Non sequitur
PUBLISHED: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 23 September 2007 Issue
A devastatingly handsome young man from New York married his cousin. They say that this man has an unusually vigorous sexual appetite that made his wife consider sex as an ordeal. He had a serious illicit relationship with his wife’s beautiful social secretary, with a young princess from Norway, and carried on a 20 year secret affair with his father’s private secretary.
This man was a chain smoker and known to drink eight to ten shots of martinis a day. They say that he was used to having his own way and never had any doubt that he could always get what he wanted without regard to its moral righteousness. And he did, even after suffering from polio.
The man is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, considered as one greatest presidents of the United States and the only one who occupied that position for more than two terms. He was responsible for the New Deal, a series of economic programs that provided relief to the American economy during the Great Depression in the nineteen thirties.
Born from an aristocratic family in United Kingdom, this man was known for his independent and rebellious nature as a child and performed poorly in school for which he was punished. In 1915, he took much of the blame for the shameless fiasco in the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I, being one of its political and military engineers. Because of the shame from such incident, he was demoted from his cabinet position until he finally resigned from his position.
The man’s fondness for alcohol was well-documented. They say that he consumed alcoholic drinks almost daily for long periods in his life. His favorite was the Johnnie Walker Red whisky. They also say that he often sleeps until noon and used opium while in college.
The man is Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, a politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was a noted statesman, orator, strategist and a key world leader during World War II. His life has been considered to a unique extent as part of modern British and world history. He even won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his own historical writings.
On the other hand, a man born in Austria led one of the greatest expansions in industrial production and civil improvement that Germany had ever seen. He also led the largest infrastructure works in Germany with the constructions of dozens of dams, autobahns, railroads and similar facilities. His policies stressed on the importance of family life with men as breadwinners and women dedicated to rearing up their children.
The man was a decorated war hero and was a known vegetarian. He did not smoke and even promoted aggressive anti-smoking campaigns throughout Germany. And the man, of course, is no other than Adolf Hitler.
The rough profile of these three men figured in circulated emails asking readers which candidates to choose for a political office judging from their background. And without knowing the personality behind their profile, the choice would obviously go to Adolf Hitler.
The foregoing highlights the fact that it is always unfortunate when people recklessly pass judgment on other people for the mistakes they supposedly commit in the course of their lives. Who does not err in the first place? Even saints, heroes, and popes did, once upon their lives. But it is non sequitur that people with distorted values or commit their own share of misdemeanors once upon a time would never have their rightful place in society and history.
What really distinguishes a life of infamy and a life of distinction is the ability of the person to rise above the defining moments of his or her life, especially at a time when his or her sense of innate goodness is being called upon to act and react.
In life, there is no such a thing as an indelible blot if only the person knows how to seek relief from the inherent goodness of his or her own conscience and heart.
