WORDS MATTER

 

“The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45)

The title is a common opener of some quotes. Author David Taylor-Klaus’ quote “bounced back”: “Words matter. And the words that matter most are the ones you say to yourself.” Indian influencer Akshat Jain weighed in: “Words matter but who said it, matters more.” Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton hit the nail on this article’s head: “Words matter when you run for president. And they really matter when you are president.”

The opening line above taken from the Bible is one of my guideposts in relating to people. The whole passage spells out how our words define our character: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.”

Talking about the heart, I was fond of this quote in college: “It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Not only would this Little Prince quote make me sound smart in a campus conversation, but its drift blended also with my predominant loving emotion then driven by chemical oxytocin released by my brain. Later, I made out there’s more than meets the eye about this heart business. As Christian theologian Tim Keller explained:

“The heart is not just the seat of the emotions but also the source of our fundamental commitments, hopes, and trust. And from the heart flow our thinking, feelings, and actions. What the heart trusts, the mind justifies, the emotions desire, and the will carries out.”

That’s why I didn’t vote for PRRD despite we live on the same island and speak the same dialect. The wisdom of the passage “The mouth speaks…” came out on top over such tribal affinity paving the way for me in making a clearer political decision. When all is said and done, only God will judge him. “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on judgment day for every empty word they have spoken.” (Matthew 12:36)

I turn to the same wisdom of the passage in delving into inaugural addresses. Unlike everyday talks where one could wink at his vulgarities with “Joke only,” an inaugural address is a different story. The following inaugural addresses were delivered when the U.S. was, to a certain extent, in the same boat as what PH is going through today. All over the world, still quoted today, are the most eloquent lines.

BEST INAUGURAL ADDRESSES

Addressing the nation at the end of the civil war when people were feeling hostile toward each other, Abraham Lincoln rose above the divisiveness and started the process of healing as immortalized by the following passage:

“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the heart as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wound…”

Speaking directly to the nation in taking the sting out of the panic of a people paralyzed with fear in the bowels of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed:

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Delivering an upbeat message – pressing for change and sacrifice -- as the greatest generation took the reins during the Cold War, John F. Kennedy (JFK) declared:

 “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Breaking new ground for being delivered in color TV and reputed as one of the finest speeches, JFK’s inaugural address changed the world. The height of the Cold War brought to light the danger of nuclear brinkmanship – the same brinkmanship that has been unfolding in the eyes of the world today -- the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

TILTED PICTURE FRAMES

Indeed, words matter in an inaugural address and matter more when a leader, like PBBM, delivered them. I look at PBBM’s speech as perceptive as I look at the interior of a house for the first time. What catches my eye is a tilted picture frame on the wall. I came across “three tilted picture frames” on the wall of PBBM speech: in management, they are called the “exceptions”; in Pareto Principle, the “vital few.”

ONE. “I offended none of my rivals in this campaign.”

Tsek.ph study, a fact-finding collaboration of 34 academe, media, and civil society partners reported:

“Robredo’s quotes have been mangled, twisted, [or] fabricated to make her look like she is spouting nonsense. She has been called, rather harshly, Madumb, lutang, tanga, utal-utal, [among others].”

Disinformation “is really priming the audience to rationalize [the Marcos] lies and distortions,” asserted Fatima Gaw, assistant professor of communication research at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

Just as PBBM keeps holding on to his what-am-I-to-apologize-for bearing on his father’s kleptomaniacal reign -- the loot from which he has enjoyed, so also he insisted on his I-offended-none manner about his supporters’ fierce attacks on Leni Robredo which bolstered his stroke to the presidency.

Alarm Bell. Linda Sapadin, Ph.D. of PsychCentral called it Responsibility Deficit Disorder. When responsibility is placed on the subject, he escapes by name-calling/belittling his foe, projecting to his foe the things he is answerable for, denying and taking the victim role, and citing his foe as reactionary and dangerous, among others.

TWO. “I am here not to talk about the past.”

“Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it,” a quote attributed to philosopher George Santayana, pulls a fast one on PBBM’s words.

Just as PBBM snubbed the Comelec debate – akin to a real-world interview in applying for a job, so he shunned also his work experience history in presenting himself and his plan of work to his upcoming “bosses” – the Filipino people.

THREE. “I am not interested in taking credit…I built them.”

“Fact Check: Bangui Windmills in Ilocos Norte NOT a project of Marcos.” (News TV5, One News, Tsekdotph)

Not only is his claim fact-checked and found to be false, but also he did keep in repeating it. It reminds me of his two vloggers during the election campaign season. One claimed Marcos Sr. got his wealth, the so-called Tallano gold, from a royal family. Though debunked, the vlogger toughed it out by falsely calling the gold -- the “Ill-gotten wealth.” The other vlogger wrongly claimed that the Philippines’ debt doubled to $50 billion under former President Corazon Aquino. The New York Times field reporter pointed out her error, and the vlogger retorted: “So what if it’s incorrect?”

Why is there such an utter display of audacity to tell lies? Perhaps, we’re living in the chasm of a post-truth age as this concluding paragraph depicts:

Just as Trump said, in 2016, “I could… shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voter,” so too vloggers in PH today could post fake news, and wouldn’t lose any believer/follower.

Not just words, but even truth today seems to matter no more.

Head still photo courtesy of Skitterphoto at pexelsdotcom