Respect for Life

In Europe one does not have to tremble in fear while crossing a pedestrian lane. Motorists there shift to low gear and immediately stop to allow pedestrians to cross even if the traffic light turns green. There’s courtesy and etiquette on the road.

It is different here. A pedestrian must turn his head twenty times to ensure that he doesn’t get run over by speeding vehicles. In fairness, however, there are some motorists who do care and who deserve our commendation.

European motorists’ respect for and courtesy towards pedestrians reflects their respect for human life.

It is thus not surprising that Europeans have long abolished the death penalty for criminals. The European Union now helps other peoples of the world who advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. One of the Philippine private organizations that advocated for the abolition of the death penalty was actually funded by the EU.

The Philippines finally abolished the death penalty, but Ms Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo was pressured to do so when she was about to visit the Pope last year. Although the death penalty has been abolished, human life remains cheap in this country. Many Filipinos still fear for their lives as they walk into valleys of extrajudicial killings. Others fear for slow, agonizing death as hunger and poverty stare them in the face.

For us who have been through martial law and for our surviving elders who have been through World War II, we all continue to ask the same question Bob Dylan had asked in the 1970s (or was it 1960s?): “How many deaths will it take ’til they know that too many people have died?” The answer, my friend, it seems, is, again as Dylan says, “blowin’ in the wind.”

While our Buddhist brothers and sisters are practicing ahimsa (non-violence, which includes respect for all life forms), we, as a dominantly Christian nation, are not also lacking in doctrines or tenets about reverence for life. We have the biblical Ten Commandments, which commands us not to kill. Even under our indigenous culture, human life is precious.

But something continues to defy our Christian and indigenous respect for life. In the dead of night, a beloved son gets shoved into a van and disappears without a trace. To her credit, the mother, although grieving inside, prays for the abductors of her son, invoking the Holy Spirit to soften their hearts so they may finally release him. Based on her instincts, the mother believes her son, who must have suffered a lot under his captors, is still alive.

If only the abductors could put their feet in the shoes of their captive and remember their own mothers, maybe they can have a better view of human life, which we have no right to snuff out.