Revolution
Last Sunday, the Catholic Church in the Philippines celebrated Migrants’ Sunday. In my parish, at the end of the Mass, the priest asked migrant workers who were on vacation and visiting their families as well as family members of migrant workers who were abroad to come to the altar to be blessed. At first, there were two or three men who stood up and walked self-consciously towards the front. A few seconds later, they were followed by many more people – men, women and children. At that point, the whole altar was covered with people and about a fourth of the pews were left empty.
Looking at the families at the altar, you couldn’t tell at all that they carried this burden with them – the burden of an absentee family member. As I watched them, I couldn’t help but be teary eyed. After all, I too had my own family members abroad.
Having a loved one working abroad is a common phenomenon these days. There is hardly anyone left who doesn’t know a neighbor, friend or family member who left the country to live and work away from home. There are many reasons people leave. But I couldn’t help but think, how many of these people would have wanted to stay had their financial situation allowed them to. How many of them wish daily to come home and yet sacrifice and remain in a foreign land so they can offer their loved ones a better life.
Over the many years I have taught children of overseas workers, I have seen firsthand the toll it has taken on Filipino families. Raising children is hard enough when both parents are around, but it becomes increasingly more difficult when one parent is away. And yet, people endure. Because they must.
People consider overseas contract workers the new Filipino heroes these days. I feel a little uncomfortable about that. Not because I do not think these people are heroic. But because I am wary that those in the government who can make a difference in their lives might just be giving them a euphemism so that they can accept their situation better. When, really, we should be angered by it. We should feel uncomfortable and disturbed. We should be worrying why so many of our countrymen and women want to leave in order to get a decent life.
We’re made to believe that drugs are the biggest problem we have as a country. But unemployment, lack of decent housing, poverty and lack of education are serious problems too. And calling people heroes for finding ways to deal with it shouldn’t be enough. I wish I could call on the spirit of the EDSA revolution to disturb us again – to help us get off our comfortable lives and see what changes we need to bring about. And I wish, too, I felt more inspiration than this looming helplessness I feel when I look at government officials who are more concerned about politicking and less about public service. The weight of what needs to be done is staggering.
And so perhaps, now more than ever, we need to remember that we are a nation of heroes – that whether we are in this country or out of it, we can make the impossible happen. That our hope and our courage bring us to the change that we truly deserve. That this time, our revolution can last longer than a generation.