On the National Conversation

Trying times bring out the best and the worst in people and these are trying times indeed...

One should always presuppose something human about the State and the Philippine State being what it is, democratic, a healthy clash of opinions is a good sign.

I agree with those who disagree with me in that they like myself are free to express their thoughts on matters concerning the life of our State.

One should not be the judge of opinions other than one's own.

If your stand is stood on principles, then your opinions as a reflection of your convictions should outlast the opinions of the hasty and the reckless. 

However, when we start turning on each other as judges of each other's belief, things start to turn from sour to bitter. Because this makes it political. 

Let the facts shape our belief. Let the truth dictate our vision.

I believe our civics or basically the art of how we treat each other as citizens is grounded on the truths of our nationhood. Therefore, "our" national conversation should be generally conducted in the spirit of our civics.

We as a people talk all the time. 

We are free to do so by a freedom that is our right and responsibility - "free expression", it is called. Free expression as a form of participation in the life of our nation (and ultimately in the politics of our State) is what I refer to as our national conversation.

The Filipino media, our free press, are our gatekeepers as regards the national conversation which is why to impinge upon press freedoms is the beginning of the end of free expression in the nation.

Our government and its institutions are formally represented to the Filipino public by each its own public affairs representatives. Our press is the popular equivalent. This is important.

One who believes in free expression should also make the connection in his mind that press freedom is just as important and in his heart understand the reciprocity of its good.

It has been said that a state that begins burning its books ends up burning its own people.

In much the same fashion, any democratic government or for that matter, any free people not outraged at attacks on its own free press do not understand how free expression works and place themselves in peril of ultimately losing it. Indeed, we ought by knowledge of this be forewarned about the twin values of press freedom and free expression and live our freedoms accordingly.

Brother and sister Filipinos, we should care about the quality of the conversation we are having as a nation. 

To this end, I should laud our media people who are working hard to make all this talk a worthwhile thing to have for all of us.

I too believe the talk we should be having, for our national conversation to bear us good fruit, should be focused on quality. Our conversations about issues that matter should always honorably reflect, in spite of the sobering reality of so many woes, our highest ideals and beliefs.

Our national conversation serves the quest for truth, and truth in service of the people.

I think we should mostly be concerned with solutions to our problems and not on identifying problems we already have but fear to own... maybe because what once was a molehill has now turned into a granite mountain seemingly right before our minds.

When I say this conversation becomes political, I mean it in the sense of the politics that is exercised by our politicians in the formal government of our State.

We are not all politicians after all nor should we all desire to be. We are all citizens though and as not all of us are elected (by us) and set apart by popular mandate into those formal positions of public service within our Republic, our politics are basically expressed through the national conversation in support of the politics of our representative leadership in the formal government of our State.

If one would and takes this all a step further, one writes or contacts directly, his or her representations in the formal government of the State in the Executive, Legislative or Judiciary branches.

Politics are important and because it is, public participation in the political life of our Republic is vital.

All things political to our nation arises within the State from the soul and into soil of our nationhood... its science shaped and empowered by the art of our civics.

Not all of us are politicians, brothers and sisters, but all our politicians are citizens and to the extent that they are, all our politicians should be statesmen and stateswomen.

And those of us who should freely submit ourselves to their leadership ought duly and willingly participate in the national conversation.

In a democracy, we are all leaders.

As all good leaders know, all leaders learn the art of their leadership as followers. In a democracy, all of us too are basically led by the light of our own truth. Hence, leadership in the sense that it is democratic should know and understand that to lead and to follow are one and the same responsibility.

If we know and understand this, and if we trust in the decisiveness and clarity of our vision, all our talking will lead to the one walk - along the way of ascent that will lead us to the eventual and true awakening of all our national dreaming...

All our words should lead us (again and again) to the realization of the promised truths of our peace.

Because truth is truth and at the summit of our Republic Sky lay for all our hearts, the ideals drawn from our highest truths - of proven principles that enable us to conceive together a vision of the State that is always comprehensible to the Filipino soul no matter how different our opinions on the ground may be...

Actual proof of this is our written Constitution, this national document being a distillation of the Filipino spirit handed down to us in physical form. (Have we ever wondered why from one proceed the many and how from the many, one? Have we truly taken to heart its Preamble?)

I trust that leaders be responsible for their own truths and for speaking it out with respect of their own dignity and the dignity of other citizens not unlike them - being honorable Filipinos. 

And so we begin... again and again... while time is time. Till every question and answer become unto us all simultaneously one and the same thing...

Let us have a conversation as a nation... and let our free expression propel our democracy forward to the good of our Republic as a service to our nation and therefore, to the benefit of each and of all.

God bless the Philippines. Mabuhay po tayong lahat.
---<--@

When shall the future be...

When shall the future be... 

Corruption we can never banish entirely - we have to take man as he is. 

Our society ought not suffer its evils easily though. 

We should work to gain from these trying times, a vital tempering that shall steel our will of community. That corruption never again openly threaten our common labor of Country. 

The Filipino dream of freedom belong to all Filipinos. 

We will always behold this dream as if it were a future far away if our nation remains shackled by the many fears that hold us back. Our future is near as tomorrow once the Filipino can dream again. 

We should not fear to break out of old molds of thinking. We should not become comfortable with all too familiar pains. The ghosts of past things shall seem terrible to us indeed if we shall harden our hearts...

Nations have a right to be - forever. Therefore, every Country in our present world, properly established, expressed, and brought to fore in time, has a right to succeed. We must own what is ours.

We want better things for our nation. All things that better a nation ought always to last. If a thing is not such and after a while perishes, shall we call it a gain of happiness? Or a betrayal of it? 

Wealth to our community is enrichment - good and wholesome to the total being of man. Corruption and its propensity to multiply its sins against community is never a means to achieve such a wealth. Evil foundations shall never stand the test. Time itself shall pull its worthless idols down from this world. 

What we must dream and labor together to possess is the kind of riches that promises to profit our souls a happiness that is invincible. Material wealth yes. Most certainly! But the gain of its honorable pursuit as well. 

By the gain of virtues multiplied, the pursuit itself becomes a blessing unto every life's learning. We enable our citizens to become masters of their temporal possessions and therefore, captains of our national fortunes. 

Wages and salaries, benefits and allowances - everything that adds to every citizen's ability to move and to be - these are not survival options but economic necessities. 

It should not be such a hard decision to make - to increase the economic potential of the Filipino - IF the wealth we as a nation possess were to be established on the building up of good and abundant things that make our Country in the sight of Providence very good. 

But wealth born of the wrong things curse. It is naught but dust and earth in the end and shall leave for our generations nothing but bitterness and grief.

Our connections are human and valuable. Peace is the source of the national wealth.

Our citizenship in this Republic draws its sovereign reality from the strength of our connections with each other. How we esteem this sacred trust and how we honor our citizenship is one and the same duty. 

Betrayal of the public trust usually arises either indirectly through ignorance or directly through malice wrought against the sacred trust of our people. 

Simply put, our civic allegiances we profess to each other under God - through the Flag that rally our spirit unto the liberating work of our Country. 

From this we are emboldened and stand to gain much fortune. 

For the gaining of the earth for man is the original intention of our coming together as a nation. Before the fall it was, after exile it still is. 

---<--@

Ahimsa

Man while upon the earth weeps
and cries out to God for His Justice!

To the Nations of the LORD, we fly
for redress of this awful plight,
for Man's plight is suffering.

Man suffers evil upon the earth
because he is Man...

Because Man is by first principle a victim.

I never understood the power of non-violence until I read a short essay about it in "War Talk" by Arundhati Roy.

I never understood what I now understand because I never was able to fully apprehend the profound connection it had with violent resistance.

Non-violence is actually the purest form of dissent and when it is given ear, speaks its message clearly and simply - even gently, resounding like a bell.

When it is given ear... for Ahimsa always needs a partner to the dance.

The thing is, when non-violence, especially in a democracy (particularly in an emerging Country like ours - still awakening to the growing strength of its wood), becomes itself a prisoner to popular indifference, we unwittingly abandon a necessary part of our political process by default to violent resistance.

And who wants to dance with that?

Dissent and overcoming dissent is an integral part of the national dialogue. We are free to express our disagreements to a government who is also free to express its disagreements.

How skillful the dancers are define how graceful the dance of the politics of those and every time besides and in a democracy, we have to dance - else, we would reap no results and the nation will grow hungry for the truth. And so we are in constant need of these partnerships - to hope to fully realize each dream within everybody's dreaming, that our forever may be full.

I believe an integral part of our civic freedoms is to adequately understand what constitutes "peaceful protest" - small or large - and I put forward to you, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, that this is Ahimsa.

People Power was also Ahimsa... 

Yes, we know this dance, we just have to recognize that we do.

And should always give preference to it.
---<--@

Salutation #168

Citizenship is in the soul - 'tis a seeking in the self -
an integral part of the blossoming of every human life.

So you breath it in your spirit, and you live it in your life
- you seek it like the motion of a love learning to love.

You long for it in yourself - until you are full for the truth -
until your belonging is absolute and your joy is complete.



(An Identity of Participation)

Citizen, participate -

(1) in the economic life of thy nation
(productivity, industry, and material prosperity)

   - be honest in your dealings with others
   - pay your taxes

(2) in the political life of thy nation
(responsible authority, meaningful order, and human purpose)
   - be fair in your dealings with others
   - properly exercise your right to vote

(3) in the spiritual life of thy nation
(virtue, meaning, and human felicity)
   - be willing to allow others to be happy
   - work to be happy

(4) in the social life of thy nation
(peace, justice, and human community)
   - be willing to lead and to be led
   - obey the law

BE all you can be for God and Country.
---<--@


Citizenship with Fidelity

A Nation's Prayer for Good Public Servants

Public service is a calling not an ambition.

Therefore, if the calling is present and the person freely responds and God blesses his or her decision, no one loses out - everybody wins!

So must we always pray for God to raise among our people, good public servants - shepherds after His own heart!



May God inspire in our hearts
a discerning love of the true shepherds
of the common people -

May the LORD cause us
to exhort and support them,
to recognize and to love them,
and to appoint them, wherever necessary,
in free and peaceful elections -

May the generous and good God, our Father,
deign it acceptable to enrich our national communities
with their vigilant and beneficent stewardship
in all levels and across all distinctions
within our one nation.

AMEN.
---<--@



It is said that one only receives the love one thinks one deserves. As a nation, my people, what kind of love do and can we reasonably and realistically expect from government?

In a democratic society, these expectations matter. For these expectations of ours inadvertently shape the custom and the norms that help or hinder the rise and the success of those who are in government to serve or to be served.

Those who expect corruption when and where it suits them in the citizenry provide those who are corrupt in government a means to be corrupt.

Those who expect excellence and all manner of praiseworthy things from our public servants in the citizenry provide those who are true in our government a means to remain so.

Those who do not know what to expect will likewise reap the same uncertainty for their lukewarmness and timidity of spirit in public participation.

Liberty is an exercise, not an excuse.

Lateral responsibility precedes horizontal authority.

Walker on the Path

If you think the straight path is straight because of the path, you haven't really looked beyond yourself to see what lies ahead...



Peace be with you!

If you feel that our world -
which needs so much of our love and care -
is presently difficult and confusing,
then let us fall back to our own nation
and work to improve the peace of our Republic
from within our national communities.

If you feel like our nation -
which needs so much of our love and care -
is presently difficult and confusing,
then let us fall back to our own selves
and work to improve the peace of our Republic
from within our own families
and circle of friends.

All of this we can achieve
by continually choosing to being better
than our own worst selves...
and in spite of it.

(Is not the first meditation of our rosary of hope
the strongest foundation of all the other hopes?)

- selah -

We do what we can, the best we can -
the rest we leave to the care of Almighty God
and to other citizens not unlike ourselves.

The straight path is straight not because of the path
but because of the walker on the path.
---<--@

Refer to: Salutation #83 (Straight Path)
              Salutation #150 (Rosary of Hope)

On Remembrance

Remembrance
is a commandment of God
of all human nations.

Hence,
a lack of remembrance
breeds a certain contempt
of the sacred.

Either one draws away from the sacred,
placing it in a place - out of reach of the heart.

Or one becomes enraged by it,
making of it an enemy of the heart.

- selah -

A person who looks for God
who has not the remembrance of God in the heart
looks for Him in vain.

He or she may seek God
in the heavens or on the earth
and God shall nowhere be found
for that person.

The great scandal of this is
that this person may claim that God is not -
where in fact, he or she has closed the eye of the heart
to the Presence of the LORD in all things,
seen and unseen.

The remembrance of our war dead
(across our nations, civilian and military)
likewise belong to the realm of the sacred.

(For as the sacred fulfills all - and - draws all,
so must the quality of our timeless remembrance be
for all national remembrances are human remembrances
and rightfully belong to the common memory
of the spirit of our humanity.)

- selah -

In an increasingly materialistic society,
where God is being everywhere forgot,
- a healthy regard for the sacred -
soon becomes an uncommon virtue.

What lies beyond the veil of time,
where all unity must always proceed
(for it is in the spirit where all unity is begun),
in unseen realms beyond the nature and scope
of the physical and the temporal,
is where a healthy sense of sacred remembrance
grounds the human heart.

Where remembrance
is increasingly becoming scarce,
there shall in its place be a growing lack
of a sense of connection with history
and with each other.

For
all truly human relationships
are spiritual connections.
---<--@

(produced 20110710)

Salutation #144

(Nation vs Corruption)

Corruption 
must be uprooted
from the roots!

It must be
the conscious fight of every individual
who desire to prosper together as citizens
in a living community that is aware of itself,
at peace with its own true purpose for being,
striving under Almighty God
to build up the better causes
that make it human and free!

It must be fought
hand-in-hand with a loyal leadership,
comprised of Offices greater than the persons
who serve through each their institutions,
within a responsible government
at-one with its vision and lineage.

Unto to the very spirit 
of a people!
---<--@



Many things corruption can be,

my beloved people, for many are its names -
only one thing it is not - faithful.

Salutation #95

All truth leads to freedom

only because our freedom is constantly

being perfected by the freedom of the LORD.

Freedom that is authentic to our humanity

is always relevant to our human need to be happy.

It is not the false image

of that presumptuous freedom

that shuns the accountability

that is an inherent responsibility

of an authentic human freedom.

Therefore,

freedom is not free

that binds us to the Evil in all evil things -

freedom is free which binds us to the truth

of God and of each other in common humanity.

(Truthfulness)

To be truthful,

seek first the Source of all truth

for as God is, we are.

Truth is

the mother tongue of heaven:

In the truth we are able to understand

and through it we are able to be understood.

Truth is

the common medium of all virtue:

By the truth good is recognized and applauded

and because of it evil is revealed and punished.

Therefore,

love the LORD

in everything and with everything.

This is the path of all true things.

- selah -

Strive to be aware of this

and in thy own understanding

strive in all things to speak the truth,

mean what you speak, speak what you mean,

and own up to what you mean

- doing all things in love and out of love -

for God and for thy fellow citizens upon the earth.

Exercise truthfulness

with a compassionate regard

for the humanity of other people -

so be gentle when you should speak.

For the habitual grace of truthfulness

does not bind us to the truth - rather -

it binds the truth - through us -

into the active service of charity

so that truth is made available,

by the demands of prudence

and command of charity,

most especially when it counts.

The object of this virtue is truth itself,

that which fills with substance all things whole

and endow it with force and meaning

which is more than its words.

The act of this virtue

is the honorable expression of truth

and this honorable expression - being -

the explicit recognition

amidst our human need for absolute truth

that the truth that lives in other people's lives

(the particular reality of the individual good)

- must also be recognized -

as an integral part

of this particular virtue's

expression of right action.

For the truth must be

- by its own virtue -

is wielded for no other reason

than to make men free.

---<--@

Truthfulness is an expression of the cardinal virtue, Justice.

The individual exercise of truthfulness is therefore, simultaneously both a personal as well as a civic virtue.

The ancient Filipinos possessed this virtue to a high degree.

The Ascent

In those great sweeps of ambiguity,

the framers of our present Constitution defined for this nation,

by the ideals they have established for our Republic,

that great and abiding paradigm

of liberty for our people.

For these ideals guide,

as a unifying sense of vision and direction,

and give us counsel

according to (1) how we interpret our freedom,

(2) how we live it, and (3) how we learn it,

ever ascending with but one ascent to the truth.

---<--@