“A
day in the life of a fool
A
sad and a long lonely day
I
walk the avenue and hope I’ll run into
The
welcome sight of you coming your way.”
I was putting together this article about the daily
routine work of our typical senator when the above seemingly symmetrical oldie
but goldie Frank Sinatra’s song flashed into my mind. I thought it is a
charming eye-catching opener for this piece of work.
Having failed in running into the internet for any
exclusive feature of our local senator’s typical day in his work, I opted
instead for Uncle Sam’s counterpart – a US senator from Oklahoma who posted a video
clip “A Day in the Life of Senator James Lankford” in YouTube.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SENATOR
Below are the highlights of the senator’s typical workday
schedule which stretched across ten hours of non-stop communication activities.
7:50 am Senate
prayer breakfast
9:00 Meeting
with constituents
10:00 Homeland
security governmental affairs meeting
11:30 Foreign
affairs legislative update
Noon Vote on Associate Attorney General
1:00 Steering
committee lunch
2:30 Indian
affairs business meetings & oversight hearing
3:30 Headed
to a classified briefing with Dept. of Defense
5:15 Meeting
with Central American Foreign Ministers
6:00 Interviews
with Fox News, Washington Post & CNN
7:00 pm Dinner. Study materials for tomorrow’s meeting. Writing speech
for tomorrow on the Senate floor. Chat with wife and daughter.
The video clip stimulated the following comments,
among many others:
“Thank you for this video, Senator. It will help my
students to feel that government is accessible.”
“I found this channel about Senator Lankford when I
was searching for a day in the life of senators since I aspire to be a senator
one day. This guy is great!”
“Never see any senator creating this clip, at least I can look at everything that you do in everyday life…Hurrah!”
THINKING PROCESS
The senator communicated with many different people
belonging to various groups by exchanging ideas, thoughts, opinions, knowledge,
and information. Only when the people the senator had talked to, clearly understood
him, would he deem himself to have communicated effectively, unleashed by this
crux of the matter – his brain -- which enabled him to think intelligently. Dr.
M. Scott Peck, psychiatrist and author of “The Road Less Traveled” wrote:
“Thinking is difficult. Thinking is complex. And
thinking is – more than anything else – a process, with a course or direction,
a lapse of time, and a series of steps or stages that lead to some result. To
think well is a laborious, often painstaking process until one becomes
accustomed to being ‘thoughtful.’
“Since [thinking] is a process, the course or
direction may not always be clear-cut. Not all the steps or stages are linear;
nor are they always in the same sequence. Some are circular and overlap with
others. Not everyone seeks to achieve the same result. Given all this, if we
are to think well, we must be on guard against simplistic thinking in our
approach to analyzing crucial issues and solving the problems of life.”
I think it is fair to say that the busyness of the above
US senator is not far off from our local senator’s earnestness in his typical
day – both legislators are cut from the same cloth of the US Constitution.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF SENATOR PADILLA
At this point, let’s figure out the grey matter Senator
Robin Padilla has between his ears by placing him side by side with the demand
of the typical day in the life of a senator. His following wisecracks on his so-called
“baptism of fire” in the plenary debates spoke volumes.
“Nahihirapan
lang ako pag nag-e-Englishan na, medyo ‘pwede dahan-dahan lang? Gano’n. Kaya
mahalaga ‘yung journal eh, kaya binabasa ko ‘yung journal kasi nadun lahat eh,
mahalaga ‘yun.”
“Nakatunganga
ako. Tango-tango. Bukas mababasa ko sa journal ito.”
“Hindi
naman lahat hindi ko naiintindihan. Kapag gumamit lang sila ng mga English na
pang-dictionary, marami talaga, eh.”
“Lalo
‘pag nagtatalo na. ‘Yun naglalabasan ng mga Webster doon. Medyo dumudugo tenga
ko. Hindi naman ako pinagsalita eh.”
Ang
journal ko, may mga linya. ‘Pag may linya ‘yun ibig sabihin kailangan ko ng
dictionary.”
“Hindi
pa masyado [as to ‘breaking in’ to the inner circle in the Senate]. Pinipilit
naman ni Senate President na ma-welcome ako. Siyempre bago ka eh, parang sa
eskwelahan din, ‘pag bago ka, makisama ka muna. Pinipilit ko naman makisama.”
In the light of such apparent incompetence, why in the
world is Robin Padilla in the Senate? A 1995 study by the Institute for
Political and Electoral Reform identified Popularity as the leading factor in
the Philippine election driven then by the following electorate profile:
5 in 10 unemployed
4 in 10 high school graduate
6 in 10 class C & D
After almost three decades, just as the above electorate
profile appears to have still lingered today, or may have even worsened due to
the pandemic, so too Popularity, as the leading election factor, has stuck around
as showcased by Robin Padilla’s topping the senatorial winners. Sad to say, only
when our government gives a boost to such an economic-driven electorate profile
will our country be able to get out of this Padilla-Revilla-Lapid showbiz
popularity hole. It’s likely to be a long haul.
SAVVY DOLPHY
Interestingly, many years ago, taking a different
route at that same political crossroads, Dolphy said:
“Kung ako ay papasok sa pulitika, isa lang ang
ikinatatakot ko, dahil kapag nandun na ako, baka mapahiya lang ako kasi hindi
ko alam ang gagawin ko, at sayang lang ang pagboto ng mga tao sa akin.”
His words, “Hindi ko alam ang gagawin ko” is just like
saying “para na rin akong luko-luko” which paves the way for our wrapping up
this article with the second-half of our song opener:
“I stop just across from your door
But you’re never home anymore
So back to my room and there in the gloom
I cry tears of goodbye
That’s the way it will be every day in the life of a
fool.”
Thank goodness, such a senator’s life will only last up to six years.
Head still photo courtesy of Juan Vargas of pexelsdotcom
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