EDITORIAL - No special heroes for martial law

The declaration of martial law by President Marcos in 1972 will once again be observed today. As had been the experience the past several years, it will be an observation of diminishing significance. Only a few holdouts continue to attach great meaning to the occasion.

Maybe it has something to do with an increasingly youthful population. With half the population of one hundred million aged below 25 years, it is difficult to force those who have not even been born during martial law to understand and appreciate what those dark years truly mean.

On the other hand, even among those who lived through those trying times, it is an undeniable fact that not everyone suffered in the same way as others. There are many still alive today who won't hesitate to swear by the graves of those fell that they did not suffer at all.

If there is one thing all Filipinos can perhaps agree on, it is that martial law meant many things to many people. Those who feel very strongly against martial law are no doubt those who were fully aware and who fully understood what Marcos was doing to the country and thus became his sworn enemies.

But it is not the fault of the many other Filipinos at the time that they did not see things the same way. Perhaps they simply did not have the same access to information that others did. Or maybe they just chose to ignore their lot and simply went on living. A few may even have benefitted actually from the situation.

Whatever it is, it is not fair to slap exclusivity on this hiccup in our history. Just because some people emerged from martial law relatively unscathed does not make them any less Filipino worthy of their own claim to respect and dignity. Nowhere does it say you had to be a victim to be able to hold your head high.

Come to think of it, those who think that way only exposes the true measure of their character, and they become no better than prostitutes specializing in misery for sympathy. Suffering, in whatever degree and by whatever cause, is a measure of strength. Just surviving is its own unquantifiable price.

Therefore, for any observance of martial law to continue being relevant even in these "detached" times, it must learn to embrace everybody who lived through it and not just those with the scars to show for it. They also serve, even those who sit and watch.