Icons and Milestones

[UPDATED] Included 2 photos of Cory Aquino's funeral procession as it drove by 6750. Apologies for the lousy images, I left my DSLR at home and had to make do with a lousy Nokia camera phone.

Aug 1, 2009. A day of contradictions. A day of yin and yang. Insert all the "polar opposite" cliches you want to describe this day - all of them would ring true.

The loss of a national icon - in a day and age where icons are so rare and so needed.

Aug 1 was the day that Cory Aquino, former Philippine President and icon of democracy, passed away due to cardiac arrest. She was 76 years old.

I won't spend time talking about the how's and the why's of Cory's passing, nor will I even attempt to compare and contrast Cory Aquino and her condition with Gloria Arroyo and her condition - Conrado de Quiros did an excellent job of it already.

What I will write about is this country's need - any country's need - for icons.

Every country has an icon - something that represents what the country stands for. The United States has the flag, the White House, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King; the Brits have the Union Jack, Buckingham Palace, the Crown Jewels, and the Royal Family; the Russians have the Romanovs, the Kremlin.

Icons are important because they provide a rallying point for the country. Try defacing an American flag in the US and you'll be lucky if you're not tagged as a terrorist; try denouncing the Crown Jewels in the UK and you'll be lucky if you aren't shot. Icons give the people something concrete to believe in as opposed to just an ideal which is amorphous and exists only in the minds and hearts of the people: to African-Americans in the United States, Martin Luther King was their icon for equality.

Without an icon, a country has nothing. It exists merely as a territory defined by international law filled with people who happen to exist in the same place. A nation without an icon is a nation of zombies.

The Philippines has three icons, in my opinion: the 1st EDSA revolution, the Philippine Flag, and Cory Aquino. And today two icons were merged as the honor guard layed the Philippine Flag - the icon of freedom won through hardship and battle - on the coffin of Cory Aquino - the icon of democracy won through prayer and perseverance.

We already are in danger of losing the icon of the 1st EDSA revolution through the corruption of it's idea and the banality of it being repeated. We are also in danger of losing Cory Aquino as an icon of democracy - icons live on after they die - should we let the people forget about who she was and what she did.

Should we lose these 2 icons, then our last icon, the Philippine flag, is in serious danger of becoming just another piece of cloth.

Aug 1 was the day that our icon of democracy died - but what she stood for and fought for will continue to live on as long as we let it. The day we forget who Cory is will be the day that democracy dies in this country.

2 months together!

On a more personal note, Gail and I celebrated our 2nd month together last Aug 1 as well. It may seem too much of a cliche to celebrate monthsaries, but Gail and I like to take this day as a celebration of us being together. Yes, our being "traditional" in this sense has evoked a lot of BWAAAAARK responses via PLOOOOORK, but I've always believed that it's nice to take a step back every now and then and celebrate the simple act of being together.

Gail and I also had a nice talk as the day ended and again I am humbled and awed by the amount of trust that she has placed in me. I always feel that I have been entrusted with something so precious that there I times I feel as if I don't deserve it. :) But at the end of the day (literally given we had the nice chat at the...er, end of the day!), I have a loving and true girlfriend whom I love completely and she also wants exactly what I want in life - both now and in the future.

And on top of that, she knows how to spell words correctly. :P Ok, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

(woot)(cozy)