Prudence is the better part of valor
AN open letter by Ateneo de Davao University Professor Gail Ilagan to Davao City Police Office Director Michael John Dubria about a female student who had the misfortune of riding a white taxi, whose driver is apparently into the modus of drugging the passenger through some chemical released inside the taxi, is going the rounds in social media after it was posted on the online news provider Mindanews.
As Prof. Ilagan wrote, the student rode the taxi on her way to school from Damosa but noticed the scent of a chemical that was making her sleepy. She also noticed that as she became more drowsy, the driver drove toward the isolated portion of Cabaguio Avenue instead of going to Ateneo. She managed to ask the drive to drop her at the area where there was a group of security guards, and groggily went down. It took her sometime, however, to explain to the security guards why she was so, and by then, the taxi already left.
While indeed, Davao City takes pride in having honest and helpful taxi drivers, it pays to educate our children to never let their guard down in public, especially because more and more people are migrating to Davao City. It's but normal to find a good number of scalawags among hundreds of newcomers.
Yes, for so long, the community, local government, and law enforcers were able to build a city that is relatively safe for everyone. But that should not mean that we let our children live oblivious to the dangers of the real world.
We're not saying that we should raise our children in paranoia. Rather, we should train ourselves and our children to be mindful of the goings on around us. Mindfulness is not paranoia.
Mindfulness is an open awareness and appreciation of the people, the objects, and the environment such that we appreciate the good and pick out the bad. It's also mindfulness that makes us automatically give way to a person approaching when we happen to be hogging the whole aisle or corridor. It's mindfulness to stand on the right side of an elevator and allow the left side for those rushing up or down. Mindfulness is not slamming the door when you go in or out of an office or room where there are other people inside.
Notice the goings-on around you, be part of what's going on, and in the process notice also what is amiss. It can be how the taxi driver is acting or driving us around, or it can be on how a jeepney passenger is behaving.
From what we can observe in the city, with people young and old, but mostly young, very confident of the city's safety and security, they have become oblivious of everything except their mobile phones and music. And this is not how we should be raising the next generation.
Mindfulness and vigilance is what will ensure that our city remains the safe city that we have always been proud of. This city did not become what it is without the people looking out for each other. Teach your children to do their part.