So far, I am the only person I know who was more excited about Hillary Clinton’s short forum than Katy Perry’s full-length concert in Mall of Asia. I was unable to wake up early enough to join my school’s contingent to UST, but I was able to catch the live broadcast and the news footage that followed it.

My heart was in my throat as she took the stage, and I was completely enthralled by her eloquence and personality all throughout. I can imagine how much more starstruck I would have been had I actually been there. I would have relished the opportunity to ask a question, even more so than the opportunity to have kissed Katy Perry onstage. (Congratulations, Tommy.)

The next day, I read a transcript of the proceedings. And I found that the words sound different when you take away the person who said them. Hillary Clinton answered questions about everything from Myanmar to Mindanao, from free trade to foreign policy, and she played all of them perfectly. Her answers were beautiful, even heavenly; they were up in the clouds. They were definitely not on the ground.

But these difficult issues aside, I applaud how she answered questions about the role of the youth in community building and national development. I felt that this was the one area where her answers could be general, because the role of the youth in society is not well-defined from this perspective.

It’s true that we have generally been more active, involving ourselves through Facebook causes and GK Housebuilds, but it’s just fair to say that we are still looking for ways to contribute sustainably to the fight against poverty and corruption.

If what she says is true, we have been on the right track all along. We have been engaging ourselves in community action, and not only through the typical act of volunteering.

We spread advocacies through the internet. We plan events like parties and concerts in order to highlight specific causes. We organize donation drives and garage sales to raise funds for our causes. We have been thinking creatively on how to tackle the poverty problem, and we are able to achieve much.

And our creativity extends further than combining social involvement with fun and convenience. The youth is also responsible for the formation of organizations such as RockEd and Hapinoy, and people in college are spearheading moves towards social entrepreneurship. If these actions turn out to be sustainable, then our country is definitely headed for a brighter future.

A brighter future, yes, but a bright future?

Not exactly. Youth volunteerism and social entrepeneurship is good, but these don’t address the systemic changes that need to take place in order for our country to move forward. We can be active all we want, but if we aren’t changing the structures that put many of our people in poverty, we aren’t really bridging the social gap.

That’s why it is important to pay attention to one of her statements: Education is the most important way of fighting poverty. It is nothing that we haven’t heard before, but I think this is why we often take it for granted. Supposedly, an education aims to make us functional and responsible citizens. Therefore, it should educate us on the problems that confront our society, and the ways in which we can respond to them. Most importantly, it should provide us with an impetus to move from awareness
to action.

Yet every year, our finest universities turn out thousands of fresh graduates who lose this sense of mission too soon. A number even turn out to be the ones who perpetuate the problem. Of course, there are a lot of things that come in between, but if we are getting active as early as high school and college and we still turn out to be apathetic (or downright evil) adults, there has got to be a problem there somewhere.

I didn’t think Hillary Clinton’s forum was brilliant because she said anything new. Nothing could be further from the truth. For me, it was because she was in the best position to tell us what we needed to hear, and she took advantage of it. She made full use of her charm and charisma on the national stage, and won over our hearts and minds. To have been in her presence when she spoke must have been genuinely convincing.

I’d like to end with one of the very first statements she gave during the forum: “I think every person has the opportunity to make the most of their own lives.” Hillary Clinton, without a doubt, is a testament to that fact, and it is her experience of this that lends her the most credence. If that’s neither convincing nor inspiring, I don’t know what is.

(The author is a sophomore at the Ateneo de Manila University. Visit http://james.soriano-ph.com, or mail me at james@soriano-ph.com)