Children Devoured

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(on the the 24th anniversary of Edsa 1 People Power Revolution)

"Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children."

-- Georg Buchner- dramatist, revolutionary

NOT to add anything more to the long drawn-out internecine squabble and unmitigated violence (verbal, on-print, bloody) defined in each of the kilometric lists of articles, books, blogs, songs and graffiti that celebrate, lament, dissect or eulogize that phenomenon that shook the world -- including the small urban-poor shanty toilet I was then brooding in -- on the Friday night a shot was fired that reverberated mercilessly all over metro, dragging my feet to brave the haze and maze in a sea of people  stranded on  a weekend picnic  along  concrete highway  that  ultimately fenced  two military camps, then lost my voice screaming with militants at the  barricades by the Palace hours before the disrobed emperor fled 24 Febuaries ago... ho-hum.  Oh, well, I have already chipped in some old "Edsa: Pebrero"  lines and I don't intend to weave new ones anyways.

It's a continuing option for scholars and historians and some sour-graping militants to perform autopsy, ad nauseam, on devoured children, er, revolution lost... no, children and/of the revolution. After all, the "revolution has many fathers," whatever that means. Could it also be that the revolution has many coroners?  LOL. But then, what in turn devoured them fathers?   Ah, whatever! 

What have children got to do with power and revolution?  Uhm... let's see:

                   If  A  Child
                by Amanda Cater

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.

If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship...
he learns to find love in the world.

Or, let's hear it from Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.  

And lastly,

If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again
 by Diane Loomans

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd finger-paint more and point the finger less.
I'd do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I'd run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd teach less about the love of power, and more about
the power of love.

What have children got to do with power and revolution?  Ah, plenty! 
Wasn't he a parent himself who assured the world:
"Revolution is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one" ?