Gideon Lasco’s articles in the Philippine Daily Inquirer were among the things I looked forward to during the pandemic lockdown. His was the voice of calm and reason at a time of great confusion; evoking, through his column, the architectural definition of a column as a sturdy pillar of support.
To have those pandemic articles compiled in a book is to possess an essential time capsule of an era that disrupted our lives and brought the world to its knees; and an era that we cannot afford to forget if we intend to learn from it.
Looking back will not be as easy as it is for others, but it only seems right that reading this should make us feel uneasy at times, despite Lasco’s endeavor to maintain a hopeful tone. When read as an entire book, what’s louder than his leitmotif of hope in these essays is the tone of dissent — a refusal to stay silent amidst injustice and corruption, and a refusal to accept the blunders of our leaders without holding them accountable.
It calls on us, readers and citizens, to demand better leadership and to remain critical toward those in power in the service of nation-building: “If we believe that life is more than survival or subservience, then ‘to live’ should involve the willingness to stand up for our right to do so.”
“…what’s at stake in what we write… art, truth, and social justice.”
That is what’s at stake in everything we do, even in our silence.
The Book-Butterfly 