the sense that they were held in some places in the country.

But judging by their outcome, they cannot be "nationwide "in the sense that they were even remotely sweeping or crippling. A more honest assessment, even by those sympathetic to the causes espoused by the organizers, would be that they fell way short of expectations.

On the other hand, no outsider would probably know what the organizers really expected, considering that their expectations would always be two-fold -- one, the inescapable reality which they could never accept in public, the other as dictated by propaganda demands.

The dismal and pathetic outcome of the September 21 rallies by leftist organizations revalidates, yet again, the ability of the ordinary citizen to discern truth from sham, and the courage to reject that which is being forced down his truth.

For decades now, the leftists have been at it, even if the foreign societies from which originated the principles they continue to espouse have long since adapted to the more dominant realities and learned to reap practical benefits from the readjustment.

We cannot believe the leftists are too dumb to see what is going on everywhere. The persistent suspicion is that, being brilliant enough, they have actually seen where the road is heading but insist on staying the course because of other motivations.

Nothing wrong with that. Democratic space, even in impaired societies such as ours, can still afford elbow room for all sorts of tragic cases although, to our dismay, we do not know why we had to shut the door on Eddie Gil and the "son of god" in 2004.

Perhaps there is a continuing need to put up with the dwindling number of people waving red banners to take over our streets to hamper the movement of the majority of citizens who have far better things to do like earning a living and paying their taxes.

Maybe the fading screams from their megaphones and vandalistic slogans they spray paint in red on road islands serve to constantly remind us that there but for the grace of God would have gone this nation, that therefore we need to stay clear of the trap they lay at our feet.