Cogs in the Wheel

For several years, Peoples Tonight carried the column of Dean Amado Valdez. Some of the column pieces have been compiled into a small volume titled PENSEES, the French word for thoughts. It’s an apt title, readers will agree, for commentaries that are timely, entertaining, informative, in simple, storytelling narratives. These are divided into character and values, nation-building, law, politics, foreign relations and arts.

In all the published pieces, Dean Valdez talks of lessons learned from everyday experiences and observations of political and social developments. For starters, he recalls that when he was a grade school pupil nicknamed Mading, he took to heart lessons in honesty and striving for perfection from his teacher in carpentry. Whenever he sees jeepney or bus drivers ignoring traffic lights, overtaking unnecessarily, resulting in monstrous traffic that could have been avoided, he thinks that all could have been avoided had these drivers studied under his carpentry teacher.

In another piece, he wonders what would have happened if Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio had come face to face. Andres knew about Rizal’s novels and letters, his ideas of justice, freedom and independence, all of which made him Andres’ hero and living legend. Andres was also educated, although his education came from the best teacher – experience. (I may call that “university of hard knocks.”) He muses: “If only Andres and Rizal had sat down and talked lengthily (on the night of 03 July, the Philippine revolution could have commenced four years earlier. The fate of the Philippines could have changed for the better.

“Why? We could have won our independence before 1898, before Americans coveted the Philippines. There would not have been a mock battle of Manila Bay between Americans and Spanish naval forces. There would have not been a Treaty of Paris, and the Philippines would not have been sold for P20 million to the United States.

“Though they failed to work together in life, they left behind their respective legacies which we could use in tandem to finish what they have started: “Rizal’s universal wisdom and Bonifacio’s swift action.”

In “When Judges and Rulers Are Not Needed,” Dean Valdez writes that there are “many reasons why you waive the exercise of certain rights. It could be your own survival, or the survival of the community . . . it is understandable to allow yourself to be frisked and your things inspected when entering a building or air lanes, vessels or buses.

“It would be because you want peace of mind.”

“The rational of punishments in laws is to discourage us from being inconsiderate to others. Or to complement the golden rule of not doing unto others what you do not want others to do unto you.

“Man-made laws will only be effective if they are coupled with adherence to the golden rule.

“Many cases could have been avoided had there been more tolerance, which is one face of charity, towards inconsiderate, arrogant, cheating or selfish persons. Our irritation towards the acts of these evil ones would only be momentary. Losing our temper may result in a lifetime of misery in jail.”

Though written on Oct. 28, 2004, the author’s piece on the American political exercise is applicable today, what with the US presidential elections