Monday, November 29, 2004
"200201024"
Empathy Ink - HF Volume 19 - Number 3 - November 2004
This is my identity.
It is the one that formally defines my presence in our University. It is the number written on official documents and other identification cards. Yes, it’s just a simple student number that each of us have.
It is important because it organizes us neatly into the system. But, is this how we appear towards much of the Administration? Are we merely just a bunch of series 2001 to 2004 walking around the astonishing grounds of our alma mater? Do we walk the campus in grayscale?
Perhaps we are all intended to study in the purest and most traditional of Roman Catholic ways and in St. La Salle’s teachings. But flat out, our University is unarguably too conservative for the current times. The Administration bans students from wearing shorts, sleeveless blouses, and mini-skirts among their list. There still exist the policies that hinder education towards unmarried pregnant women and the ban of liberated productions that they deem “inappropriate” and so “unorthodox.”
I had it in my REED105 class last semester that God condemns the sin but not the sinner. Pre-marital sex is not allowed in the traditional Roman Catholic Church. So if one gets pregnant accidentally, must she be condemned from continuing her studies? Must she really be pressured to marry someone just to graduate on time? Must she be ridiculed by society’s tactless traditions?
And what is wrong with wearing shorts? What is wrong with wearing slightly revealing clothes? The Discipline Office is welcome to sanction an extremist liberal girl who decided to come to school wearing only her ID or some guy that has dreadlocks from head to toe. But to treat someone wearing simple shorts like an enemy of the state is something I find embarrassing as we pilot alongside other powerful learning institutions in the country.
We can do with the uniforms to give us that cozy campus atmosphere. But on washdays we are still limited by the conservatism. Is our University trying to portray some idealist playground intended for the 1950s?
Good golly gosh! Isn’t it swell to live and breathe the year 2004? I believe that what conservative minds fear the most is change. They are so bent on the radical changes of culture and lifestyle that all nostalgia and tradition of yesteryear will be feared lost or vanished to oblivion.
I try to be a liberated thinker despite the obstacles that get in the way. Trust me, it feels great to be unconventional and experimental with the fast-paced lifestyle we have. And it doesn’t mean that when someone is a liberated thinker he or she aims to destroy society’s traditions and moral values. I love and cherish the past and our history but to live in that past and be overly traditionalist about it is neither productive nor progressive.
Whenever someone will fight to be different and to express him or herself, they end up getting ridiculed. I think the purely conservative mindset is hypocrite with tendencies to be manipulative at times. How sure are we the doctrines and traditions today are the same of those decades up to centuries ago?
If you want to deliver a message of humanity in a daring short film, it ends up being censored by the Administration. Are we supposed to be afraid to voice out our extreme creativity or forbidden emotions? Yes, I know our Catholic institution isn’t really the ideal beach hang out for atheists, but to sensor a woman’s worth in a fantastic short play such as the Vagina Monologues is another story.
DLSU-Manila is a stronghold and they adapt a progressive Catholic attitude rather than a conservative one.
I refuse to be an idle thinker. We are more than just our student numbers. We carry an identity that wishes to push forward and improve this community we live in. I am a Christian, I study in a Catholic institution, and I believe in the commandment of Love and other values that make me human.
But I would also prefer to think outside the box in the name of progression.
How about you?
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I wrote this column because I think the conservative attitude in La Salle Dasmariñas is enough. Passivity is the biggest problem in the school, and it is backed by the conservative mindset.
I also changed my column picture. Hehe.
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