Put One's Foot Down

Decisions, decisions, decisions. A day won't be complete with making a decision. What to wear, what to eat, where to go on weekend, etc.  Sometimes, making a decision is easy. Other times you have to delay, such as when you have to wait for another person's action.  

Take for example checking of students' assignments. Usually, when a student has missed out something like a completed table of results (from an experiment), I will try to get hold of them to give me the missing requirement. I feel it would be unfair if I penalize them straightaway for what might be a minor requirement. Generally, when tracked down, students oblige. 

However, college is on Easter break these past two weeks!

As I look at the enormous pile on my desk and the certain impossibility to chase up students, I have to put my foot down. I proceeded to mark the assignments as they are presented. For some, I felt good because the students have understood and provided what was required of them. For some, I felt bad because the work wasn't up to standards. Feelings aside, at the end of the day, students have to be assessed based of the quality of their work. At the end of the day, the job has to be done.

This hold true too for an editor. Some articles may have been submitted on time, others past the deadline, still others not submitted at all. There are also articles which may need minor cosmetics or major surgery. At the end of the day, articles have to be vetted. At the end of the day, worthwhile ones have to be published.

Putting one's foot down can sometimes be difficult, especially if you are the type of person who wishes to please everyone. In reality, we cannot please everyone. We cannot always please our kids, our students, our colleagues, etc. Putting one's foot down can cause some angst, but it is only temporary. It is actually liberating!

Recently, we just called to mind how one man put His foot down to save us all from sin. By asserting His love for all people, He stirred the hornet's nest among the powerful and influential in Israel and died on the cross to reconcile us with the Father. By taking a firm stand, He crushed the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). Next time we are tempted to dilly-dally, let us think of Him and ask for the grace to become more assertive as individuals, as a people, as His followers.

Assertion and Propriety

The inclusion of Cecile Guidote-Alvarez’s name (as well as Carlo J Caparas’) in the roster of new National Artists have raised a howl among the likes of Bienvenido Lumbera, F Sionil Jose, and Virgilio Almario. Strangely, their names were not included in the list of names which the Cultural Center of the Philippines – National Commission for Culture and the Arts (CCP-NCCA) jointly submitted to the Palace.

There have been arguments about why Caparas, a known ‘massacre’ movie director would be bestowed such an award. Alvarez, for her part, should not be awarded for the simple reason that she is part of the NCCA as its executive director – her artistic contributions notwithstanding.

I have personally got allergic with awards since 1996 when I accompanied my late Lola Piling to an awarding ceremony in Gagalangin Parish. I was shocked that even the organizers got awards! I looked at an awardee’s plaque of recognition and saw his name twice – as an awardee and a member of the Awards Committee!

For me, you don’t need to be awarded or recognized for just doing your job (or ministry as my friend Vlad Reyes would put it). If awards and recognitions would be your goals in serving the community or the country or God Himself, it would be better not to serve at all.

That is why, I declined an award which the same parish was about to bestow on me in 2005. Service per se is the award!

I know that the parish award would not be at par with the National Artists Award, but I think there’s a similar theme: politics. People want to bestow awards on those who have been their kumpares or kumares, etc. Worse, they want to bestow awards on themselves! It’s time to change politics with professionalism in selecting awards. Otherwise awards would just defeat their raison d’etre.

If I were part of the CCP-NCCA committee vetting out nominees, I would assert our position the same way that the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) asserted itself when the Palace tried to muddle about with the list of nominees to the Supreme Court. The JBC, by the way, got want it want in the end.

If I were Mrs Alvarez I would have, out of delicadeza, kindly declined the nomination rather than be defensive to the President’s prerogative to choose National Artists. Were not Mrs Alvarez and her husband Sonny used to fight against the evils in the Marcos Regime? Were they not part of the fresh air that the Cory Administration brought in to the country? What happened to what they were fighting for? What happened to you, Cecille?

As for those who feel aggrieved by the President’s decision, hail her court!