Letter for Myles

MYLES Albasin, the Cagayanon who was arrested on illegal firearms possession charge along with five others in Mabinay, Negros Oriental, turned 21 late last month.

Friends and relatives gathered here to celebrate her birthday. I would like to share a letter from one of her godmother in lieu of my regular My Wit’s End this week.

Felany Opiso-Williams is a godmother of Myles. She is now an accountant at Santa Clara County, California. She used to be a proofreader on one of the local daily newspapers in the city. Read on:

Dear Myles,

My kids think things work at the press of a button. Like most kids in the US, they don’t have a concept of what is a struggle. If you ask, they’ll say it’s homework.

At the water cooler at work, we Asian mothers worry that our kids don’t have survival skills. Our kids don’t even know how to cook rice, a must for us Asians. Will they survive living on their own in college? And what if God forbid war happens and pushing buttons don’t work? What if the microwave doesn’t work? The dishwasher? Or the washer and dryer? Will the future be safe enough for our kids to have a family of their own and a happy life?

One mom took her children back to China for a visit and her son said: “Don’t take me back here. It’s too hot! Why do we come here anyway?” It’s the same pattern for the other kids. “Why come here? It’s too poor, I don’t like it here.”

As a mom of action, I decided we’re going to spend this summer in the Philippines and my kids will learn how to cook rice using firewood and eat fish and vegetables instead of Panda Express takeout. I told them they are going to do a third world integration so they will learn the difference between a first world problem and a third world problem.

Then came the shocking news that my godchild, an activist integrating with peasant farmers in the Visayas, was caught by the Philippine military in a fake encounter, branded a terrorist and would have been shot in the vagina as ordered by a foul-mouthed misogynist who unfortunately happens to be the Philippine president, if not for media presence.

I could talk about the dichotomy in Philippine politics and its socioeconomic environment but that would be a very long soliloquy indeed. At least, picture shanties next to American style malls. Suffice to say to live in that place, in that culture, would be challenging for any person with liberal democratic ideals.

Ironically, that environment also fires youthful idealism. And I’ll say this in terms that my kids can understand: That environment challenges the youth to want to be superheroes. There is a reason why superhero movies make billions at the box office. Who doesn’t want to be Wonder Woman or Super Girl?  Or Katniss Everdeen? Youth activism is practically a rite of passage in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, while youth survivors in Florida, marching on Capitol Hill, were praised for their “incisive thinking and passion,” and considered “beautiful specimens of ideas and insightfulness,” by American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson who number former president Barack Obama among her fans, there is no such praise for the idealistic youth in the Philippines.

As a mother, I refuse to fail my children. I left the Philippines in my youth because it failed me. While I’m not surprised at the disturbing turn of events, I’m angry that after all these years, democratic ideals still struggle to take root in Philippine society. I’m angry at those who were given the public’s trust who then respond with viciousness instead of with a call for unity. And a public who, too often, surrender rational thought to divisive diatribe. Sadly, the Philippines has a degenerate form of democracy.

As a mother, I worry about my children and, more immediately, my godchild. Youth survivors in Florida chose to fight. Youth’s default. My godchild chose to do the same and be a voice for the poor. Oh to be young and unafraid!

Myles, we may be your absentee godmothers but please know we love you, we think of you,  we pray for you, and we are here to support you. No matter what everybody else says, you have the right to choose your path to follow. If you decide to choose a different path later in life, that is your right, too. But nobody, and I mean NOBODY on this Earth, has the right to play God and extinguish your light! While we are watching things unfold at your end, know that we are capable of taking action at our end. Remember, hell hath no fury like a mother defending her cub!

We may have angry tears in our eyes, but we do not cower! You, my child, are a reflection of who we were, of hopes long gone and dimmed, hopes we left behind for a better life somewhere else, but festering and unresolved. When they dehumanize you, our souls writhe in fury! You are our godchild! You are ours!

With so much love,

Your Ninang Felany