BY DAVID M. BERMUDO
COLORS! Politics definitely is bright with colors. Yellow for the Dilawan. Red for the loyalists, the Marcos-pa-rin crowd. Blue for Isko Moreno. Now whether it signifies basura or other things foul I really don’t know.
Green, the Doy Laurel and the Sarah Duterte color. Easy to forget like Doy, oppressive on the mind like Sarah. Although Batangueños will argue that Batangueños, from the iconic kuatro kantos to barako coffee to the irascible Taal to that mustache, yes that mustache! – patented in Batangas – are guys not easy to forget, and Sarah loyalists will insist that green is an antidote to black eyes and flying fist.
Then we have Black – the color of protest – popular both in marches and demonstrations – in Ugarte Field or in Plaza Libertad – in the wake for Tokhang victims or those who died of plain arikis. Ha!
Politics is replete with colors! And don’t underestimate Pink – the softest of color but the most persuasive, easy on both the eyes and the heart, evoking images of cute kittens and loving dogs!
This color is easy to underestimate to the consternation of the likes of BBM and I can say in all honesty that it will be the most pervasive and dominant color for the next decade.
But let these colors collide and you will experience an interstellar Big Bang comparable to that of the War of the Worlds – only this time the rules of engagement are more brutal, more scorched earth, more Punic Wars Hannibal Barca – Scipio Africanus brand of rivalry.
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If I sometimes appear sarcastic in this column it is just a coping mechanism in times like this. And, of course, sarcasm of the sincere and gentle kind can change society as Rizal demonstrated in his novel Noli Me Tangere.
This pandemic has done me a lot of good. I have acquired a sense of humor which I must have to shield me from COVID-19, according to my friends and well-meaning enemies. When I unleash it on them they simply do not know whether to laugh or cry – with teary eyes born out of love or hatred – for me of course. They offered me an armistice worthy of a Munich – so out of proportion to my perceived insanity – truly, life is unfair!
Thank you so much Atty. Elvas for the title of this column. It is very appropriate in this time of pandemic when mortals should catch thoughts in flight…the better for them to spread their own wings, otherwise they will be imprisoned within their own mind./PN
