MONDAY SICKNESS?

by Ayn

Monday is unarguably the laziest day of the week. But besides that fact, Mondays can also be one of the bloodiest in history.

Almost a year ago on the last Sunday night airing of NU 107, filmmaker Quark Henares played The Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays" as his last song, because in a few minutes then, the station that his father took care of for 23 years will finally be signing off. But that's another story altogether. I, wanting to know more about that catchy Bob Geldof hit from way back 1979, Googled a little and was quite surprised with what I found out.

One day in the summer of 1979, Brenda Spencer, a 16-year old girl from San Diego, California, looks from the window of her home and started shooting elementary kids in nearby Cleveland Elementary School with her own semi-automatic .22 rifle. She killed the principal, a student who tried to help the principal, and injured 9 others. When the police asked her why, she simply said: "I don't like Mondays; this livens up the day." Thus inspiring the Irish punk rock band's UK hit that same year.

And whatever inspired Brenda Spencer must have inspired Seung-Hui Cho's Monday rampage inside the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on April 16, 2007. Using a Glock 19 pistol on the first hour and a Walther P22 on the third, the 23 year old South Korean citizen committed suicide after killing 31 students and staff, and injuring 25 others. To date, it is 'the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in US history.'

Of course we have local versions of famous Mondays.

Just a year ago on August 23, Pres. Aquino's first 30 days in office was rocked by a hostage-taking incident at the Quirino Grandstand. After hijacking a tourist bus containing Hong Kong nationals that morning, former senior inspector Rolando Mendoza of the MPD took hostage all 25 people aboard, spending the whole day negotiating with police and politicians his illegal dismissal from duty. After failing to get what to him was what he deserved after 30 years of service, the rescue attempt began and lasted for 90 minutes, leaving 8 Hong Kong nationals dead and several injured. This resulted to a strain in Filipino-Chinese relations and a black alert travel ban that lasted for months.

And who would forget that Monday on November 23, 2009? Early Monday morning in a small town in Ampatuan in Maguindanao, Mindanao, silently passed the convoy of mayoral candidate Esmael Mangudadatu, then the vice mayor of Buluan town, that would file his certificate of candidacy to the municipal office. Out of nowhere did several armed men block their way, took them to a place where mass graves where ready, brutally gunned them down, and buried them on the very graves, probably some of them still alive. A total of 58 people were killed, including Mangudadatu's wife, sisters, 34 journalists, lawyers, and even civilian motorists who were just thought to have been part of the candidate's convoy. Up until today, there hasn't been much progress in the trial of the primary suspects, mostly members of the Ampatuan clan, more often being delayed due to 'lack of witnesses' and 'insufficient evidence.'

These four separate incidences make me think, what's in a Monday, really? There is such a thing as Monday Sickness, or that ailment which occur upon going back from a weekend, but did it even have something to do with all these?

My answer to that is, OF COURSE NOT. Monday sickness is a mere state of mind, whether it's a simple longing for a longer weekend, or just about any reason you can connect with the poor first day of the week. Our characters might have had the most excusable excuse for doing the crimes --- Brenda Spencer was plain bored, Seung-Hui Cho had anxiety disorder, Rolando Mendoza wanted justice, and the Ampatuans, a sure win. But they sure all bore the societal causes that brought all these back to the same society, this time magnified more than a hundred times, and with an alarming level of violence.

Spencer wasn't plain bored. She was a girl who was abused by her father and was given a gun on her 16th birthday. Cho was teased and laughed at due to his unusual speech patterns brought about by selective mutism disorder. Mendoza was relieved from duty only due to command responsibility and did not get a single retirement benefit despite 30 years of dedicated and decorated service. Obviously, things could have turned out better had their background stories became less disturbing.

I'm not trying to rationalize what they all did, but rather asking you to look at the bigger picture. It is never enough to arrest these suspects and punish them for murders. We have to start addressing the real ailment that brings about these harsh realities. For as long as we don't start recognizing the roles that we play in each shocking occurrence in the society, we will forever be pointing at Mondays as a lazy excuse for our indolence. #