A few more days to go after today.
This article will not be about my chosen candidate or yours. It will not be about political or econcomic views. This is about you and me. This is about the people you know, the people around you, the people you work with, the people you grew up with.
A friend and former college classmate, Freddie Tan, shared the following piece on his Facebook account. It is a quiet and thoughtful piece, one I think a lot of us need as the election frenzy will only grow wilder as we go through these last 10 days. Take a few minutes, breathe deeply and reflect on Freddie’s words below:
In my entire adult life I have never lived through a more polarizing and divisive election campaign season as this. The last time an election was this polarizing was 1986, and I was still a child then and there was no social media, and it was a bit harder to get into fights about politics. If you are my friend I will not let your personal decision affect our relationship. I will respect your decision as I can never truly imagine how you came about your decision.
In my experience, I have come to the conclusion that all human decisions and actions are motivated by emotions. I guess that is why it was called e-motion, as it is what moves us. We can all pretend to be logical and reasonable, but we only use our logic and reason to get to a desired end goal of which the value we have personally determined emotionally.
Therefore I plead that whatever decision you make, let it not be borne out of the negative emotions of hate, fear, anger or frustration. Don’t let your decision be about fear of crime, fear of another dictatorial rule, hate of a certain candidate’s way of talking, or some other negative emotion (This only leads to the dark side).
The decision we are about to make as a nation is far too important for it to be based on negative emotions. Let our decision instead be based on HOPE, LOVE and COMPASSION. What we hope our country to be. What we want for our loved ones, and what we hope for those who are less fortunate than us.
I personally see good and bad points with all the candidates, I’m not particularly enamoured with any of them, and actually always complain that this is probably the worst crop of presidential candidates we have ever been given. At this point in the campaign, I doubt if anyone who is not undecided could still manage to change their opinions. Anyone who already feels strongly for one particular candidate is probably dead set on their choice.
I now come to my second plea. I ask that whatever results come out on May 9, we learn to accept the decision of the people. If in case your favored candidate doesn’t make it, then please give the winning candidate a chance. If you’re dead set on protesting or causing trouble if you don’t get your way, then you doom all of us and are no better than the dog who would not let the cow eat the hay just because it was hungry (look up the fable, if you fail to get what I mean). Cooperate with him/her as this is the only way to move forward. Do not deliberately try to sink the boat to prove your point. On the flip side of the coin, if in case your candidate wins, please don’t be blinded and always remain critical of him/her and do not forget to hold them accountable.
Whatever happens, and whoever wins May 9. I hope we all manage to set aside our differences and work together. They will have six years to prove themselves to us, but you and I will still be friends beyond those six years. During those six years and beyond we will still be working to better our own lot and hopefully in the process also better the lot of others with us.
PEACE BE WITH YOU.
AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU ALWAYS!
Originally published in Sunstar Davao.
Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.