Mga bayani at mga nagpapakabayani

Marahil dahil katatapos lang nating gunitain ng Araw ni Senador Ninoy Aquino at ng Araw ng mga Bayani, tungkol sa mga bayani ang bagong article ng guro kong si Prof. Luis Teodoro — na kakapagdiwang lang ng kanyang kaarawan. Ganito ang bahagi ng isinulat niya:

Heroes all in the public mind and eye, what Rizal, Luna, Bonifacio, and Aquino seem to have had in common was how far they were from the perfection people assume heroes to be.

But there’s another sense in which they seemed to have been so much like the rest of us, and it’s in their having shared the same impatience, anger and outrage over injustice and misery many people do experience.

At dagdag pa niya, na sinasang-ayunan ko rin:

What made them different, however, was that they did something about it, and they did so despite the peril to life, liberty and fortune that writing a book, organizing a revolutionary organization, taking up the gun and leading men in battle, and even the simple act of coming home offered.

Apparently that’s much more than what most people are prepared to do, however. In the Philippine age of apathy, so few are prepared to risk much less than life, liberty or fortune to contribute their warm bodies to a demonstration or to even write a letter to the newspapers, outraged as they may be over high prices, poverty, corruption, injustice, and putrid governance.

Sobrang totoo iyan. Gaya nito: ‘I wanna go out! Stupid rally.’

Di na nga yata uso ang mga bayani sa panahon natin. Di nga ba’t kapag may mga nagmamagandang-loob na tumulong, pinagtatawanan at tinatawag na “nagpapakabayani”? At kapag may mga taxi na driver na nagsosoli ng mga naiwan ng mga pasahero, sa pagiging kakaiba (oddity) ng pangyayari ay nagiging news item ito?

Sa kabilang banda, may natitira pa ring Bayani — yung nakikita nating ang mga tauhan ay nanghaharibo ng mga nagpipilit magpakabuhay na mararalitang taga-lungsod sa kalsada, may mala-Big Brother posters sa EDSA, at kumakanta nang may ka-duet sa telebisyon. Balita ko, gustong maging pangulo ng Bayaning ito.