Lack of common sense dangerous

It is simply incredible how there is so much madness in the world. It is bad enough that a public school teacher had to be arrested and face possible jail time for losing his grip on common sense by threatening the life of President Duterte online, it is worse when his idiocy is defended, and his arrest labeled as an act of oppression and a curtailment of free speech.

 The teacher, by his profession an educated man, should have known better than to offer on Twitter a P50-million reward to anyone who can kill Duterte. You just cannot do that, free speech notwithstanding. Not even if you are just joking. And it has nothing to do with Duterte, or any president for that matter. You just cannot threaten anyone, including your own self by standing on the ledge of a building. You will get arrested if you do.

But as stupid as the teacher was, even more moronic is the reaction of a leftist teachers organization who, for no other reason than to criticize the administration, as it has consistently criticized every administration since its inception, called the incident an attack on democracy and an attempt to sow fear on the people.

Since the secretary-general of the group seems so hot on democracy and free speech, here is a good test to his beliefs: Why doesn't he go to the USA, the avowed bastion of democracy and free speech, and there, at the gates to the White House, offer money to anyone who can kill its present occupant. On the plane to America, he might even shout “BOMB” for good measure. Let us see how many teeth free speech will allow him to keep.

You see, there is no freedom that is absolute. On the matter of free speech, just because you can say it does not mean you have to actually say it. You cannot shout “fire” in a cinema. More importantly, there is such a thing as equal rights. The right of one to say anything ends where it infringes on the right of another to be secure in his person.

Here is another challenge to the secretary-general of the leftist teachers organization that is so quick to invoke freedom and democratic rights. This challenge, however, works only on the assumption that he is married: What if Duterte, an avowed lover of women, comes up to his doorstep and, in the spirit of democracy and freedom, demands to sleep with his wife? Will the secretary-general meekly submit?

You see, it is so quick and easy to invoke democracy and freedom when all you have to do is mouth it. But the real defenders of democracy and freedom displayed their commitment to democracy and freedom by giving up their lives that we may live and enjoy the space they provide. Those who made the supreme sacrifice to bequeath us this gift never said anything in democracy and freedom's name. They just prayed in a hail of real bullets.

One other thing about this leftist organization of teachers --it loves to mouth freedom and democracy and has thrived under their protection. But in reality, it has been relentlessly working to undermine freedom and democracy from within. Suspected of being communist surrogates, they are no different from viruses eating out the guts of their democratic hosts. They demand the entitlements of the very thing they seek to destroy.