By Dr. Dennis Acop
Life is also about saying NO. Even if it is often about saying YES. While we say YES to things that we feel lead to our own good, we also need to say NO to that which leads to our demise.
We say YES to life when we are born even if we were not conscious to it at the time. We say YES to being nurtured by our parents when we were young. We say YES to not being abandoned by those tasked for our care especially in our most vulnerable. We say YES to being sent to good schools for our own good and not be pathetic in the ways of the world. We say YES to our Faith even when we did not understand it well at the time believing that any empowerment of the spirit over the flesh had to be something good. We say YES to Family who cared when no one did. We say YES to honest livelihood that put bread on the table without feeling guilty about it. We say YES to honorable public service that made us feel good about self-sacrifice on behalf of the common good. We say YES to true love. We say YES to nurturing our own families as we were nurtured by our own parents. We say YES to not killing our own kind, robbing them, lying to them, and cheating them. We say YES to being kind, helpful, humble, honest, and selfless. We say YES to Hope. We say YES to Love. We say YES to Life.
We say NO to aborting babies because it is morally wrong. And because if those human fetuses or babies could speak, it would be ridiculous if their response to being murdered was YES. We say NO to being abandoned by the couples who brought us into the world without our say. We say NO as children to abuse and maltreatment by those responsible for our care. We say NO to no or bad education which leaves us defenseless in our worldly survival. We say NO to Faith that misleads our souls to eternal damnation. We say NO to corrupt livelihood that merely fattens our bellies but leaves our souls to rot in hell. We say NO to corrupt governance masquerading as public service. We say NO to abusive conduct disguised as a duty. We say NO to the allure of money, power, pleasure, and honor at the expense of everything that makes us human created in the love and image of God. We say NO to the ways of the world. We say NO to unkindness, indifference, pride, dishonesty, and selfishness. We say NO to hopelessness. NO to hate. We say NO to Death.