Much Ado About Mar's Curse

So much has been commented on Mar Roxas' swearing during the Anti Charter Change Rally. The papers found his cussing a novel experience that they had to mention that it was a departure from Mar's usual decorum. Big Deal! [Incidentally, can someone enlighten me why is it when we cuss in Filipino, we damn the mother ("Putang Ina") while the Spanish damn the son ("Hijo de puta")]

For one thing, it's a welcome change! Mar's dry, droning, didactic decorum has finally given way to a more personal, emotional, bombastic and fighting personality that we should have seen much much earlier. I say, let Mar be the Mr. Palengke he is supposed to be - not the dancing senator with the vendors, but the senator that can convey and express his thoughts and his words in a manner and disposition that any common Juan de la Cruz can empathize and identify with. He may be descended from the Araneta Roxas clan but he should speak and talk to people like Mang Pandoy or the magtataho.

The Palace knows how important it is to relate to the masses. That is the reason why they have criticized the speech of Mar, specifically his cuss words. But let us not be deceived by Anthony Golez and his ilk. They are merely posturing and they know that if Mar descends to the level of the masses, his numbers will surge.

Mar's cursing in the middle of a rally protesting the Palace plans of charter change reminded me of a Christian pastor who was addressing a group of devout Christians regarding world hunger and specifically, the famine in Africa. In his passioned presentation of the gravity of the famine in Africa, he sensed the audience was not relating to the problem. And so, he let slip the cuss word "Damn" in his speech and immediately, the audience was outraged at how a Christian pastor, a man of God, can swear in his speech. The pastor then reprimanded the whole audience that in the hierarchy of things, a curse word is far less than sinful than the indifference they have shown to the plight of the hungry people in Africa.

We should not lose focus on GMA's plans for charter change. Let us not be bothered by Mar's cursing. In the grand scheme of things, Mar's curse will only cost his soul to be damned, if at all, but GMA's devious charter change will damn this country's soul forever.