Good night, Mike!

I hate writing about two deaths in a row. But I can't help it. Mike Asignacion was a fellow media man and Rotarian. He died a day after Fr. Ben Escrupulo's. Both are from Helvetia.

So, before we go to Mike, let me insert these few happy thoughts.

Last Christmas, two groups of local political carolers met, I was told. One group sang "Joy to the world." The other sang "Noel."

I will not be the most unhappy if political wars, especially local ones, are fought in the arena of songs.

* * *

Speaking of music, my Yankee friend John Murray and wife Alma Raffy visited us at the Press Club and, because we were not around, John left a note. John is home from New York.

John gushed over the beautiful music rendered by the Espina children in a concert last December that coincided with his and Alma's 34th wedding anniversary. Alma has been staying in Bacolod to tend to her family farms.

John also wrote he liked DAILY STAR and was all praises for its columnists. Well, John, we are a humble group of people so we don't dare disagree with friends like you.

Heck, John! Let's sing after you wrote about "Rainbow Connection" and I remember Judy Garland's movie "The Wizard of Oz" singing that the dreams that we used to dream always do come true. Dreamers! John.

That when someday we walk upon a (Daily) STAR and wake up where the clouds are far behind us and troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops, that's where they'll find us…

I'll shift gears, John. When I write about songs and poems I find it difficult to stop.

* * *

This is the song of the Mayor's private secretary Leo Bentinganan. When I asked for confirmation that Taiwanese Ambassador Hsin-Hsing Wu said, in a speech turning over Taiwanese donations, that Mayor Bing Leonardia is the best mayor in the Philippines in getting donations from abroad, like a private secretary who deserves a raise, Leo handed me Bing's shopping list: from Keelung, Taiwan - 1 ambulance, three dump trucks, and 6 motorcycles.

From Spain P14 million grant for feasibility studies of solid waste management, and from Japan two tourist buses and 200 vests for traffic enforcers. Still coming is one truck from Tokyo.

* * *

On the other hand, the death of Mike Asignacion reminds me of Omar Khayyam who wrote, "The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,/ The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one."

For Mike is a sailor, home from the sea and a hunter, home from the hill. And he should be happy he left a legacy as a media man with his cable channel and as a civic leader as president of the Rotary Club of Bacolod East.

We have been close being both in the same profession and he, like me, was married to a dentist. I recall his problem with his heart when he was Rotary Club president.

I remembered advising him because of my own experience that he should not allow past presidents to dictate to him what to do because these were the fellows who may not have made good during their term and wanted to make up by dictating on their successors.

I told him I recalled what past district Governor Albert Lim told me when I became president, "You are the boss of the Club. All of us are just members. You do it your way." Well, I got into some trouble, but I did it my way.

That eased Mike's problem but hearts are like a glass that as soon as there is a crack, they can break any time.

Yes, I did it my way and at the end of my term, with the help of past president Willy Mirano, I got an award from Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo.

* * *

Mike is one fellow who had no mean bone in his body. I have not heard of one who talked ill of Mike. And I do not know of one who did not like Mike. He was very likeable. And I hope Mike leaves with no tears.

"Sunset and evening star,/ And one clear call for me./ Let there be no moaning of the bar,/ When I put out to sea." That's Tennyson. Is it not?

Go ahead, Mike. Enjoy your rest. We will forever hold high the ideals you stood for us who are left behind in this Valley of Tears.

We will strive for excellence in media like what you did.

* * *

One time, Mike, on the death of Gerry Locsin, I recited to you William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" and you said, you liked it. We were then talking of our thinning ranks and intimations of our mortality.

Let me dedicate these lines of William Cullen Bryant to you, too.

"So live that when thy summons comes to join/ The innumerable caravan that moves/ To that mysterious realm, where each shall take/His chamber in the silent halls of death,/ Thou go not like a quarry slave at night,/ Scourged to his dungeon but sustained and soothed/ By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,/ Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch,/ About him and lies down to pleasant dreams."

Good night, Mike. May the host of angels carry you to your rest.

***

Tomorrow at 6 p.m. the Negros Press Club will pay Mike Asignacion our last salute at the Rolling Hills Memorial Chapel.

Let us not fail Mike. Let us be there.*

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