National Art Month ends February 28

Thirty days has September, April, June and November, all the rest have 31, except February that has 28. And today is the 28th. February was designated as National Art Month, but sad to say there was very little art. Most people were not even aware that it is art month. This is because what little show of art if there was, was upstaged by the EDSA People Power anniversary rallies, police action and lately, the declaration of a state of emergency.

We have always said that the most important thing about any celebration is the plan on how the occasion is to be celebrated. Even the EDSA People Power anniversary was a non-event. This was because there was no real planning on just how the great unprecedented occasion in our history was to be properly commemorated. If you ask us, it was just another day. And instead of a celebration, we had rallies and demonstrations asking President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to make the supreme sacrifice of voluntarily stepping down from office. They don’t even bother to say why she should step down or who will take her place. We agree 100 percent with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that the best transition government is her incumbent administration.

We felt bad about the rallies in Makati and the EDSA shrine. The only good thing about them was that they were peaceful. The police really exercised maximum tolerance. We don’t really see any of our country’s present problems can be solved by rallies and demonstrations. The only good thing that I can say about rallies and demonstrations are that they are much better than terrorism and violence.

Right now, we believe that the country would do well if we concentrate our efforts in helping the victims of the landslide in Leyte. The victims there were literally buried alive and what touches us most is how the whole world responded to come to their aid. What we don’t like about the present rallies is that terrorists may infiltrate the demonstrations and cause either another stampede or just use bombs to kill innocent demonstrators.

As we said at the start of this column, art month ends today, but there will be no stopping more rallies and demonstrations from blocking the normal flow of traffic in our streets. Let law and order replace demonstrations. Let demonstrations be a thing of the past.