The idea of heroism sounds a little daft in a culture of game shows and celebrity video-phone scandals. Irony has become such an accidental virtue that it has swung back to hit us in the head. Calling someone a “hero” is to invite sarcasm and self-righteousness. So here we are now, living in a time tragically bereft of them.
Heroes are products of circumstance. There are those who have become so through sheer will, but there are people who become heroes after being pushed to a dead end.
A wise man once said our past shapes our response to the present. This nation was formed on the sacrifices made by martyrs both immortalized and anonymous. A country need not be a colony of a foreign power— it can also be the fiefdom of its own leaders. We are a heroic people, but we can also be shackled by our own pessimism and apathy.
A hero resides in every one of us. It begins in the mind, with one thought that says it can be done. To do all things with pride and dignity, to learn from the lessons of history, to realize that the deeds of our heroes are not hackneyed fables but real, breathing examples of how to live our lives.
This is a song about nobility. Listen.
*Abangan ang Press Launch ng "Kaya Mong Maging DAKILA" song at music video sa Wednesday, February 27, 11 a.m. sa Conspiracy Bar, Visayas Avenue, Quezon City
