Beating a dying horse dead

Half the Philippine population today is either 25 years old or younger. That means for every two Filipinos, one is too young to remember and attach any significance to the Edsa People Power Revolt that ousted the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, or 25 years ago.

 And things are not going to get any better. Today the ratio is one-to-one. But as the years roll on and the population gets ever younger, with three new Filipino babies getting born every minute, recovering the glory of Edsa looks pretty bleak indeed.

 Things would have been different had the changes sought to be achieved by the revolt happened. Then it would have been easy for everyone, including those not yet born at the time, to relate to Edsa because they could at least experience today the fruit of yesterday's sacrifice.

But no such fruit was forthcoming. For 25 long years, the opportunity for change knocked and waited, and then knocked and waited some more. But opportunity is only as precious and as relevant as the ability of anyone to seize it. Without takers, it cannot knock and wait forever.

Next year, it will be 26 years after Edsa. Then 27, 28, 29. Pretty soon it will be 30. Then 40. When 50 swings around, those who were around at Edsa and knew and understood what was going on would be in their 70s, if they are still around. And if they can still remember.

In all likelihood, the second generation of post-Edsa babies would be the ones making up at least half the population, the first generation post-Edsa babies before them having been shoved aside in their turn. By then, all that will remain of Edsa will be in the history books.

But that is 50 years down the road. Even now, with technology hijacking the attention of the young away from things that matter to them, such as who they are and what their heritage and history is all about, rare is the kid who might venture to give Edsa a click.

Edsa is not only doomed to irrelevance somewhere down the road, it is getting irrelevant even today. There is simply nothing to relate to it with. The fact that we have even named two entirely different occurrences as Edsa Dos and Edsa Tres proves we do not know what we want.

Okay, for the sake of the argument, let us sweep the unborn changes everyone anticipated but did not arrive under the rug. Let us instead take up freedom, the supposed buzzword of the revolution.

Edsa restored our freedom, the insistent would allege. Oh really? But freedom is just a concept. If you do not believe me, go try asking around and watch how the answer can change from one person to the other. Go ahead, try it.

At best, Edsa was an emotional experience, great to share stories with (where were you at the precise time Marcos fled?), especially with one another, never mind if he or she is the very person you were exactly with at the precise time Marcos fled.

Or if a good cry is your wild, play Bayan Ko. It works most of the time, until you learn it was actually written in 1929 as a protest song against American occupation. But never mind. It has never been the attitude of tears to choose a reason or meaning to fall.

So, is it then too late to effect the changes Edsa sought out to achieve that its happening in our lives may at last make it relevant enough to deserve bearing its flame in our hearts forever?

Nothing is ever too late. But at the rate things are going, especially noting the fact that a full quarter of a century has passed without the smallest change or reform occurring, the hope of making Edsa truly gain the meaning it so richly deserves is indeed so swiftly fading.

As I have said, those who were around when Edsa happened are not getting any younger. Who are getting younger are those who either cannot relate to what happened then nor experience the benefits of what happened, for the simple reason that no benefits derived therefrom.