"let there be peace on earth...and let it begin with me".
one of the many messages of hope when my country suffered from the tyranny of martial law, when people were mercilessly killed just for having opposing political views, was: "it's better to light just one little candle than to curse the darkness".
and the result was people power, when in 1986, millions of people trooped to major thoroughfares in the capital city and overthrew a dictator. when priests, nuns, and other ordinary people offered rosaries, flowers, food and other symbols of peace to the dictator's soldiers, it signalled the end of his oppressive rule of almost 20 years. tanks, trucks, and other armored vehicles were stopped dead in their tracks by people who put their own bodies on the line for the sake of freedom.
the philippines may be infamous for a variety of reasons, but at least we showed to the world that it is only thru peace that we can achieve our goals. nothing good ever comes out of the barrel of a gun.
