A glimpse at equality

I am in a place where equality is a taboo. Being trained to become a soldier, I have to accept the fact that in this profession, a hierarchy will always be followed. This is not much of an issue to me, I have known this reality long before I set foot in this institution. And so I can just glimpse at the concept of equality and deal with the fact that in my profession, I may not be able to experience it.

In a very rare occasion today, I was able to read the Philippine Daily Inquirer. In its front page was somehow a surprise, it was the picture of the first gay marriage sanctioned by the CPP-NPA. It was indeed something since it is a strong statement on the ideals of the country's communist party; that is to promote equality-- even on sexual preferences. Although that story did not invoke me to write something about equality, the story somehow led me to contemplate on the concept of equality.

I would like to think that each of us has an idea of equality. In its extreme form it could be that of Communism while in moderation it could be that of Justice. I lean more on the justice side since I really believe that in as much as we want to have equality, the world can never be. Take for example in a family, there will always be someone who has the brains, someone who has the muscles and someone who has the looks. It can never be denied that the future of anyone will vary base on the areas where he or she is "gifted". No matter how much you teach an autistic person the intricacies of finding the square root of a number, you will never be successful, in the same way that you will never awaken the interest of a person whose IQ is somewhere in the genius level just by telling him the parts of a human anatomy. The truth of the matter is equality can never be achieved simply because we were never created to be equal. As far as I am concerned, we were created to be different from each other and it is because of that that we will have to live differently from another.

And so, what is its relevance to me? Here in this place equality is not a common word. No matter how hard to try, you will never be equal to those who have gone ahead of you. Those above you will always have the better choices, they will always have the priority on things. But then again it is somehow ironic that it is because of this things that I value my present existence. If you just think about it, at some point one will realize that it is because that we are never equal that I aspire to become a better person. It is because of our gap that I try to do my best in what I do so that I won't disappoint them, and it is because of our inequality that makes me unique from them, allowing me to be the person that I woiuld want to be. One may not consider it that much of a good thing but then what can I do, this is a world where we just have to accept what is there and then make good use of what we have. Sometimes I even realize that I am far better than some of this people around me. Sometimes I just smile at myself knowing that we are not equal because by being not equal to them, gives me the option to either be better or worse and the good thing is I know I'm not worse...... hmmmm anyway I'll continue on this topic on my next post it is now 9 minutes before tattoo inspection.... wait for the part two of this topic....