To inconvenience is ‘raison d’etre’ of rallies

Carmela N. Noblejas is with us who oppose Ferdinand Marcos being buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Letters, 11/28/16). It can confuse the young in need of role models.

It has taken a while for me to write this letter because she, our ally, also complained about being inconvenienced along Katipunan last Nov. 18, that Black Friday when, she said, three esteemed Ateneans joined their “unprincipled colleagues” in the Supreme Court.

With all due respect, I think a rally is effective if it inconveniences people, to make them think of things they’d rather not think about.

As abolitionist Afro-American Frederick Douglass said, we may want and have the ocean but only with the awful roar of its many waters.

Thanks to the “unprincipled” Supreme Court, the very young who spend/waste time, like the rest of us, texting and selfie-ing, now ask about how it was during the Marcos years, and campaign and march in intense principled involvement. A balanced view is what they get of Marcos, who was not pure evil.

Hitler, after all, was behind the affordable Volkswagen, the people’s car. And Mussolini was said to have made Italian trains run ontime. But, these fascists are not remembered for these positives.

We now have a Reign of Terror and Error. I remain hopeful that the Prez will reform to land on the right side of history, and not with Hitler and Mussolini.

The Marcos Supreme Court of 1972-86 also played a key role in that Dark Age, when it came to martial law cases. The Marcos justices are not recalled fondly, save for a few, like Justices Concepcion, Zaldivar, Teehankee and Muñoz-Palma. The others, with their breath-taking legal jujitsu, have long been consigned to the ash heap of history—where the New Marcos Nine may join them?

RENE SAGUISAG,

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