“COME together right now…over me” – immortal lines from probably one of the greatest singers/songwriters of all time, the late John Lennon.
The lines were from Come Together, a campaign slogan/song written by Lennon for psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary when he ran for governor of California. It didn’t really make much of an impact as he lost. But the song became the anthem when John Lennon was shot and people came together to his grave and pay respect and homage.
There’s nothing like a tragedy to make people come together.
Indeed, there is no better time for all of mankind…oops, just so the “politically correct” won’t be offended, let’s change that to “humanity”, to come together and have a united front against this coronavirus a.k.a. SARS-CoV-2 or more popularly known as COVID-19 pandemic.
We need to put aside politics, political ambitions, social differences, sexual preferences and ulterior motives and work together to save humanity and that means us, not just the “beauticians from the other parlor” but all of us.
Now is not the best time to make epal. You can do that when the world is back to almost normal. When you help, do so because you want to, and don’t expect approval and accolades. And this simply means; no PR stunts, no photo-ops, no names i.e. “from the office of the vice president” emblazoned on that hand sanitizer or bottle of alcohol.
By all means feed the hungry but if you post it on social media then you’re just feeding your ego.
The other day social media was abuzz with a pitch battle between supporters…err…no, that’s not the right description. It would be starstruck fans of Pasig City’s Mayor Vico Sotto and his critics, you know, the “beauticians from the other parlor.”
And all that “melodrama” stemmed from some obvious rookie mistakes the “good” mayor made in trying to combat the COVID-19 pandemic his “own way” with disregard to the guidelines put up by the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19.
Of course, it did not sit well with the President and it raked a lot of criticisms and oftentimes ridicule from the “beauticians from the other parlor.” Obviously it also did not sit well with Mayor Vico Sotto’s hordes of screaming starstruck fans.
In the end Mayor Vico Sotto had no choice but to give up his foolhardy not so-well-thought-of move and abide with the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19.
As I was saying, these are trying times. We are fighting for our survival and yet these fools have the time to waste on such trivial nonsense.
Last Saturday I was monitoring the presscon in city hall on the announcement of the second confirmed positive COVID-19 patient in Western Visayas. A visibly irked and piss off Mayor Geronimo was telling people not to post unconfirmed news on social media because it creates panic.
This is not the time to play one-upmanship and fancy one’s self as clever on social media as you’re just making a bad situation worse.
On a positive note, I am glad that we have Mayor Geronimo and Governor Toto as our leaders in this crisis we are all facing; their political will and no-nonsense leadership is what we need in these trying times and not the wishy washy epal kind as most politicians are.
Yes, Mayor Geronimo, you can punch those idiots on social media anytime soon.
If you have nothing useful to contribute, the least you can do is just stay at home and not provide the COVID-19 virus a host to spread itself as the only vector for the spread of the virus are people.
So do your share and help yourself and humanity by staying at home. Of course, wash your hands. Come to think of it, that’s not a difficult thing to do yet you will be saving humanity, survive and win against this coronavirus a.k.a. SARS-CoV-2 or more popularly known as COVID-19 pandemic.
Forget the ego. There is another time for that. Forget that you hate Duterte. You can do that when things sort of normalize. For the moment let’s come together not for anyone else but ourselves./PN
