The Ladder *

* Inaugural Speech of Ms. Melrose S. Lunn, delivered during her induction as President, of the Aklan Press Club, Inc. held at Hernani’s Mix ‘n Match, Kalibo, Aklan on Friday evening, July 29.

Every day, we are faced with decisions big and small as an internal war is waged between ego and identity, between pleasure and restraint, between instant gratification and self discipline. Nevertheless, the key to walking the tightrope is never losing the enthusiasm of what you are doing.

I would like to share this with everyone. I know of a carpenter. One day, he went through the things he had and saw pieces of wood lying around. He thought he could make something productive. He said, "I’ll make a ladder out of all of you!" After that, he took a saw, a hammer, some nails and began working on the project.

He cut two long pieces into the same size and length that will help the ladder stand. He then cut several short pieces into the same length that will serve as the steps to the top. Some pieces were too short so he put together those pieces of wood to match the other steps equally. When everything was ready, he nailed all the pieces together. They made a strong ladder. He leaned it against a wall.

The carpenter said that they were put there to help people get over that wall. One by one, many were granted over the wall and to a grassy road leading to somewhere. Time passed but some steps got broken, fell off the ladder and got lost. The carpenter then went looking for it. When he found the pieces, he nailed them back again to the ladder and it again serve its purpose.

May I remind you of the Aklan Press Club’s vision of becoming an organization of dignified journalists, providing reliable information to instruct, educate, and entertain to effect development and progress in the community. I repeat dignified journalists. We are supposed to stand with integrity and be driven by the goal of actually helping the society progress. We are given these skills and opportunity to affect people so we can uphold what is true, fair and just.

The ladder that the carpenter made was the Aklan Press Club, Inc. My friends, we are all pieces of wood. The carpenter just picked us up when he wanted to use us for a greater purpose. We, the ladder of the society help it up to develop and lead it to a road that leads to a community that barely has greed and does not believe that money makes the world go round. We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give. What we will give is service and support to all the good people who work to improve the life of not only their selves. Money does not make the world go round, nor does power but gravity and a lesson from science.

Sometimes, people get blinded by what others think of them and stop doing the right things. All of us get tempted by a shinny block of gold. We may not realize this but we all have the potential of being great. We just have to make good of what we have within us and decide to want to help the nation rise.

The world is good, a lot of us thinks bad due to what we see in mass media. It barely portrays all the good things that happen and all the good things possible. "Evil prevails when a few good men and women do nothing". The good men and women are unlimited, there are lots of them. We will do many things. Being the catalyst of change for the better is not easy but it will only be harder if one continues to think of it as difficult. We are not made to bring anyone down, we are alive so we can strive to bring out all the good in the world. We are the ladder.
God bless us all and good evening. /MP