That’s what makes the outburst of the kin of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre welcome, a drop of kalamansi on a wound to keep the prince from falling into the vapors of sleep. What advances the cause of justice is memory, and what advances the cause of memory is emotion. Without emotion, it is hard to remember. Without remembering, it is hard to find justice. I don’t know that we can completely hold on to the sorrow and grief, the bitterness and anger, that accompany horrific events as we move through time, but we can always harbor smoldering embers of them.
To be read with: Maguindanao Massacre: One Year After and Travels inside the bloody kingdom of Maguindanao. The earth still cries out beneath the footsteps of men who would be tyrants, murderers who would be kings.
We must remember because we cannot forget. We cannot forget because erasure is also its own death.
