Robbing the dead
AFEW days after we buried my brother Joselito last August, bad elements broke the lock of the gate to his tomb. It makes one wonder about the state of the world.
It’s not clear to me if something was taken, maybe vases that held the bouquets, maybe one or two crosses or candleholders. The family was at least relieved that the new tombstone was spared.
This has become somewhat of a plague in parts of the country, vandals ransacking tombs, taking whatever they can to pay for a temporary hallucinatory high or to pay off a gambling debt.
Vandals violate dead people’s privacy and dignity by ridding the corpses of any jewelry meant to adorn the dead as they pass into the other world. Gold or silver tooth fillings are pried from the dead for a few pieces of coin.
Can this serve as a metaphor for the decline of civilization, decency, or simple respect for others’ basic rights?
Surely it happens around the world, people robbing the dead. If they can rob from the quick who can at least resist, they certainly can rob the dead who can’t.
Bad people do harm or inconvenience to their fellow men. They do it all the time, since time immemorial. And continue to do so.
They pounce on the elderly, the vulnerable, the helpless. They resort to force when they have to, they do it with impunity. And their answer to why they did it is the same every time. “Pangangailangan lang po.”
A victim of a robbery wondered rhetorically on television the other night: “Paano natatanggap ng konsyensia mo na ipakain sa pamilya mo ang ninakaw o inagaw mo sa ibang tao?”
We shake our heads at the incomprehensibility of it all. You steal from others so you can feed yourself or your family. Where is the sense in that?
Forget about civil strife in the world, tribe against tribe. Forget about geopolitical conflict, nuclear power against nuclear power. Forget about terrorists. Forget about political gamesmanship, feudal lord against feudal lord. Forget about corporate one-upmanship, ambitious up-and-comer against ambitious up-and-comer.
Let’s go even more basic: Stealing. Can you imagine a vandal or a gang of them raiding tombs for whatever they can steal: Gold dentures, an heirloom bracelet or necklace, a watch of sentimental value. Why deprive dead people of the most personal of possessions? Why deprive the living of basic property?
Why is the Golden Rule so hard to follow? It’s the most basic of all commands. One wonders if God wonders, looking at the state of the world, if His little experiment to put living beings on this third rock from the sun a good idea after all. Wonder if He has any second thoughts?
Philosophers, theologians, and ethicists may tell us in the future. But for now it’s left to us mortals to ponder whether this little experiment has been a success or a failure. Can the inventions over centuries, great advances in medicine, technology, and research outweigh brutal colonization, exploitation of people by people, corporate greed, political persecution, and man’s brutality against fellow man?
There’s nothing more basic than taking from others what’s not yours. Whether it’s people’s basic freedoms or personal possessions, whether it’s depriving others of their lives or harming them for no rational reason, or whether it’s stealing from the living or robbing the dead.
It all boils down to having basic decency. To living a life based on the Golden Rule. Or to having respect for others.
During this week of honoring the dead, remember and celebrate the departed. And keep the ones still here closer to you and to your hearts.
*** Tantum Ergo. Continually, journalism is better served by those who rise to the surface not through fanfare but pure diligence, hard work, and quiet competence. A recent example from TV reporting is Alvin Elchico, lately Chiara Zambrano and currently, Christian Esguerra.