Four battering rams and more

An old man like me fully understands the archaic line "early to bed and early to rise". My lady Carmen and I have adopted this practice of retiring early in the evening. As it usually happens, soon after resting our backs, our eyes close and shut our consciousness of this world as well. If somehow, in my case, I am unable to sleep, reading a book or watching a television program of any kind, does me a sleeping magic.

In the middle part of last week, it was unmistakably different. For two successive nights, I could not doze off a minute despite doing everything I knew which would have otherwise lulled me to sleep. The situation was unthinkable. It was as if four rams kept alternately battering all the fragile walls of our humble abode. Our equilibrium was irreparably shaken and our composition viciously shocked.

A battering ram is brutal tool of oppression. It is employed by rulers who are motivated by the insatiable greed to stay dominant. Wielded by masters drunk with power, the battering ram violates the sanctity of the home and desecrates the nobility of the mind.

The four rams I am talking about carried some distinguished identities. They were those of venerable names as hallowed as that of Judas before he betrayed Jesus. Until the time I shall have crossed the great beyond, I can never forget their names, Defensor, Jaraula, Lagman and Villafuerte.

Such was the situation few days ago. The cabal of four battering rams, moving to the orchestration of two alternating maestros, one of whom had the tag Del Mar, sought to scuttle a particular ancient and established rule of an institution. Their object was the obliteration of Section 105. But they did not explain why. They did not clarify their intentions and because of which I could only surmise that they probably thought it was best to keep their goals secret.

In the course of answers given to questions asked, I could only discern that Section 105 stood the harshest test of time. For many generations, it solemnly guided the flux of nationalistic thoughts into patriotic resolutions. As discussions brought its philosophy to light, Section 105 served to make sure that every reasonable effort of the institution to adopt anything would satisfy a definite process, time consuming though it might be. For instance, if the institution wanted to write a new form of government, its proposals would have to course thru the gauntlet.

Somehow, Section 105 would serve as a problem to the clique where the four battering rams belong. It was an insurmountable hindrance to the attainment of quick, glaringly selfish and obnoxious end of keeping them the scepter of power. It had to be wasted. And the onslaught started with the battering rams.

Few men valiantly fought to preserve the rule. Their numerical inferiority notwithstanding, they won a brief battle. Shortly after Section 105 was blown to smithereens, battering ram Jaraula tried to reformat our government. It was however discovered that the subject of his discourse was not even written in the orders of the day. Under the simplest rules of any organization, it was a fraudulent intercalation of the agenda. With the wayward ram unmasked, his commander had to stop him on his skewered tract. That abrupt end at 3:50 in the morning of Wednesday brought me some relief. But I could not sleep anymore in the remaining hours.

The battering resumed in the afternoon of Wednesday. The cabal rammed another (meaning newly introduced) resolution and despite the newness of the subject, the majority, anticipating to be gifted with a new lease of their power, shamelessly propped it up with their ayes. Ah, they won the war.

Today, as I write this article, I realize that I am not alone suffering the misery of being subjected to vicious (and I claim illegal) battering rams. The reactions of an indignant society indicate that the clique might not have won the war, after all. There is, in fact, a breaking news which seems to show the impact of the people's backlash. By saying to the effect that they are reconsidering their move, the head of the cabal clearly anticipates the chance of their being overrun by the very people they have terrorized with their battering rams. If they be lynched, it only springs from their own undoing.