Killing a Mockingbird

                                                    (Photo: Manny Pacquiao)

Someone asked my take on the Paquiao and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community's rift on the latter being tagged by the world champion as "worse than animals". I heard about it when a video of an angry Boy Abunda appeared in the news feed of a social networking site. I practiced being stoic so that I could think straight and started listening to both sides. And being a member of the Editors Guild of the campus papering movement, I shied away from giving biased remarks.

The LGBT community is hurt. Evidence are the nasty comments on the face of Manny's mother as more likened to an animal and their side comments on Manny's "stupidity" since he is allegedly not well-educated. The absences incurred by Pacquiao in the legislative endeavors are also underscored.

Of course, the infamous boxer asked an apology for seemingly hurting the gay community. But then, the damage has been done and emotions perked up to Mt. Fuji. His fans and supporters aired their side as well bombarding Vice Ganda and questioning him and other comedy-bar artists on their jokes and the use of Mommy Dionisia's antics as if she is the ultimate laughingstock. They also release words such as "bakla na dapat mamatay at ipako sa krus". The word bigot is being hurled to both sides.

I'd like to walk-through with self-discernment. In the new Bloom's taxonomy of learning, REMEMBERING belongs to the low-level thinking and CREATING is on the higher order thinking strand. The latter includes creating ideas and insights. These original ideas or influenced insights are well-thought, organized and based on data. Meaning, a person's idea and intellect could be inferred from the number of books he studied and ideas he performed with careful dichotomy. In my own opinion, I could qualify the accusations of some that Pacquiao's ideas could be tagged as mediocre. This could be gleaned by the words he utter during interviews. 

In Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers", he theorized that someone could be good with a certain skill (i.e. communication, idea-generation, etc.) if he will practice for 10,000 hours on that skill. Thus, most intellectuals immerse themselves into complex discourses and reading resulting to the desired skills either deliberately or accidentally, So, Manny's ideas especially in terms of human equality and the fallacy of generalizations might be on the amateurish stage. I bet he could not give a reaction on Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" much to empathize to Oprah Winfrey's plight to end slavery.

I'm an educator. I believe in the importance of such things because they are tagged as life skills. But could I say that Manny Pacquiao is stupid? Of course not. It was Howard Gardner's revolutionary theory on Multiple Intelligence which opened doors for the schools' effort to deliver Differentiated Instruction. Pacquiao is an intelligent athlete. This could stem from the number of hours he trained as a boxer. Probably, he was able to reach 10,000 hours of practice since he has a lot of belts to be proud of.

Now what is the lesson out from this brouhaha? Simple. Don't venture on unknown territories. You might encounter situations where you could pass as incompetent and inconsistent. Learn first, er, train first before fighting. 

I could understand how he got this enlightenment stage with his "Christian" friends that he clung to the Bible and utter words from it. I don't have anything against the Bible, in fact, I could not live without it. I also share things I learn from it especially with the religious community I belong. But I do not PREACH. That's one thing Manny should learn. I was informed by a priest that they have some sort of a masters degree in Philosophy to be able to preach, I think he must not use his neophyte ideas with the bible since he is an international figure. If he wishes to, he must take a degree in religious studies prior to the preaching.

Another: I'm a devout Catholic. I don't take offense on the religious preference of others. I don't criticize their ways of praying. In fact, I am trained to perform CENTERING rather than giving a prayer when conducting international or national training so not to offend other religions. So, what is this seemingly-borrowed wisdom from a new-found religion?

On the other side of the fence, I also dislike the lewd comments of those LGBT members who seem to have some sort "resbak". They seem to go below the belt with their comments involving the athlete's mother. Who and what give them the right to say those words? OK, they are offended. So, it is their anger? I think giving in to bigotry is dangerous. The concept of learning first before reacting could be applied here as well. When one displaces unacceptable comments, allow him to receive the consequences.

Being severed from Nike is one. Now, let's learn to see each others as equal. Even if he sees you as animals, see his mother differently.