Sticking to errors
TIGHT ROPE
WITH MODESTO P. SA-ONOY |
Being adamant can be good or bad depending on what we believe or want to believe. Standing by our faith or conviction is a right disposition but when faced with a new reality or truth that shows that what we had believed is not right, it is necessary to also change our minds. The common adage of “only fools don't change their minds” is as good as any other to define the behavior of those who, seeing and knowing the truth, refuse to believe.
In fact it takes a lot of courage to admit that we are wrong.
In last week's Gospel, for instance, Jesus told St. Thomas who doubted that Christ rose from the dead, “You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Changing one's mind in the face of new facts is to exhibit an open mind especially when the facts presented cannot be overturned otherwise.
For students of history, the present information is the right “historical fact” until a superior or more reliable fact says otherwise. To stick by what is already shown to be not in accord with documented or authoritative fact is to be stubborn and unworthy of a true historian or an intelligent person.
One can be highly educated but can be unintelligent by being stubborn in what is false. That makes that position a fanaticism.
If things are what they are and are unchanging then research is a waste of time, but things, as the poet said “are not what they seem” and so we continue to search and research until higher authority declares the information as fact. Even so, authority also bends when new information changes the “fact”.
I am reminded of a visit to the office of the National Census and Statistics Office where I found many people getting their birth certificates only to find that they are using the name or date of birth different from that which their birth certificates say. They had to change their names or birthdays in accordance with their officially recorded name or birthday.
When I was researching on the history of the Diocese of Bacolod, I went through the files of decrees issued by the bishops. The most numerous decrees were changes of names or birthdays recorded in the baptismal records of the parish. The change cannot be done by certification alone but by decree and this becomes the official name or birth date as far as the Church is concerned.
I take this issue to the fore because I learned that one councilor of Bacolod had refused to take part in the commemoration of the Charter Day of Bacolod on June 18 th because this councilor insists that the Charter Day is October 19 th .
This stance of October 19 has already been junked by the National Historical Commission that told the Sangguniang Panlungsod in a public hearing that the correct date of the Charter of Bacolod is June 18 because the law creating the City of Bacolod wad dated on June 18, 1938 and not October 19, 1938.
Earlier, on July 12, 2011, the NHC wrote Mayor Evelio Leonardia that June 18 th is the date of the approval of Act No. 326, Bacolod's charter.
This was the time when the city commemorated the Charter Day on June 18 and some politicians tried to insist that October 19 is the date.
The wording of the law is clear. It states “Esta Ley entrara en vigor en cuanto sea aprobada.” The law (Act No. 326) was in Spanish. It declares that “This Law shall take effect upon its approval” and the date of approval is unmistakable – June 18, 1938.
To claim or insist otherwise is to either refuse to accept a fact, the bare face of the document, the official pronouncement of the government authority or continue to stick to an error.
The NHC is the official authority on this matter. Sure, the NHC is not free from error but relies on documents. There was an instance when I refuted the statement of the NHC in the case of the founding of the town of La Carlota and the NHC which relied only on the statement of some personnel of La Carlota had to yield to documents.
There are several other historical anomalies that need to be corrected because they fall flat in the face of official and reliable documents. One of these is the date of the surrender of the Japanese in Negros that the veterans continue to commemorate on September 8 contrary to official documents. They relied as I did, on the word of a person who was not present.
I discovered later the official documents in the US military Archives in Washington and I had to change my “facts” to the highly reliable official documents.*
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