Flowing within my veins is the blood of the first Filipino. The blood
that was spilled in the spoils of war, dropped from the slugs of riffles
and the blades of the swords. It stinks to the bone from the decaying
flesh of those who sacrificed their lives. It reeks of pungency from
sweeping the entire legion of fallen warriors but splashed the sprouting
courage that bloomed to become the next generation of fighters for
liberty.
Allow me to greet you a pleasant day and continue with
a quote that says, “It is the fervor of the youth that holds the
world’s temperature at its normal state; when the youth cools, the rest
of the world freezes.”
In his youth, the great Jose Rizal captured the imagination of the world with his resilience, courage and intelligence more than any other person in the Philippines. His penchant for politics reaches beyond the shores of our 7,107 islands when he led the reformists to use the mighty pen against our tormentors. It was when he published his two great works, the Noli and El Fili, which upon reaching the Philippines stirred the consciousness of the people, blazing their courage into an inconsumable fire. It enraged the Spaniards that consequently caused Rizal’s imprisonment and brought his untimely death in Bagumbayan. All these are proofs of his overgrown prestige as the premier national hero who is being revered with almost larger-than-life status. Legend has it that some even see him as a god of mythological proportions –an apparition of a great warrior from long ago.
But let me digress a bit off his legend and imagine him time-travel to where we are today. Can you visualize Dr. Jose Rizal in front of a laptop with Facebook loaded on its browser, displaying him all the menus, the icons, the tabs and the graphical interfaces he had never seen before? What could possibly happen when suddenly the Android phone rings beside him with rap music by Gloc 9, or Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball or Psy’s Gentleman? Can you picture him replying to text message or see him press his thumb in the built-in finger print scanner of the latest Iphone 6?
That would’ve been outrageous. He might had had his nose-bleed or suddenly knocked out by heart attack barely five minutes since his arrival. I’m telling you that would have been crazy!
The greatness of Jose Rizal is unparalleled. His life, his works and brain may have been unmatched. But his time already came and went. He is an icon until today and the future. A legend. An inspiration. His monuments will speak for him. But we are now in a different era where greatness such as his has entirely changed. Ours is a new world of different horizons but our strength, as a youth, makes no thing impossible. For impossible for us is nothing.
Just think of what we can accomplish now that we are free from the war-torn epoch with all the tools and technology at our disposal. Just remember our recent predecessors when they were able to conquer those places, which they thought were impossible to reach. The vastness of the ocean, now we know how compact it really is; The height of the sky, we scaled it by planes and drones; The outer space, which was feared, we now can set foot not only on the moon but soon even the planets and far-away galaxies.
For it is within our hands that we can make things possible. We may put our lives on the line like what Rizal did but we can do even more. The fervor, that fire we carry inside our consciousness could stir not just a country but an entire world and beyond. The frigid, lifeless worlds will turn ablaze with just a flick of our fingers. And the one thing we can put this fervor into full throttle like Rizal is in that most impermanent thing: CHANGE.
The young people are today’s Jose Rizal. They carry the ultimate power to change the world. They have enough strength to shape the future. And I am one of them.
In his youth, the great Jose Rizal captured the imagination of the world with his resilience, courage and intelligence more than any other person in the Philippines. His penchant for politics reaches beyond the shores of our 7,107 islands when he led the reformists to use the mighty pen against our tormentors. It was when he published his two great works, the Noli and El Fili, which upon reaching the Philippines stirred the consciousness of the people, blazing their courage into an inconsumable fire. It enraged the Spaniards that consequently caused Rizal’s imprisonment and brought his untimely death in Bagumbayan. All these are proofs of his overgrown prestige as the premier national hero who is being revered with almost larger-than-life status. Legend has it that some even see him as a god of mythological proportions –an apparition of a great warrior from long ago.
But let me digress a bit off his legend and imagine him time-travel to where we are today. Can you visualize Dr. Jose Rizal in front of a laptop with Facebook loaded on its browser, displaying him all the menus, the icons, the tabs and the graphical interfaces he had never seen before? What could possibly happen when suddenly the Android phone rings beside him with rap music by Gloc 9, or Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball or Psy’s Gentleman? Can you picture him replying to text message or see him press his thumb in the built-in finger print scanner of the latest Iphone 6?
That would’ve been outrageous. He might had had his nose-bleed or suddenly knocked out by heart attack barely five minutes since his arrival. I’m telling you that would have been crazy!
The greatness of Jose Rizal is unparalleled. His life, his works and brain may have been unmatched. But his time already came and went. He is an icon until today and the future. A legend. An inspiration. His monuments will speak for him. But we are now in a different era where greatness such as his has entirely changed. Ours is a new world of different horizons but our strength, as a youth, makes no thing impossible. For impossible for us is nothing.
Just think of what we can accomplish now that we are free from the war-torn epoch with all the tools and technology at our disposal. Just remember our recent predecessors when they were able to conquer those places, which they thought were impossible to reach. The vastness of the ocean, now we know how compact it really is; The height of the sky, we scaled it by planes and drones; The outer space, which was feared, we now can set foot not only on the moon but soon even the planets and far-away galaxies.
For it is within our hands that we can make things possible. We may put our lives on the line like what Rizal did but we can do even more. The fervor, that fire we carry inside our consciousness could stir not just a country but an entire world and beyond. The frigid, lifeless worlds will turn ablaze with just a flick of our fingers. And the one thing we can put this fervor into full throttle like Rizal is in that most impermanent thing: CHANGE.
The young people are today’s Jose Rizal. They carry the ultimate power to change the world. They have enough strength to shape the future. And I am one of them.
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