Editorial – Adrenaline rush

The cup runneth over with admirable compassion and kindness among Filipinos from all over the land for their unfortunate brethren in Luzon who have been devastated and  debilitated in the aftermath of howler “Ondoy.”
Like adrenaline rush that gives extraordinary strength to the human body,  the sudden disaster awakened the heroism in Filipinos. Many of the close to 300 “Ondoy” fatalities recorded  so far, in fact, were men who braved the onrushing floodwaters to  rescue neighbors and strangers, but lost their own lives in the process.
Across the land, people and local government units rushed to the succor of the some 2 million flood victims by sending their donations in cash and kind. The Davao City government did us proud by being the first to allocate P10 million in cash for the flood victims, aside from donating one month salaries of  the mayor, vice mayor and city councilors.
Now as we brace for more disasters, praying and hoping that Ondoy was not  an antecedent of more devastating typhoons, let’s reflect on the inconvenient truth that we are partly, if not wholly, to blame for Mother Nature’s vengeful wrath.
Yes, indeed, we are already as guilty as those who raped our forests in wanton abandon, the reigning demi-gods who have been rewarded with economic and political powers as a result of their crime against nature.
Now, maybe we should ask ourselves if we can still  turn a new leaf, abandon our wasteful ways and transform our adrenalized collective reaction  to the plight of the flood victims  into some positive enthusiasm to care, at last, for our ailing environment.
Let’s not wait for afflatus, or that inspiration from a divine source, to do this but rather use our own initiative for, after all, this is a matter of our very own survival.