I was an angry teenager during the 1980’s. I joined demonstrations against Marcos even before I was old enough to vote. The opposition promised us that if we could get him out things would get better.

It didn’t.

EDSA II was proof of that. I was already a doctor and joined the first two days of demonstrations in Manila against the Estrada administration. I later realized that to the outside world, we were starting to look like an angry mob with torches and pitchforks chasing Frankenstein’s monster.

We never learned.

Twenty three years after the first EDSA revolt, I can truly say we failed Ninoy Aquino and we are not worth dying for.

Okay, they will always say we got democracy; the kind of democratic society that continues to kill its journalists. Every election, incompetent people continue to be elected and re-elected.

We never learned.

I’m supposed to be writing about solutions. There isn’t any. Not for this generation.

Our best minds have joined the Diaspora. The continuing exodus has also left us with a moral vacuum. Our souls have too many scars and every time you look at the headlines, you get reminded that we are still at each other’s throats.

Well meaning people have tried to find ways outside of the government bureaucracy to work for positive change. Their successes have been too few and far in between to change the big picture. The best intentions wind up drowning in a sea of apathy. To use as an example, millions of Filipinos did not give up their favorite television program during Earth Hour.

So, here are the only “solutions” I can think of:

First, we should apologize to the post-EDSA generation. We have to admit that as a people, we are a bunch of screw ups and we destroyed the future of our children and grandchildren. This is our collective shame.

Second, we should tell our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, every young Filipino still in elementary and high school, not to follow what we are doing. They should learn from the mistakes of their parents and grandparents, examine them and learn from them.

Hopefully, they will pay attention.