I COULDN’T really relate with the tune of Alessia Cara’s song Seventeen. But a stanza struck me that goes this way: “So hear me scream. I was too young to understand what it means. I couldn’t wait ‘til I could be seventeen. I thought he lied when he said take my time to dream. Now I wish I could freeze the time at seventeen.”
Seventeen years old and thereabouts remind of Dante Pancho, Daisy Villamor, Almarie Edca, Blessie Velasco, Ángelo Alimante, Rene Ang, Jericho Harder, and so many others. I have to apologize for omitting the names of others. They are God’s young faithful servants in The Feast and He Cares Mission for street children.
We call each other as brothers and sisters, because we have one Father, Abba and we’re all children of God, notwithstanding demographic differences.
We don’t scream but we dream. We dream that by God’s grace they finish their K to 12 and college studies. I dream that they become successful in their professional life.
I pray for God’s blessing that they remain faithful to God as they fulfill the greatest commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
My dream is that they join their brothers and sisters in Christ in becoming career officials like Drs. Bebe Bantugay, Angelie Grace V. Álvarez, IT specialist Garlyn Balo Lobaton, accountant Rinah Marie Vinco, entrepreneur Alma Otero Hinolan, teachers Alan Brillantes, Gab Jaime Ciron, Lorenzo Cabral Magsipoc, Pamela Exclamada, and scores more who combine and balance a good cocktail of faith, family, and career.
I scream at seventeen. Because a seventeen-year-old has been killed, denied of a life to become what he wants to be in life. He never dreamed he would end up food for the worms to soon.
Yes, police officers have been implicated in the summary execution of Kian Lloyd de los Santos, accused of “nanlaban” against civilian-clad policemen.
All that Kian wanted was to be able to take up his test the night because he was picked up by agents of the law.
I scream at the death of 17-year-old Emmanuel Lorica, or the 22-year-old Rowena Tiamson, who was found lifeless with her hands tied and face covered, with a cardboard sign “Huwag tularan, pusher.”
Their lives on earth have been frozen at their teens and young age. They’re gone too soon, because they were murdered by vigilantes and law enforcers who were sworn to serve and protect them.
May police officers under the Bacolod City Police Office and the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office remain faithful to their oaths of office and assure that our Negrense 17-year-olds grow up to be parents and bury their parents when their join the Prince of Peace in the Kingdom of God in heaven.
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)
