The Witch called Snow White (November 27,2007)

The Witch Called Snow White
By: Maria Reylan M. Garcia

And they lived happily ever after, this phrase sounds awfully and redundantly familiar. The moment you hear this cluster of words, figures of princes riding handsome stallions and princesses singing in the enchanted forest with her animal friends, comes to life just as flicking as a wave of a magic wand. After readers put down the magical tales that left them spellbound, their dreams that night would be of pumpkin carriages traveling towards a promising kingdom’s silhouette in the nearing horizon. Less did most of us fairytale aficionados know that there were some supporting roles left in the gloominess of the backstage. As Snow White became a cadaver no more, no news was heard of her stepmother after she fell from the vulture trodden cliff. As Cinderella lost her obsession with glass slippers, the other three party crashers never made headlines after their huge feet can’t fit in a size four. Yes, I’m referring to these villains, to these antagonists, to these characters that made all the princesses look good in the pages of our bedtime stories. True, that we never get to here their side of the story. True, that we never get to hear why they envy red rosy cheeks and hairs black as ebony. True, that we became villains to them.

The explosion at the House of Representatives was not at any extent near to the sugary sweet land of fairy tales. This is real life, most people say. But I see the same villain in the witch who tempted for a poisoned apple as that in the insolent fool who planted the bomb and caused some regretted casualties. Whoever spearheaded this grave of a prank is certainly worth a basket of poisoned apples stuck in the linings of his esophagus. I am in deep sorrow and sympathized the afflicted of the rampant fire show display of violence, and at all angles believe that what was done marquees the word terrorism. Yet as I remembered my younger self scanning the pages of my now dust covered fairy tale classics, I could help but gobble some fist of air and think, should everything be blamed on them? We never heard their side of the story in the first place, although it was law violating but the distribution of the blame seems slightly unfair and one sided.

I rally in the silence of my heart together with the families of those who tasted the venom of terrorism and political revolts. They should be convicted accordingly with due legitimate processes and justice served right. But throughout the course, I hope we can find it in our hearts to take a time out of our quest for justice and not forget to give the same human justice this astray ones deserve. They might carry the greater ton of weight, but let us not get to engrossed in pointing with our fingers, because we are unaware that on our backpacks are the less seen ounces of weight that contributed to an loathsome event. We just heard our stories, let us not get too excited and rush up justice, for the word itself entails balance coming from both sides, fairness to both sides.


Sometimes we are unaware that we’re the ones making our enemies. The government might be unaware that they could be the very factory of these rejected deviants in our society. Could the government may have once forgotten their needs, abused their authority over them, gave them less benefits and incentives; all of these may have triggered the once subtle tigers within this ruthless violent groups. Snow White was portrayed to be all gentle and sublime because it was her story. Her stepmother was rubbished with awful characteristics, not knowing what may have been the very roots of her envy with Snow White. Could Snow White may have selfishly devoured the time of her late father leaving none to the queen, bullied her stepmother as she was still in the defense of his loving father; both of these may have triggered the queen to drink some potion struck by lightning and detoxified herself into an old hag. We spectators may appear innocent, the government may appear victimized but all the televisions, emails, text messages and print media contain our stories. How about those stories left unprinted in the hearts of the leftists, those stories that because we never listened to was storytelled to us in a bloody and violent manner. Mother Goose would certainly get Goosebumps when she finds out.

Sometimes we have to pull the entire rope outside the box to entirely know its length than just to simply imply. We have to look at the other side of the street. Really, we have to avoid being so one sided. I know someone who was accused of verbal harassment and having an unhealthy growth of envy over a competitor. He was under surveillance and was threatened to accept right there and then all the allegations, not even hearing out what he has to say, not even hearing out why he let the competitor taste some spicy and fierce words. It was because that someone was quite unlucky, everyone was looking on the other side of the box and failed to see his own side that he’s left with a bitter fate.

I hope time will come when we get to settle things. This had been a cliché, I know. But I still hold on to this unsure but relevant hope of collaborative efforts for simple national prosperity. I hope we’ll not only depend on our stories. If we do, we might find our books thrown outside the window the very next day.

There will always be hundreds and thousands of ugly witches and vile stepsisters who’ll let you eat up some rotten apples, gate crash your party and not to mention rip off your vintage dress. Yet, remember it is only in your story where they appear as villains.

In their fairytales you could be the reason why their lives turned astray.

You could be their villain.