Dear Wretchard,

Reading your essays, especially those that look back to your own experiences, reminds me that dystopias miraculously seem to create and stimulate wholesome and optimistic people, who somehow carry an idea of a better way.

I’m sure a lot of folks became most acutely aware of life in the Philippines only in the unquiet days following the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, and the grace of his widow Corazón responding to the vast arousal of the population.

I remember being thunderstruck at the resolute courage of nuns, students, street vendors, merchants, jitney-drivers, and workers facing armed soldiers in the demonstrations after Ferdinand Marcos was prounounced the winner of the next election, widely perceived as a blatant fraud. In the U.S. we assume the government will not fire on crowds except where violence has already been going on, but that doesn’t seem to be a common constraint in other places.

What I particularly remember is how the (mostly) quiet and determined non-violent resistance of the Philippine people won the admiration and respect of many millions of folks around the world.

The image comes to mind of residents of Calcutta’s shanty towns emerging in spotlessly clean business suits to make their way to work after navigating dingy narrow passages and open sewers, trying day-by-day to make a better life. Many of us would give up, faced with relentless grime and chaotic physical and moral situations. I can only wonder at the journey that Wretchard has made.