This is the 298th opinion I have published in my column, which I officially started in March 2019, about a week after I left my last government post. I wanted to write three times a week but a friend cautiously advised me that I might find it hard to find suitable materials to write about, aside from the pressure of meeting the deadline. Another former co-worker whose counsel I had sought warned me that my interest in writing might wane once I get exposed to the rigors of the work and get unfavorable feedback from the public. And he sympathetically consoled me that he would perfectly understand if my column “Telltales” gets aborted after six months.
But surprise of surprises, I am still around after three years of incredulously taxing the patience of my editors and the forbearance of my readers. Compared to the more established columnists of this paper, my column has only just begun and I’m still far from writing 30. I’ll still struggle to make my voice heard amid the cacophony of ideas and plethora of views flooding the marketplace. I’ll continue to hold my own perspective, seriously write about them and I’ll be delighted if I can nudge a reader to consider them more critically. If I can help someone organize his thoughts more logically, going beyond popular beliefs, distinguishing truth from fiction and establishing facts from hearsay, then I have accomplished something as a writer.
I have definitely lived up to my newspaper’s noble aspiration, whose “Business” is to “Mirror” the truth. But I want my audience to be a responsible reader. By that I mean one who does not accept my points of view as gospel truth. I’m not omniscient—far from it. But there are things I know more about than other subjects and I don’t hide those facts from my readers. And in these areas of discipline, it’s less risky to take my words on their face value. My job is to bring the chosen topic to life so that I can get relevant reactions from the readers. If I can convince them to share my position or argument after they objectively evaluated them, then my mission as a writer is accomplished. If they disagree but develop their own independent ideas or judgments after weighing in the pros and the cons of the given issue, then I’m pleased of having been a part of the critical thinking process. If I can assist my readers to make up their mind on a public interest issue based on an informed decision, then I have contributed something to our society.
There is a productive relationship between the writer and the reader. When you put down your thoughts in writing, you open up yourself to a dialogue with your readers. The writer puts forward his ideas to others who may subscribe to, embrace, oppose or challenge them. There is this connection between you and your readers. Active readers don’t just close the article online or turn the page after reading it. More often, they react to it, and the process of what we call critical reading ensues. They analyze the material, recall their prior experience or knowledge concerning the subject, and apply them to the writer’s ideas. After checking out the facts, and weighing in on the writer’s position, they may either affirm or reject the writer’s view.
Some of my readers text or e-mail me about my articles, and many are blunt to open up their reactions, negative or positive, about my views. This is very common after I publish my political commentaries, which never fail to draw comments from the partisan supporters of candidates. Politics is a favorite fare of Filipinos and it is a national pastime. They talk politics during breakfast, lunch, dinner and at snacks in between them. No matter how hard the writer tries to be objective and neutral, readers will always see political color in the writer’s statements. Objective writing in a highly politicized environment is difficult to achieve. It will be challenging for a writer to make only statements that are verifiable by facts or supported by evidence.
Columnists are opinion writers who are wont to express their judgment and feelings on every issue. Many of them are not free from bias and subjectivity, and their writings are interwoven with personal opinion. I do not profess total objectivity in my articles, but I try to be fair and impartial. My writing is not strictly an informational account of the subject since I intersperse it with my personal views, which I try to back up with facts. When I make a statement that I know may draw a controversy, I ask these questions to myself: Is it something that I can sleep over peacefully at night? Am I being unfair or unjust to a fellow human being? If my family asks me about it, can I give them honest answers without any reservation? If I cannot answer all these questions with a firm conviction, then I delete or modify it to conform to my own ethical standard of journalism.
I am not a trained writer or intellectually gifted to write about myriad subjects. Many of my subjects are drawn from my own personal experience and observations of the interesting things unfolding before me. Great ideas are lifted from what I read, hear and watch. I devour every book I can read. When anyone asks me what Christmas gift I would like to get, my immediate reply is to give me books. I gobble every newspaper and magazine I can lay my hands on—in waiting lounges, doctor’s clinics, airplanes and bookshops. My children gift me each year with subscriptions to Washington Post, The Economist, New York Times and other leading publications. If someone gives them to you as gifts, they come out a lot cheaper than when you directly subscribe to them. I don’t miss the 7 o’clock news and the prime-time news programs of foreign news networks. I regularly visit Fully Booked and other bookshops, including second hand bookstores. You may be surprised to find treasures in them. They are my tools of the trade. Of course, this folly would not have reached this far without the technical support of my BusinessMirror editors.
Great and influential columnists have molded the opinions of many Filipinos and helped shape the policies and programs of our government. I’m not in that league and I cannot ever aspire to belong there. But my sleepless nights working on my column are more than redeemed if I succeed in cracking the mind of a single person to believe in himself and that, just like the next guy on the line, he, too, can be a contributing member of our society.