EVERYTHING BEARS WEIGHT. Humanity and their actions are woven together to form and shape the world as we all know it today. In an ideal perspective, all entities move as propelled by the beauty of responsibility they owe to the cosmos. However, in the truest sense, what lies in every move is contributory to the collective wish of what the world could be in the face of changes—may it be in the negative or in the positive. Such is the black and white of the things we live by, where neutrality finds no solace.
Our responsibility plainly in itself comprises the things we do and the things we do not do. Each moment given is spent out of our every action and inaction, which holds weight directed into one of two ways—of it becoming a moral agent or the contrast of all that is good.
“…truth be told, delayed action bears the same gravity as inaction—don’t look for your personal convenience in enliving the responsibilities that we have to the truth and those left unheard — for that is all that we carry.”
In the recent yet long-standing unfolding of events exposing the depth of corruption in the country, one cannot deny that the continuing suffering and evident injustice, especially among those beyond the shield of privilege, echoes a desperate call for meaningful change, as it always has for the longest time.
With all the injustices and failures that continue to unfold before us, can we really say that doing nothing but just knowing is ever truly harmless? Can we take comfort in not taking an all-out shot to make things right? Or can we remain unshaken in the fact that we did something, but not all that we can, to be against the oppressing system that plagues our country? This is not even a question that seeks answers, but a call to the very answer we cannot bring ourselves to enliven.
Homes wrecked, wallets idle, stomachs churn, lips quiver, eyes water — all in the name of taking something meant to mend and prevent these tragedies. It’s a deadlock that proportionality deviates herein the act of knowing but not taking an all-out shot, as seen in the hiding in the facade of the hierarchy of priorities that puts the very act of standing up in the least of the priorities below the pursuit of academic demands and activities,— shame is an understatement.
No one has the capacity to make the cries of suffering temporarily stop just for the sole reason of tending to the preferential responsibilities that turn down the cries and whimpers of injustice.
You cannot scale between academic responsibilities and your moral responsibility both as changemakers and socially privileged individuals who have the voice loud enough for those who are deaf by choice to hear for once, but for now I ask you, which weighs more if given the chance to put them together side by side? Hear it, feel it, touch it, the pain brought about by these injustices.
Action delayed is responsibility denied, more so a favor to those in power who refuse to give attention to matters that disrupt their illusion of an orderly society. Delaying action is giving undue favor to those entrenched in authority. As much as it pains you to think of it, you unintentionally gave them favor as there is little to no difference between those who choose not to speak up at all and those who choose the time when it’s convenient for them to do so — that’s complicity, it’s performative.
Reiterating, we all are microcosms that form part of the vastness of the universe; we all have the obligation to pursue things not just for oneself but for the greater good.
Making things right in adherence to the all-out shot we have to take in matters involving grave injustices and the tyranny of oppressors, coupled with the inaction for accountability, can never be too late.
Decisive action would always be in the right timing, as it can always be done whenever it’s needed and wanted, but it can’t be delayed in lieu of choosing when standing up is convenient, because truth be told, delayed action bears the same gravity as inaction—don’t look for your personal convenience in enliving the responsibilities that we have to the truth and those left unheard — for that is all that we carry.
Email me at thebedan_newseditor@sanbeda.edu.ph