By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
It is said that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. From ancient Babylonia where the earliest record of trading sex for money took place, to modern day Magsaysay Ave., the depravity of man knows no borders. But I and many others know little to nothing about prostitution in this city. Yet the stories told by the taxi drivers are enough to induce most of the people to feel anger and pity. And to despise the lack of support from the government and to feel sympathetic towards the prostitutes are all but normal after hearing such gut-wrenching stories.
Like prostitution, war is one of the many dark spots of mankind’s history that still lives on today. Despite creating multiple empires and kingdoms that are built upon the skulls of the defeated, our thirst for warfare has apparently yet to be quenched. We have had two World Wars that encompassed the whole globe, but many of us have enjoyed a relatively peaceful time from then on. Recently though, the ambitions of a few people threaten to plunge the world again into chaos.
A legacy filled mostly with blood and depravity is not something worth passing on. It’s like giving an earth ravaged by climate change to our children. The legacy passed on to us is far from a clean slate. But the efforts to make it better than it was before can be seen. From the ashes of the flames caused by WW2 would be the blueprint of the largest organization in the world. An order that would connect the divided countries at the time. The United Nations would continue to help the many unique cultures and countries of this world to cooperate and be on the same side; and persuading countries to resort to words rather than guns in solving problems.
Although prostitution is something we have yet to fix, our ancestors have not abandoned women. Reforms have been passed and will continue to be passed until we accomplish what our forefathers yearned for, equality. The legacy passed on to us is not perfect. Instead, it is filled with hopes and dreams, the wishes of our ancestors that we ought to accomplish.
The earth we will pass on to our children has already suffered irreversible damages. Problems caused by our own mistakes will surely pop up in the future, leaving our children alone to fix them. But I believe we have learned a few things from the mistakes of the past.
Few as they may be, there are still people who fully intend to heal this planet. Activists, social reformers, advocates, scientists, etc., heroes do exist. And their heroic actions would hopefully inspire hundreds to thousands, to millions. We are still fully capable of making the world a lot better for our children to inherit. Because children’s job is not to fix their parents’ mistakes. It is to surpass their accomplishments.
And when a legacy worthy of the word “legendary” would come into fruition, it would inspire and challenge the heirs of this world to create a better one. Peace and prosperity never seen before would affect all the peoples. And our ancestors from above would surely smile at such a sight.**
