The Last ROMANTIC?

Just last night,

I was having a conversation
about my impassioned opinions
on matters as diverse as:

the merits of "baston" jeans,
why I enjoy hosting children's parties,
the many ways by which I'll torture Malu Fernandez,
why I feel I might eat my words and still enter politics,
the melancholic, grief-stricken depths of my eyes (huh?),
why "Yahweh, I Know You Are Near" is one of the best mass songs,
the reasons why "Top Chef" is a great reality TV show,

and why all this boundless optimism
in my unshakeable beliefs rounds off to my being
considered a hopeless,
or as i prefer,
a hopeful Romantic.



I don't mind.

I love the fact that
I can still dream with my eyes wide open ",




And so,
upon waking up this non-Manic Monday morning,
I was pleasantly surprised
to read Sara Soliven-De Guzman's column
in The Philippine Star,

which perfectly articulated my feelings about my hero,
Ninoy Aquino,
who, it turns out,
was also considered to be quite the Romantic himself.

Not surprisingly, her tribute
included excerpts from the writings of her father,
one of the greatest Filipino journalists ever.

Here's her dad,
the late, great Max Soliven,

on his Ateneo schoolmate,
Martial Law jailmate,
true friend,
and fellow Pinoy patriot:



"These days,
the Filipino spirit has been dampened,
our self-confidence crushed
under the weight of each revealed inequity,
and tales of resurgent corruption, graft, vaulting ambition –
plus the continuous fight on terrorism.

This is a time for us to remember a man
who believed that the Filipino was “worth dying for,”
and from him gather the renewed resolve
that the Filipino is worth living for, as well.





Ninoy was a hard-nosed newspaperman.
He took risks where others preferred to be prudent.
For him life was a great adventure.



Aquino had that golden tongue
to which every politician aspires,
but with which only a few are gifted.

It goes beyond rhetoric or eloquence on the entablado:
he had a strange power to move hearts, provoke laughter,
attract loyalty and affection,
whip a crowd up to a frenzy and the fervor of a crusade,
inspire hope in listeners
miserably perched in the brink of despair.


Most politicians bet on a sure thing.
Ninoy gambled on the goodness and sense of decency of the Filipino.
A pragmatist would have kept himself safely in the United States
preserving his life “until a better day.”



But Ninoy was a romantic
who believed that promises must be kept,
pledges must be redeemed,
and death – if it awaited him –
must be faced in order to show the people
that there are things more important than life.


When he died,
I penned an adieu entitled:
“Goodbye, Superboy! A Fond Farewell to the Last Romantic.”

Yet, I hope Ninoy was not the last romantic –
for such romantics are what we desperately need
in these painful days of harsh and bitter realities.


Someone once said that it is far better to soar with the eagles,
braving the hunter’s gun,
than to scratch on the ground with chickens.

The hunter’s gun finally found Ninoy Aquino at the airport
which now bears his name.

His spirit was freed to soar among the stars.”




Here are some of the best NINOY AQUINO tribute sites:

http://ninoyaquino.50webs.com/

http://www.tributetoninoy.tk/

http://library.thinkquest.org/15816/