Sunday, September 29, 2013

Thoughts on Pork

Greed is the real dirt.



The Creative Ideal is this -
to know truth, and apply it -
to love thy neighbor, and do it -
to know the Word, and live it.
---

The story of Pork is all about personal accountability to a very public responsibility. Take note, personal and not political accountability is the central theme of the issue.

(Political accountability takes into consideration the good of the Party as a lens to perceive what good there is but personal accountability regards its ethics directly as truth before God and the Nation/s.)

In my opinion, the allotment of Pork enables in the government, a certain degree of responsiveness to any unexpected but necessary shifts or shortfalls as regards material demands (take note, demands not needs - needs can be planned but demands are determined not by any plan but by their outcomes, good or bad) being claimed by the national community as urgent - in real time - in the context of the Republic Vision.

Simply put, in its own context, Pork is a means to deliver a timely and specified response.

These material demands are usually sorted out by their urgency and entrusted to the better judgment of those persons to whom the Pork is yearly entrusted.

And presupposes a fundamental grounding in personal integrity, honesty, and simple human decency (which means a modicum of wisdom generously mixed in with a sense of professionalism that is earned on the job).

Pork therefore, is not political. It is necessarily consumed to make equitable adjustments on the fly in order to make better sense of the greater Economic Vision of its present administration (or any of its major points of consideration) and allows government to keep a certain degree of monetary flexibility in order to serve the public good as it unfolds in reality.

Because budgets are usually prepared in advance of what is to come... that's where Pork comes in.

Pork is a good thing for as long as it is kept away from politics. The Economic Vision of the Republic and its Political Vision are two distinct things that though they constantly produce and re-produce each other and give each other purpose and meaning are like two parallel lines that never meets - they only agree on a direction to take.

The issue we have about Pork now is because the presuppositions that were supposed to preclude this issue we're now having have been either ignored, taken for granted, or basically subverted so that only the external appearances of these things remain. Pork has become political.

When one is entrusted with the welfare of another, it is not entrusted to one because one is a politician - it is entrusted to one because there is realistically expected from within the Nation to be a multitude of these requirements to respond to - with urgent and unexpected requests (that can not be anticipated in formal planning) cropping up from the people everywhere. (This reminds me of the discretionary funds of senior commanders in the military - they serve the same purpose - but this one however, is in support of the mission entrusted to the AFP.)

Plans are good until it meets with reality - to be real, we have to plan to also not have a plan.

Again, let me say that Pork is not political. It is not intended to win political victories but hasten the triumph of economic ones - all in the name of the one Filipino people. Public funds shall always be, no matter who disburses it, public funds.

A servant of the people should find it joyous to be able to so freely and so generously uplift one's poorer compatriots - within or without one's constituency - and be constantly rejuvenated in his or her politics in this way without mixing the two.

After all, politics in its simplest form is the art of accommodating human hope; it is the science of government the expression of which is an art not a science - and fulfills itself when these hopes are realized in reality of the Nation - the noblest good (particular, common, and absolute) of which is the highest expression of our politics. It is basically a dialogue with reality wherein we speak to the Truth about our dreams together.

There are no bad politicians, there are only those who are not versed in politics - as a calling to serve the Nation. Certainly, there is no such thing as dirty politics only pretenders who use empty words and dirty, below the belt tricks (unbecoming of our citizenship together) to thwart (for the very narrowest of reasons) the vital dialogue that we as a free people upon this world must constantly dare undertake to have with ourselves as a Republic and with God as a Nation.

Hence, to return us again to the topic of Pork - public funds shall always be, no matter who disburses it, public funds.

The Filipino public - who are wiser than we give ourselves credit for (after all, we have been a Nation many centuries longer than we have been a Republic) will recognize virtue, for as long as that person and his or her politics remains true to the people, and consequently shall become convinced that the politics of that person is just - and this will most certainly redound to the political good of that person who shall gain more political capital to spend - moving in the same direction as the Economic Vision of the State - without violating it.

The problem with this is that when the internal supports of just about anything under the sun are ignored, taken for granted, or undermined, the entire structure itself becomes unstable.

So now it has all collapsed right before our eyes into one big heap.

The bigger problem is, we're under it - we, the people, especially those of us who still need a clue - suffer in the rubble. Who caused it?

Actually, let us rewind a bit. Because truth be told, the structure of Pork has not yet collapsed.

It has just been recently declared condemned. It was indeed deemed unsound by fear of those who are most in danger of its collapse i.e. we, the Filipino Nation - across all our generations - past, present, and forever - along with those who have chosen to represent us in the government of the Republic State who likewise fear they are the cause of all this fright, legitimately or illegitimately.

I sympathize with some our politicians who genuinely think they have done no evil who after realizing that they have - mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - repent of it and return, humbled and fortified, to their loyal service to the Nation. Who among us is perfect anyway? Politics doesn't make one perfect, it doesn't even make one powerful (unless it is aligned with the authority of the Responsible State) - but it always makes one responsible. Perhaps, a little bit more so than the average Juan dela Cruz.

Because the first problem with Pork is that it - mayhaps - have become a thing misunderstood. This is the first and the only presupposition to the Pork Barrel Scam that I shall take.

This means I sympathize with those politicians who think they are being tried by publicity.

They deserve a fair shake and the due processes of our Republic likewise deserve a decent go at them and without the undue duress of having to witness their political life being torn to shreds before the bar of public opinion.

After all, it takes work and effort to build one's political reputation and any of our politicians, of any stripe, being citizens like ourselves, too deserve to be seen as innocent unless proven guilty.

The most popular (this is not necessarily to say that any quorum of our electorate approve of their politics but in the sense that people know them best as being famous) of our politicians are the most vulnerable in this particular regard - Senators Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla - for example.

Because for all it's salutary goodness - the bar of public opinion shall always be ruled by emotion more than reason and truth be told, the passion of the people can not always be trusted - just look at opinion polls and how they can be manipulated by external forces (i.e. from the way questions are framed to just plain lack of context of the subject matter being assessed to outright maliciousness).

I'm not saying opinion polls are useless - they are, according to the value of the work that is put into them, a good way to get a general feel on things but do not (and should not) by any means constitute the final word on anybody's political belief. Because they are imperfect.

One has got to be able to make up his or her own mind about things that matter - and believe in one's own politics; in a vision of the national success, however different or difficult or small it may be, that is agreeable to thy own good sense of common humanity and civic righteousness. And in the midst of the maelstrom of public opinions be able to express this view as well as amend it where necessary without deviating from it.

But not all of us are like this, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, some of us are kept by the virtue of others, while some of us are the keepers of others' vulnerabilities - (and all of us, each according to the development of our freedoms, kept by God) - sufficiency through reliance.

It's this vulnerability that makes us officially elect representatives to stand in our collective place in two of the three great Republic forums - Executive and Legislative.

The Judiciary is not for us to elect. For our Judges and Justices do not represent us as an Electorate. They are, in their Courts of Law and in their Chambers Judiciary, the ultimate recourse of our common grievances as human beings and citizens to each other - there, where all else fails - is represented the Ideal of our Justice which we can not elect for it has always been there even before we were a people.

To our Executive is entrusted, the Republic Vision, to carry our hopes through. To our Legislative, the Law of our Nation, to make safe our way ahead. Our Juridical system exists to make our Justice more perfect, to more intimately bind for our national consciousness, both heaven and earth - and preserve for the life of our generations both the order of their times and their own forbearance in time.

This is why we are a representative democracy - because reason is always more important than emotion and the passion of the public needs strong hands to rein it in - and channel it into a unity and strength to overcome what presently needs overcoming so that the common good (perceived only at a distance with the heart) may always prevail.

The former (the public) will find their focus and get angry, the latter (our politicians) will scatter and play for time to regroup. But of the latter who genuinely serve those who are angry - they will channel this into focus to help guide and create needed change for all - these are our lions and lionesses and God bless them always.

The first and most salutary recourse is, of course, to attend to the rebuilding of the internal supports.

But then again - because of our personal commitments to sacred remembrances, there may be those - and this only because of the monumental evil of the thing - 10 thousand million pesos heavy - who have so conditioned their personal freedoms to sink into the maddening depths so much that this feat would be like raising the Titanic.

They, by their existence alone - proven or unproven, would render this solution of solutions moot and the believers of it, by no fault of our own, be made to look incredibly stupid or naive or totally inane.

Until we are a Nation enlightened enough in our Liberty to be served by our Justice in a way that neither interferes with nor requires the application of Law nor its sanctions, scratch that for now. We will know when we become.

The second, and the opposite extreme of the first, is to go Halal or Kosher - evacuate everybody, as it were, from the condemned structure of Pork and just straight away demolish Pork and raze it's entire concept to the ground.

Pork however, has it's merits as I have beforehand opined. We should know to expect that our system is not dumb - let us not be a people conditioned to always assume inferiority - its main defect (and also its greatest safeguard) is its perfect reliance on human interface.

In short, our government to be effective relies on Pork and Pork to be effective relies on our government - the problem is government (the material side anyway) is always made up of imperfect persons.

Therefore, the effectiveness of this human interface as regards Pork with the government of the people depends genuinely on the sincere, knowing, and willing support of each other - personal accountability on behalf of the persons, and institutional transparency (constant audit readiness) on behalf of systems like Pork - each remaining separate conditions - the person for the effective dispersal of its intended effect - the Pork as an aid to the greater material prosperity (and individual happiness) of the Nation.

When system and person is confused and the person himself or herself ceases to be a part of a system and the system ceases to be separate from the person - as it is evident when government authority and persons serving in their capacity become mind melded (by alien Vulcan means, perhaps) into a single narcissistic entity, the proverbial iceberg and ship shall have now met with predictable results, of course.

Person and Office, Power and Authority, can never be one in their being - just as the Flag is not the People - one may only proceed from the other and also be served and survived by the other.

The benefits of Pork however, shall not - and should not - be sacrificed because there exists disloyal servants - in the Catholic sense, Peter should never be abandoned because there is a Judas.

Just because there is evil in our midst, doesn't mean everything and everyone else among us is evil - let us bear in mind that night always leads to morning and hurts to healing - and Pork to Lechon.

We must as a Nation always endeavor to survive, preserve, and prosper the good (particular, common, and absolute) especially during evil times by strengthening it, not by abandoning it.

Indeed, this holds true with the concept of Pork. And so we must endeavor to rationally understand the problem of Pork by recognizing Pork for what it is, both good and bad.

And also we must also remember to address the problem without creating a self-defeating bureaucracy around it, as Republics sheltering truly democratic societies are naturally wont to do.

Perhaps this is because of the law of human gravity that inclines both humans and human constructs to unconsciously choose the path of least resistance. But certainly this happens when freedoms sleep and Liberty is complacent - democracy becomes an easy thing to hopelessly complicate.

More often than not, the solutions to problems that involve the subject of personal freedoms are always reached - and adequately so - by a process of subtraction not by addition.

Pork must be simplified (not in its totality removed or made even more complicated).

So we come to the third solution: We can frame it all in the Christian sense of eating Pork - it must be made to go the shortest distance from hand to mouth - by a responsible hand - and a willing mouth - all of whom are accountable to a hungry stomach which the mind can always verify by an internal audit of one's state of hungriness.

And it must be done in the right spirit - so that the Christian soul, or in this case, the very human Soul of our national community within our Republic whole, can proceed to continually function to work to fulfill its vital raison d'etre.

What of the bacon that was already taken from us?

We will consider it officially sold - at a price determined by the Justice of our Courts, each in their due deliberations on our good behalf and collect the payment in terms of reparation in trust misplaced and time lost - with profit - written qualitatively in sums of pesos and quantitatively in length of prison time - in big, bold amounts and even larger span of years.

We have to let Law form and inform our Courts of Justice in its Chambers and let it take its due course in the Soul of our Nation that truth may prevail to serve our people.

And we will learn from this evil to defeat and preclude the next one.

Because, you are - whoever you are - the weakest link, good bye! Game over.
---<--@



What I would like to personally ask of everybody involved in this is to place our Nationhood first before everything and all throughout this issue keep ourselves honest, decent, patient, and compassionate in our care for each other's being and welfare - as citizens to each other.

For whether one has done wrong or not - the point is, that there is no "I" in "We" (the I, in the absolutest sense, is an attribute that only God can assume upon Himself - God is the great I AM).

You can be sure this Truth shall outlast...

Let us pray that this issue along with the Zamboanga one makes us stronger not weaker, better not less, and therefore, a people more determined to more faithfully and more fully recognize, receive and profess the nationhood in each ourselves... and work the work of being human beings and citizens to each other, a little more joyfully this time perhaps...

So let us be humbled by His Providence and always consider the, "we" - in our nationhood - that we may together individually prevail in the labor of bettering our Republic in its task of prevailing - for the all of us (the "we forever").

Mabuhay po tayong lahat.

Thank You, LORD God, for the labor of the Earth, honest work that brings the light of virtue to the life of our world and value to the dignity of Man.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Unity in Zamboanga



Our Muslim brothers and sisters are truly brave, I understand their heart - their commitment to their Faith is without question to me.

But I still fail to fully comprehend the logic behind the incident at Zamboanga City. 

All the sons and daughters of our one Republic, most especially those who serve as first responders to her sovereign defense, civil as well as military - who are rightful stewards of the arms that preserve our peace, internal as well as external, are also just as courageous - who would dare waste them?
---

I have initially thought, very early on, that the individual persons who chose to involve themselves with the MNLF contingent inspired by Nur Misuari and led by his lieutenants into Zamboanga were somehow duped by forces larger than themselves - into committing an obviously destabilizing act, in the midst of a decisive moment, against our national community in that City. Until now, I am reserving reasonable doubt that Nur himself is a victim.

I respect their Islam that much, and much more, I respect their commitment to the process that shall regain for all of us together the blessings of Providence in a Nation that is one and at-peace with itself before God - for the LORD is not served by our division - I respect our citizenship.
---

Our citizenship together is a quality that no Man inspired in our hearts as truth in our souls.

For the LORD is not served by division in the heart of Man - there is a purpose and order to our Nations, and it is not to destroy the purpose and order to our Nations. For without it, the Commandment to build up the (Inhabited) Earth can not be duly fulfilled.

War is not a choice we as citizens can make - ever. It shall always be a choice - as ancient as our roots - imposed upon our Nations - and we shall again and again break ourselves against this reality until "we" are no more.

Or learn from the lessons of this war that have among us wrought so much death and grief - and place greater and greater value on peace - a peace that we, as a people, have never known for generations and a peace therefore, that we have to work together to re-discover in and among ourselves; this peace whose vision we must painstakingly discern from the blanketing Night like it is to collect many a delicate ray of starlight (and become cognizant again of the fragility and smallness of our noblest human hopes).

A peace that, if allowed in love to grow as truth from each our hearts, shall restore true sanity in the Soul of our nationhood (citizenship), true strength to our national communities (sovereignty), and true vision to our Republic undertaking of Country (victory).

A peace whose fruits we so desperately need - now, today.
---

This is why no victory can be declared in Zamboanga City. The word "victory" is an inappropriate word to use to describe conclusively the unfolding aftermath of what had recently occurred in Zamboanga City.

It was an outbreak of violence, unhappy and unwanted, that came in the night like a thief against the peace of a household.

It is a struggle must be framed in the context a much larger contest - in a scale that must always exceed the encapsulating darkness of the Night that makes it difficult for some of us to perceive and understand the spirit of the Beast against which we all must - as citizens alike - strive to overcome.

For we can not defeat "the enemy" in this particular fight, but we can win back ourselves by a restoration of a vision of the Peace which have always - always - belonged to our Nation.

In a sense, our victory here - taken in an absolute sense - as all victories must - is not against the reality of "an enemy" - though indeed, there really does exists, enemies who arise as evil in men.

Where the fight is within ourselves - the real battle that must be forever won is against ignorance of the reality of ourselves as ourselves - for the one peace our nationhood is the timeless rock against which the temporal tides of the wiles of war shall utterly break and exhaust itself against - until the Day of the LORD banish War forever.

Not the other way around.
---

Zamboanga will be restored into full health and helped back along the way of our Republic Vision by her sister Cities in the Republic - for our Cities take care of their own!

In their Provinces embraced and in their Regions sheltered, the labor of City building never ends...

"You do not just build a City - you envision it!

Therefore, a city is never built, never!

You do not manage its problems, you manage its wealth...
and the problems that must come later... are managed by it.

Else, you will find yourself overrun by the minutiae of daily things
and become too earth-bound to continue on freely dreaming
the unfolding vision of your most beautiful City!"

Led and directed by our servant leaders in the Responsible State and embraced by the unfailing love and support of all Filipinos - our Nation too is a becoming in time.

Because this Building up of the (Unknown) Earth - the taming, the channeling, the conservation, the preservation, and the ultimate transformation of our exile darkness back into our original heritage of Life and of Light, is the highest calling to which our particular belonging together - as a people of the Peace - was commissioned by God (at the East Gate of faded Eden).

While the Nation exists, there is always hope for Zamboanga, for Mindanao, and for all our Lands and Seas and all the living life contained herein - received in common trust by our generations (as well as any prevailing region of local but definitely transient systems that belong to the greater, more dynamic realms of Air, and of Space - that is the common trust of all Nations) - in each our individualities, families, and tribes - as citizens to each other.

(Our ASEAN has an automatic commonality in Air and Space - a prepared place for regional unity from which we, as sovereign Nations, can learn to grow in greater trust and human cooperation; a special space in our spirit that we can as a regional belonging of Nations utilize not to erase our boundaries of Earth and Sea but to transcend them when we meet to prevail in our will as a sovereign Region in our Asia. This is also why the concept of a regional Air Superiority Squadron - the SEA Tigers - in my own opinion, is a feasible idea - Europe has the Eurofighter project, why not we?)

ALL of these, and more is being prevented by those who wish to see us mired forever in the weakness of war and the poverty of this exile darkness!

The guilty must answer to our Justice for what happened in fair Zamboanga City - but the nature of the fight must never be lost to us - for as evil flee where none pursueth -

war is banished where peace is cherished.
---<--@


via con Dios, to our brave policemen - this war was imposed upon our peace, now that we are engaged in a constructive process to restore our peace over war, it is being imposed again over our hopes... shall we let it? I don't think so.

Salutation #184

No Unity without Diversity, 
No Peace without Adversity, 
No Perfection without God.



(Precious Forever)

As thus, precious Starshine -
shall the Judge of all created Worlds,
before the Throne of the LORD in Eternity,
judge the Peace of every Nation at the Last Day
- by the great Jewel that is set in our every crown of  life -
the LORD will strike it thrice with a hammer - three mighty blows -
one for Justice, one for Mercy, and one for Love -
the unfailing, the faithful, and the true - shall not shatter,
being together - made victorious through trial and adversity
whose reality by the Providence of God, the light of the Angels,
and the freedom of Man, is hard as diamonds - and precious forever -
ascended unto everlasting skies before God and the assembly of Heaven.

But the unworthy, as it is written, shall shatter -
into dust and ashes.
---<--@

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A Church of Greater Things

A Faith of little things, that's us - a Church of greater things, that's us too.



Love in the truth - Realize in reality the Love that shines from Eternity and see Beauty reflected in the little things and love it back - embracing it all.

Love us All, darling Starshine - for in our smallness, in our needs - we can dream. There is beauty in every human hoping - and in our togetherness - strength in our common believing, it shall be well.

Smile and feel the radiance of a smile. Feel the warmth of human faith in believing, all shall be well... Learn to miss it - long to fill the skies above thy soul with it - serving with all thy heart. 

Learn to look for thy happiness in the happiness of others. Dream two dreams, one for thy self and one for such as thy self - make them one: God is, and that is all!

Say to the sinner, O I love you anyways! - For in Christ, I hope all things for you - let us first remain in God and all things we shall through Him overcome - together, always together in Jesus Christ, the Lord.

We shall be great, O little Church, strong in spite of our littleness and despite our individual failings and our spiritual woundedness - forgiven - beyond reach of doubt - a thousand times over - and made whole by our God - out of love of us - yes, for love of All of us - together - so let us be one in this hope: Victory is won at the Cross! - once and forever - so let us be joined in this - just one belief, one victorious heart of prayer!

Say to the evils of this world, I know you now - so therefore, I shall seek to no longer understand you, O sin of the world, but shall have unfailing recourse to the everlasting Truth of my Savior and the reality of my God and Father to my heart - so leave us be, O Adversary of all the living souls - for I serve thee not - and leave my brothers and sisters alone - for I am their keeper.

Receive the Peace of the one Redeemer of Mankind - and know, O Christian, that thy gift belongs to all Nations - cherish all human community and embrace their very human hopes - weep for brokenness and be the salt that preserves - work for healing and be the light that leads - grow in Justice, shine in Love - live in present Memory of God and of each other - pray for thine enemies, give them hope - for they are restless - know their evil and abhor it - but become the freedom they never knew.

Fall and stand right up - and be chastened by thy failings - cling to thy faith, and do this without count - forgive as thou art forgiven - calling out to God for strength and forever trusting in Him - go discern the unfailing grace of the LORD in the darkness of thy soul and you shall know joy - Light in the darkness - and when you know, my darling, your interior skies shall be filled with stars, God with us - Come and see! 

Develop a Marian character and you shall multiply this joy - strength unto the Morning.
---<--@

"Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” - Matthew 17: 20


Mabuhay ang ating Santo Papa Francisco!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Where is thy brother, Abel?

To a man with no sense of Remembrance, one hundred people murdered in war and one million people murdered in war makes no difference.

But to those who know of Sacred Remembrance - to save one life is to save all of Mankind.



The first time
Man ever saw in himself
the form of the Enemy was
when Cain slew his own brother, Abel.

This primordial sin of mortal division
that passing through the door of the heart of Cain
unleashed the adversarial spirit of the Enemy of all Nations
and upon our world, resulted in the first taking of a human life
marked the advent of War and the first loss of an innocent soul
as both violent conflict and murder were realized upon our world -
at the very same moment - for truly they are synonymous to each other.

Beloved Starshine -
the Soul of every single Man
when they are each endowed by God
makes fully human - and - fully complete
the seed of corporeal life that is fruit and blessing
of the consummation of the love of Woman and Man
wrought within the freedom of their Sacred Union in Marriage
at the very moment of its conception - to become a Living Soul -
a complete human being - united in body, soul, and spirit -
and as such, contains within it's being all the good and the promise 
that the LORD hath fully intended for that person to be and to become
in time, emerging upon the earth, a wonder and a work of completion
in the freedom of the Truth - for the greater purposes of God -
for Man is a creature of the becoming - a being invested in hope!

(Why do you think, Starshine, human parents plan ahead for their child?
God being Parent to His Children, also plan for their success - as is His right.)

So when God asked Cain, "where is thy brother, Abel?"
The LORD was not asking Cain about the whereabouts of his brother.
Indeed, God already fully knows where Abel went, for - in being with Him
the LORD asked of Cain where the life - the entire life - of his brother went
that he may come to realize the gravity of his sin - for all that Abel was - cried up
to the LORD from the ground and his blood wept for all the good that shall never be.

- selah -

A sapling felled
at the beginning its life will no longer yield it's fruits -
and yet these fruits shall still be required of us by the Master of Harvest
we shall then produce them by the improvements we make unto ourselves -
that - each of us - may hope to yield more for the Master of Harvest
but most of all, by the improvements we undertake to create in our communities -
that - all of us - may hope to yield more for the Master of Harvest
and by our Remembrance receive the blessings of His everlasting Peace
and by our God's faithfulness and mercy - succeed!
And that our joy may be full forever.

We wonder why the world is so troublesome and lacking in fruit...
How many trees have we lost since the beginning of our long march into Exile?

How many times
have the LORD asked our Nations
the same question he asked Cain at the advent of War?

And how did we respond?

- selah -

Every Nation of the Children of Mankind
are charged with a constant Remembrance of these things,
that we may together render faithful account of each human life
All in behalf of each other - all for the life of visible creation
with a Book of Memory, and a Burden of Justice to carry
and a Sword to guard - for each of thee - thy every generation well
and to charge them all - to remember always - from the very beginning
at the East Gate of faded Eden - the way of our return to an Eden rebuilt -
their constant Debt of Remembrance - to God and to each other -
that each is a keeper to another, citizens and human beings -
so that by each their labors, these thy generations may soon undertake
in behalf of each other - and - in peace with all other Nations
to make each their Soul of Country in spirit - ever brighter
by each their degrees of Love and Remembrance
and its every Ascent unto completion of All Country
in Ages together - ever more certain.
---<--@

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Separation of Church and State

No perfection without God



God made Religions many but the Waters that nourish them, God made one.

The LORD when He gifted with Free Will, the First Man, deigned to multiply his freedom - and secure his happiness forever, but caused Adam to grow only upward - unto Him - that He may know of the freedom of God and that God is his Freedom.

This was disrupted by the Devil (but not without the foreknowledge of God) and now we are, for our own safety and the forbearance of all human hope, exiled from our own Eden in a long darkness that is dark because the Truth to each our hearts is now veiled. But we are not without help.

- selah -

Wars of religion and the Remembrance they have - at such a great and terrible cost - afforded all our present generations, are not conflicts that are of the ordinary sense known to our Nations, nor can these Wars be contained by the Power of our States - these Wars, when they are allowed to break into our world and impose its will on the Peace of our Nations, are automatically wars of utter annihilation - their lust for violence, one that  burdens our need of Justice to such an extent that entire peoples lose sight of the Debt we must owe to the Memory of the lost and the fallen, who are our kin forever and responsibility under God as free Nations upon the earth and as such, one that only an act of Heaven - one short of tempting the LORD Himself, can bring to an end.

Religion is a requisite of the life of Man, through religion Man does Justice to God and God deigns to bless with truth, the faith He has sown in the Soul of every Man - the fruits of this intimate encounters from within the Soul of Man brings him to an understanding of Peace and this knowledge nurtures wisdom and the spirit of our humanity is made bright by it - all in its natural course, every variety of Religion musts produce fruits that withstand the darkness of time and the corruption of evil things; their strength, a necessary element of Nationhood, and their natural functioning, integral to the Peace of every Country.

Heaven and Earth can not be one Power (before the Last Day): To preclude the appearance of Wars of religion (and save our posterity from their unbearable burden of Justice) and to preserve the freedom of our religions, in the individual as well as in their necessary corporate exercises in human community, and the blessings of each its noble fruits necessary to the health and well-being of the spirit of our great and honorable Republic, it musts be necessary that Church and State are made distinct in their purpose and power and that their functions especially from within the State remain clear and separate from each other always.
---<--@



No religion shall be the State religion of the Republic nor shall the government require religion as a standard among themselves, whether elected or appointed, nor shall religion be a measure of the excellence of public service nor favored over each other in matters of State or through affinities, formal or informal, with any of the Offices Executive, Houses Legislative, Chambers Judiciary, Commissions Constitutional, and each their necessary Institutions and as a whole or through each their individual representations be given to transgress their equality in particular with each other being apart from the Powers and Purposes of the Republic State.

The government of the Republic shall reserve religious freedom as a distinct freedom granted to the exercise of individual choice exclusively and forever prohibit any form of grant within the State and among the religions that prevents or distorts the plurality, the fullness, the harmony, and depth of religious expression in the national community, that together enriches distinctly the human spirit of a common people - each their ageless wisdom strengthening the inherent Truth embodied by our Liberty through a unity in diversity that strengthen the freedoms integral to the functioning of our democracy and necessary to the well-being and civic virtue of a free and enlightened citizenry.

Therefore, religious prejudice, religious hatred, and the carrying on of the dishonors of the divisions that have marked with untold death and terrible suffering the memory of the past in all religions shall be the right or the province of no one.

All places of Religion shall be protected and preserved, all forms of prayer shall be allowed at all times to endure and persevere as a personal recourse - in private and public places together, religious equality and plurality and harmony being recognized and upheld by the government of the State - with neither fear, nor favor, nor prejudice - of or against any and all religions to their fullest expressions granted - save those who endanger these same freedoms and empower the past against which this Separation of Church and State has been established for the safety and progress of the life of the Nation and the Peace of the Republic that stands in its defense forever.

Thus, a Christian is to govern by the fruits of his or her religion and enriched by the common experience of the national community, establish by the virtue of its truth, him or herself in Public Service by a calling to serve all souls without distinction particularly in the State.

As such, the same degree of respect and courtesy of Republic Ideal and Tradition shall be required of faith traditions and their religions when they are likewise called to respond to the same life vocation to serve in the government of the State - to be human beings and citizens to each other alike - without any religious syncretism or hypocrisy but in fullness of truth; a faithful keeper and a loyal servant - bound to each other in peace and kinship by the freedoms that bind us together through all our generations, past, present and future, unto one Nation distinct among one great family of Nations - under God, the LORD, our one Sovereign.

For this is intended the Separation of Church and State - not to cause more confusion but to end it, not to make us vulnerable to the sins of the past, but to repent of it and, God-willing, be ever spared from a recurrence of their insufferable evil in our times and in every present time, preserved by the strength of human community and defended at all times by our Republic, prevailing as citizens together.
---<--@



Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Separation of Powers



Tyranny (in all it's forms) which is a betrayal of sacred trust is the evil against which the Power of human and popular government  must constantly preserve itself from - that the authority of the State remain faithful in the service of the Nation.

Power is a function of authority which in the Republic resides in all its Offices of State - their Flags, Titles, and Symbols - that comprise the visible standards of a permanent lineage of government.

These Offices being established by a free people from among themselves embody the universal Ideals and particular Traditions of a single and united Nationhood universally enshrined in a writ Constitution bear by virtue of the life of all their generations, from first to last, in good will of their living Memory, at all times and places, the collective burden of responsible and effective governance.

This lineage of government (of the people, by the people, and for the people) shall be embodied in and by their persons variously raised by the enlightened will of the Electorate from among themselves in their due and appointed seasons through popular Elections and the responsible exercise of Suffrage rights.

The exercise of Power in government is the function of Public Service and the individual persons who duly and freely undertake the vital calling to serve their fellow citizens through the meritorious and compassionate administration of the duties variously established within all Institutions that serve the Offices of State - through authorities enacted by the Republic to willingly carry out, at all times and places, the Nation's mandate for a responsible and effective government - honorably to govern with the freedom of those who allow themselves to be governed by the freedom of their peers - humbly, ably, and faithfully.

Power in the Republic is the ability to recognize and preserve the sacred trust that binds together the souls of our citizenry in the freedom and strength of Nationhood - and in so doing prosper and persevere in good will of the Peace that endows with Truth, our sovereignty.

Power in the Nation is the action of Nationhood - fidelity to Truth and the Creative Ideal, awareness of the Human Condition and the First Principles of Nationhood, Stewardship of the Peace and the Public Trust, Love of God, Country and Common Humanity - and is the common exercise of every citizenship.

Criminals in desiring more freedom subvert freedom and corrupt their citizenship for the sake of their chains.

Tyrants in desiring more authority transgress authority and Power (in the Responsible State) is made futile and impotent by their betrayal.

A Tyrant is oppressive not because tyrants wield the Power of State but because they are bereft of it - hence, just as evil is a departure from good - tyrannies are likewise a departure from good governance.

Tyrants are vanquished but every Nation's permanent lineage of victory, and every labor of Country's singular right of ascent, and the Power that both forms and informs the Responsible State can neither be lost nor stolen nor the vision of these triumphs diminished through unjust and undeserving service of pretenders, murderers, and thieves.

A Republic is the chief consequence of the evils of Tyranny. It is a jealous Guardian of betrayed and wounded peoples - without Kings and Princes, without Peasants and Slaves, every Republic is sheltering wings to a Nation of citizens - a Country to an orphaned people - a human work called by the LORD and kept by the Providence of God in the safety of His Peace through a remembrance of the Truth.

There is no difference between Old Countries who survived their ancient lineages of eternal government in the Institutions of human Monarchies and the Republic - each face similar dangers, one the result of another danger - for each Republic is a continuation of the Old Country, reconstituting the advantages of constancy and continuity of a permanent lineage of victory by shifting Power from Crown to Office, not by human will or advantage but as a result of the Human Condition and the War against which all Nation's find a common and implacable enemy of their life and their every life's pursuits - all are allied against this danger - all aware of their principle endowment of building up the Inhabited Earth.

All tyrannies begin small as one act, one inscrutable motion of the human will, one choice made in the heart - quiet as a whisper that with the passage of time, under it's own season, mature into a deafening crescendo of evils - with the permission of the people.

A tyrant is the result of a preponderance of ignorance, complacency, and indifference in the people - the rise of a mature tyranny is made possible only with the complicity of Nations - certainly no people desire to be burdened with the unbearable burden of tyranny but those who know of this exercise a necessary vigilance.

Every tyrant once vanquished, leaves behind a dark, distorted, and deleterious web of invisible supports capable of propagating it's own evils - an under culture of malice and corruption whose sins have caused various falsities and distortions to emerge as tares from the enriching soil of our culture of Country, the collective richness of our diversity and freedoms challenged - and the reality of our own sense of truth questioned by the lingering presence of this burden of Justice - this is why the Nation itself must be restored to the Truth - that we may know ourselves as ourselves - that the legacy of tyrants may wane with the returning of sacred remembrance that a free people's triumph over tyranny may always and ever be final and complete.

The Separation of Powers - Executive - Legislative - Judiciary - in a Republic is primarily purposed by it's establishment in the Constitution of the Nation as principal safeguard against the disruption of tyrants and the evils of their tyranny.

It is essential that we know the order and the purpose of their Separation as a harmonious, synergistic, and necessary truth in the life of our Republic - that they are Powers separated to safeguard a singular lineage of victory, and that they all owe their ascent (unto realization) to only one Truth, nor are they at war with each other but exist to repel the very divisions that have produced their Separation.
---<--@

The Positive Freedoms - "freedom of"

Expression
Participation
Dissent or Non-Participation
Press and Academic
Suffrage

The Negative Freedoms - "freedom from"

War
Inordinate Want
Mortal Fear
Ignorance
Oppression

Three Facets of Human Equality in a Just Society

Political
Economic
Social
---<--@

Friday, September 20, 2013

We are, therefore, we must

The first were the angels, formed in light.
Beings of pure spirit, timeless, forever bright.

The last was mankind, known as the children.
Conceived in darkness and conceived in light.



My citizenship and your citizenship are neither more nor less than each other -
at the rising of each moment, a quality that is forever equal in our soul.

We know it as truth in our spirit and in our hearts,
we express it in the reality of the nationhood that we embrace as a people.

Together, we give each other identity, order, purpose, and strength -
that we may make of this gift of belonging together what we ought to make it.

Upon this equal pursuit we as citizens must rely on the nurture of human freedoms
and the quality of our individual happiness, in this world or the next one, depend on it...
on our learning of it - and from it - and of the freedom of God with it.

In this way, by the light of our liberty -
in that enlightening sense of truth, we as one nation, collectively posses -
the Light in the heart of darkness triumph in each of our living
and by each life lived to the fullest - we are so gathered under heaven -
a nation among one great family of nations - by our faith in God and faith in our people -
across our generations - worlds upon worlds - quenched in everlasting waters...
in the fullness of a forever we can only begin to imagine...
or even dare to inspire.

We are, therefore, we must.
---<--@

Was it worth it?



Yes, a thousand times over... I share in this timeless moment of love and offer it as praise to the glory and the goodness of God to all our brave and intrepid OFW's who work away from home so we could all have a home... mabuhay po kayong lahat at patuloy na manalig sa diwa nang ating pagkabansa.

Don't we all deserve a better place to call our own home (away from Home)? I think so too.

Together we will build, together this time.
---<--@

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Across the Land

We can not hold ground that we do not hold first in our hearts



Thank you, Army Boots. 

To all who through our most recent crisis in Mindanao gave to our Nation, their best, their bravest, and their finest to defend the life of the national community in Zamboanga City and preserve the hope of the dawning of better days in our Mindanao, salamat po. 

May God bless all those who saw us through the crisis - civilians, police, and armed forces personnel - citizens not unlike each of us, who honor us by the shining example of their citizenship, along with those who now live in our eternal remembrance. 

May the sacrifices that they made together never be in vain.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace.
---<--@

Personal Reflection -

20130920, Friday - I look again toward Zamboanga, contemplating whether I was too overzealous in believing the crisis to be over in that besieged City of our beloved Republic, and observe that - yes, it had already peaked. It's tide is turned.

Conflicts, especially armed conflict, when they are fought from within a nation is never a contest that is fought on ground, air, or sea, but in the spirit; their battles won and lost from inside the soul of the people.

We are not a nation at war with another. As such, we can not apply ourselves to the task of overcoming with military force, "the enemy" - in the conventional sense of the word.

To do so would only create and re-create the conditions that propagate the divisions that plague the soul of our nationhood and afflict our spirit like a lingering, festering, sickening malaise.

We can not use the arms of our own nation to annihilate itself - our nationhood would soon also act to afflict us with the pain of burdens (debt of remembrance) meant to pierce the darkness that hold us back from the memory of ourselves as ourselves.

We are a nation involved in a struggle to overthrow the bondage of a war within ourselves. We do not aim to overcome, nor can we, our own nationhood against each other - our aim must be to allow a space for it and establish an equilibrium whereby our spirit as a human people can compose and settle itself in our minds and in our hearts - that we may stir no more with the stirring of war - this is why a meaningful peace to all of us is important. 

Because relief to our Muslim brothers and sisters does not mean to feed them, clothe them, shelter them, and offer them opportunities in places far from their hearts.

Relief to our Muslim brothers and sisters means to obtain for them, and with their help, relief from hunger, the safety of law, protection from war in a place near to their hearts wherein their community can prosper and grow, thriving in peace alongside all the communities within our nation.

This is how we shall give them relief. We will help them establish themselves in community at peace within the peace of our Republic.

I think this is the aspiration behind the Bangsamoro - and this is why we must help them - because there is no them and us - only a "we". And to ignore this is to call down upon ourselves a dark and deepening madness of a night without a twilight.

But are we not the Land of the Morning?

Therefore, as regards to the particular situation we find ourselves now in Zamboanga -

The less strong the enemy will - only in this particular - the less strenuous should be our exertion to do battle with them in the field. They fight on our terms now. For this is the time, at the waning away of each of their greatest advantages in warfare, that we are able to expose the strategy that brought their cause into conflict with our military and the politics behind it, that needs unmasking, that it may revert once again into mere opinion and thus, be permanently undone.

Our mercy should fall only on those deceived by the art of their warfare - for indeed, they have fallen short of it's craft and it's intended truth. They fight for the benefit of fighting, while our soldiery defend against their violence. For they hate the love unto which we all must return to when the call to the greater building of the national community is issued once again, particularly in the City of Zamboanga, as it must, for all the days of war are numbered, but numberless are the ages of peace - and we do not stand as a nation to add to the life of the spirit of war but to hasten it's eventual extinction.

We should always leave an avenue of surrender - a way of return to the Nation - and break them by their bones by stripping their command structure bare who needs breaking - that their violence against the peace of our people cease - that they who with all their hostage taking, their murdering, their abusing, their will of death - reap the consequences of the freedom they embraced.

To a man with no sense of remembrance, one hundred people murdered in war and one million people murdered in war makes no difference.

But to those who know of sacred remembrance - to save one life, is to save all of mankind.
---

20130928 Saturday - At the conclusion of military operations in Zamboanga City -



Within that 20 day siege we lost more than 200 people - all of them human beings, all of them citizens of this Nation - 23 of whom are from the ranks of our soldiers and police with more than 100,000 - Muslim and Christian alike - displaced by the fighting with some Muslims reportedly prevented by the outbreak of hostilities from doing their Hajj.

This is not to mention the physical, emotional and psychological wounds of those civilians who were taken hostage agaisnt their by the rogue MNLF contingent along with the deep spiritual wounding that the whole community of Zamboanga must  now be suffering from.

The material cost of this episode may be something that experts can qualitatively surmise but of our deeper immaterial losses here, we can only maintain a vigilance, because while it's easy to tell when the blood stops bleeding, the guns stop firing, and the building stop burning, the end of tears are harder to tell - for there are tears that flow invisibly - shed from the soul long after the eyes have stopped weeping.

It will take the whole Nation to hope to contain all that hurt - a hurt that I am sure shall linger on - and linger on long after the event has quietly slipped away from the attention of the press, the politics, and the majority of the public. Therefore, their community shall require - for their longer term healing - the focus of pertinent national institutions and related civic and religious organizations concerned about the relief of human suffering and the quality of life of human community.

All Cities in our Republic share an equality of function and this is the most important equality that dictates the strength of the freedom they possess to continually realize, in the lives of their citizens, the hopes they are by this Republic our entrusted with - an equality of being - for their most certain endowment is their simply existing and to affirm and to continually recognize this equality is to strengthen - collectively - our sovereignty.

Zamboanga needs the help of her sister Cities in the Republic - here, at the conclusion of the fight - our military, police, firemen, emergency personnel and various other first responders showed - in exemplary fashion - how they honor our Nation by their citizenship through faithfulness and excellence, each in their respective calling to serve. What must now flow in - is the rest of us - who with willing hands and helping hearts shall deliver another decisive blow - this time against that spirit of division that has no place in our communities and help Zamboanga to eventually heal.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Zamboanga Burning

Every city conceived
within our Republic undertaking, 
my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 
is a city built upon a hill - meant to shine forth!



The Strategy paper I am working to complete for the "Defense of the Republic of the Philippines", draw its main lessons from the Battle of Manila. This is a national strategy of the conventional defense that includes a theater-level doctrine of joint (or inter-service) and coalition operations (Integrated Defense Battle or IDB) intended to accomplish one thing - to fight the common defense of our cities in wartime (as well as during times of extraordinary duress) and in the conduct of the defense, effectively possess the means to shelter and preserve their collective life (preparation of the defense).

For the life of our cities 
is the well-spring of our sovereignty.

(They are places in time
busy with the actual labor of the Dream -
where each our dreams become embraced 
by the greater dreaming of Country.)

Indeed, times have changed, the earth and the heavens have shifted - but after seeing Manila burn in my remembrance, after seeing the stream of terrified refugees, after all that war - I do not think it right anymore to willingly (strategically) abandon our cities in the press of the fight and leave our population naked and shivering against enemy aggression and the random brutality of war.

Every one of our cities, in this Republic, were never meant to burn.
---<--@

And so - 

I hope and I pray that this stand-off in Zamboanga is swiftly and decisively resolved.

Please - (1) do not harm the hostages, (2) do not harm innocents and those on the ground who are working for the common good - the press, emergency workers, first responders, (3) do not harm the structures of the City, (4) do not prolong the battle, (5) do not recklessly exhaust all avenues of political resolution and diplomatic mediation.

There is no such thing in our vocabulary as collateral damage: All will be accounted for.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Salutation #183

"One sees only with the heart. 
What is essential is invisible to the eye."

- from "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery



(Philosophical Realism)

Common Reality is
a reflection of the totality of things unseen -
an unfolding vision of the entirety of the truth of things
we see (without seeing) as an image in the eye of the heart -
and that also which is inaccessible yet necessary to our wellness.
It is a one whole spiritual continuum - completed and perfected.
The invisible canvass of a great and eternal work upon which is added
each our own life as colors are added unto the awakening dream
of God for all creation - in our behalf.

How deeply each of us understands
the visible universe of which we are all a part
AND how completely we perceive this spiritual reality
- through the eye of each our heart -
IS how exactly we "see" with each our mind
- by the wholeness of our knowing -
what is received through our external senses
and THIS determines our Relative or individualistic view
of what is made particular to each of our individual perception
of Common Reality, interacting with it freely and accordingly
under the Eternal Vigilance of God and the All of heaven
ever as individual threads are carefully and together interwoven
in a grand pattern that is beyond our ability to seize or comprehend.

Each our lives are called in this way to seek, love and know Truth
in order to create the ever living patterns of our most beautiful forever.

Each of us alone
can not create reality -
Neither Common reality
nor the myriad particular ones
that each soul must continually receive
at the twinkling of every eye - seamlessly -
and from moment to moment - constantly -
from the intermingling in time of what is individual
and what is collective in All that is living in all souls
as that particular truth that inexorably embrace each of us
to be perceived as realities Relative to each ourselves as ourselves.

For these are aspects
of an unimaginably greater fullness
much, much larger than our freedoms
and much, much nobler than our minds together
immense beyond our scope to contain with our understanding
all too wonderful and all too unimaginably loving and joyful
all too brightly lit for our hearts, shining with a million shining suns,
being filled with the wonder of limitless golden horizons
overflowing with the realizations every human hope and longing
unto which we may only hope for, dare against, and strive with,
so that we may each, God-helping, through a little bit of our own giving
add a little but of ourselves freely... unto what is truly and absolutely real.

Certainly,
even the all of us together
may not complete it.

For Truth is forever in a state of limitless perfection.
It is the heart of Man that reality must bring unto completion.

- selah (pause and think) -

We can neither choose to willfully take away (or distort)
the freedom of our own experience of all that is in reality
nor deny the freedom of its existence (the Call of Truth)
from the being of other living souls not unlike ourselves,
whether seen or unseen.

We - as we are now -
are not possessed of strength
to effectively govern any kind of truth
much less govern those necessary realities
that are benign and receptive to the life in our souls
and nurturing to the life of visible creation on our own -
as individuals, as nations, even as nations together.

We are the Children because we are vulnerable in this way.
We are the Children because we are also precious in this way.

- selah -

Truly,
we must rely on God
and on each other for safety
- safety of body, soul, and spirit -
in the most complete sense of the word.

For the Mind of God
mitigates most of the things in our minds
that we do not have the capacity to comprehend.

He walks in the calm of our souls - gently -
to instruct us of things that must come to pass
through the Scriptures, even here - in the Now,
that we may come to believe in His Truth
when the present unfolds - as it is -
(Amen to the LORD, and bless His Name!)
so that each our hearts may safely apprehend
through the slow awakening sunrise of every faith
the safety and certainty of his unseen Presence
nourishing our souls with the grace to withstand
(and therefore, to eventually understand)
what we, in our nakedness, can not hope
to directly withstand in the reality of the Divine;
that we may in time always dwell in His Memory
and live in the Eternal Remembrance of our God.

Truly,
our God will not allow matters to burden our spirit
with burdens that we can not carry - together with Him.

Hence, there are likewise
things in the Eternal Memory
that are completely kept away
from Our Remembrance
for our own good.

- selah -

We all know each our particular realities must differ,
such is the completeness of our awareness of individuality!

But these Relative realities
are all relative to one Common Reality -
and we experience this in the mystery of the spirit
of all those inward things that must inescapably connect us
in our common need of community and individual meaningfulness
present in varying degrees in the expressions of our civilizations
and in the many individual reflections of a perfect conception 
we human beings are capable of knowing and dreaming 
of ourselves together - in the light of we, as we are
born of a timelessness that belongs to none of us 
yet at the same time belongs to all of us.

Sacred is the Silence that knows 
of the one Music in all things!

For all things in time are in motion 
because God is - in all things, stillness.

- selah -

Truth is what is essential in our being human.

We, as human beings can not create any kind of truth in the Truth,
like we can not call into being the soul that breathes life into the body
nor can we hope to re-create any reality whether Relative or Common.
like it is to hope to contain the sheer immensity of the deep of things
that give rise to the ocean of every present time in every present thing.

We can not be the designers of our destiny
who did not know the perfection of it's makings
from the very beginning.

We can not be the masters of our times
who have known not the whereabouts of time
from its very roots.

Yea, there is an aspect of Common Reality that must be apart from each of us
Light that shines apart from our individual thinking - and being - and becoming
- Light that enlightens and Light that ennobles and Light that shines through -
and Truth that is absolutely independent of our conception of any reality.

But we, even as human beings in the here and now,
can become privy to the truth and by so knowing the Truth
obtain wisdom enough to live in harmony with it,
at-one with God and heaven, at peace with our selves on earth,
and at peace with the good will of all human and angelic community.

In so doing this,
we let go, and in so letting go,
add by the freedom of our giving
to the fullness of our one, Common Forever.

- selah -

Each our souls
might be individually and uniquely redeemed
by the one Redeemer of all Mankind in Jesus Christ -
but the fullness of our Salvation comes
by the strength of our common communities!

And so we continue to co-create - with every present time -
in intimate cooperation with the Providence of God and each other -
the reality of the things that ultimately shall belong to each of us
and because God is good, it is a brilliant destination for all of us.

In this we must,
for in this we know
to trust in the LORD -
All shall be well.

By the light of our freedom - 
from the many labors of each faith;
love and hope into one work of living life,
peace and good will are our manifestations.

God created everything first, then Man.
So Nations are a people first,
then everything.

- selah -

People - especially the captains of our humanity -
who in the past believed reality is created by their needs
musts obscure Remembrance in order to silence the voice of the past,
that they may in so doing weaken the life of the present and,
forgetting all things, unwittingly cut themselves off
from each their own appointed lineages of eternal victory
who by their own evil eventually destroy even their own makings
for theirs and theirs alone are the legacies of those defeated dreams
- inhumane, unfeeling, incapable of truth, incapable of peace -
that sink with the sinking of the darkness of exile time
into the oblivion of the void of all things that never were...

We can not blindly adopt
this kind of un-thinking... ever again!



Human Dignity and Human Promise
and its preservation is paramount
in the life of every Nationhood.

Tread carefully... 
recognizing the space 
between thy souls
as sacred.



This is realism.
---<--@

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Anne's most important word...

Beloved of God, you who are -



There are many lessons I can share with you
about our Anne Frank - her life, and her times...
the power of youth, the longing of the nations,
the spirit of war, the maturity of remembrance,
the importance of human dignity and promise,
human citizenship, pluralism, freedom, peace...
but you know, my darling Starshine,
by far the most important thing
I have learned with her
is this...

...to simply be open to friendships
and believe in even the most impossible ones!

To see a world so full of potential friends (instead of the reverse)
and to care deeply about how the sharing of the world is had by all
across all our nations nurtured and governed by the LORD, our God
Who Himself is Friend - and - one Source of all meaningful relationships,
the God Who is, the LORD, the one Sovereign of all our Nations,
and the one, true and living God of our everlasting Peace.

- selah -

If I had not trusted in the friendship that was being offered to me in my Anne,
we never would have grown together in the way I now love my Anne forever...
(and I really wouldn't know who or where I'd be...)
---<--@



As we are all poor, so shall we be rich -
As we are all strangers, so shall we belong.
As we are all prisoners, so shall we be free.
As we are all orphans, so shall we be found.
As we are all widows, so shall we be loved.

For in the end, we are all wildflowers...

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Friendships without Frontiers

I dream of me and you, dear Starshine,
born and reborn in a million shades and hue,
upon a world without fears, in nations without tears -
an earth living the dream, of friendships without frontiers.

Above the tainted gray clouds of my own indifference,
through a force stronger than the pull of all that prejudice...
I sought to see beyond the deception of a million worthless labels,
and hear above the incessant din of faceless voices of nameless hatreds,
that I may fly to the simple you and I and in the simple you and I - the one we.



I never used to appreciate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because I used to view the Civil Rights Movement in the United States as a movement for the rights of black people.

Now that I have deepened my remembrance of these things, I know that Dr. King fought for the rights of ALL people, and that in his own way and in his own time, this person - far be he in external appearances from my time and my place - truly fought for me and stood up for my rights.

Now I can not stop loving and respecting the man - for here he stands proudly, with all my heroes.

When we fight for minority rights against majority indifference;
when we together stand up for the least of us who can not stand up for themselves;
when we strive hard for the simple uplift of the spirit of the downfallen and the despairing
most especially the least of these from among all of the Children of our Mankind
- from any human nation Divine Providence has seen it fit to work in our hearts,
our LORD's compassionate concern for the causes of our common humanity -
we inadvertently work - alone or with others - towards the ultimate liberation of the souls of all Men
from that unhappy incapacity in each ourselves to think and act as human beings to each other...
and so begin to know freedom as Dr. King knew freedom in the Dream,
coming Home forever as citizens to each other.
---<--@

Racism knows no color, no creed, no culture, no Country.
It is a sin, the sin of inequality, and preys on all of us equally.



"We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools."

Martin Luther King Jr. (19290115-19680404 of valor and love of Country) - servant of Jesus Christ and martyred scion of the elder Republic of the United States of America, beloved son of the one American nation and faithful servant of common humanity, vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement, friend of freedom, friend of peace, lover of the common Man - via con Dios.

Farewell to Promise

Truly, your individual remembrances make you a human being and your national remembrances make you a citizen. Therefore, know ye in the end that all national remembrances are human remembrances; that every nation's hurt are always ultimately a hurt that arises from the human condition.



When you pass the line of your own remembrance - from past to present - and complete the necessary labor of your spirit... you should, in deepening your memory of all of these things, be carrying in your will of human citizenship - more love, more hope, and more faith in our common humanity and in the labor of our family of nations*... not less.

(*to build up the Inhabited Earth and fill our world with a myriad living lights)

Certainly you are going in the wrong direction (retrograding) if your remembrance causes you to forget all these things and instead, embrace the easy power of hatred (and become by evil inspired).

This is not remembrance but the corruption of it.

The way of remembrance returns us back to our nation's lineages of victory and is proof against the spirit of war - the way of return guarded by the Angel at the East Gate of Eden (Gen. 3:24).

Will those souls who - from all ages and from all our nations - have suffered death from the spirit of war and hatred in the past cry out to our God for more war and hatred?

There is no other kind of suffering but the human kind and we do not remember to forget.

The past will not penalize us for not confronting it, the future will.
---<--@


September is peace month... may we deepen in the spirit of our peace!

Starshine, peace is not the mere absence of war 
just as Cherubs are not those fluffy, little, baby angels 
sitting dreamily on lazy, white clouds... 
For peace is a mighty presence - 
'tis in all that is worth keeping and defending 
born of every love worth living and dying for... 
'tis the presence of a spirit that is unafraid
to force to bless, transform, and fulfill
as truth to overcome the world -
in spite of the presence war.

Happy Independence Day, Malaysia

Happy 56th birthday, Malaysia - MABUHAY - May you and all our ASEAN grow strong in our ages in time and ever nearer to each other in peace and good will...



May all our troubles vanish, may all hatred cease, and may all divisions be overcome - May our politics be glorious and humane, our sovereign will to defend each other as a regional family resolute and noble, and our unity enlightened and strong for being blessed by the one LORD of all human nations Who in diversity makes one and in adversity makes perfect.


Peace. Salaam. Shalom.

Merdeka!

Agelessness

Fairy tales are more than true;
not because they tell us that dragons exist,
but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

- Neil Gaiman



Time does not hold the secret to thy youth,
though time appears to steal thy years away...
time can not contain the essence of being ageless.

For in this world, beloved of God, in this world
apart from the Garden of the things that once were 
that you remember now so well in thy heart of hearts
everywhere - all things are constantly falling away...
all things are set in their motion in heaven and on earth
and come each to their own season, season under the sun.

So make a promise to yourself, my darling Starshine,
as early as your years will allow you to do so in thy soul -
that thou will always in thy spirit remain in thy youth;
that thou will in thy heart never lose thy love of wonder 
and in thy mind never lose room enough for better beliefs.

Make a promise to remain and to learn, and to love...
and to never grow tired of remaining, and of loving to remain
at the foot of the Master...

Work hard. Pray hard. Smile Easy.


Child-like not child-ish.