The Illusion of Race

Race is an illusion, an artifice of a species of nationalism that is not ours. What is proposes is the division of the Nation according to tribal distinctions. What this means is the subjugation of the soul of its peoples by the temporal powers of this world.

Race is a social construct purposed to be divisive of unity and disruptive of harmony among Men. This is so because the concept of race is meant to fill an ideological necessity (that upon our needful earth gave rise to a domination of evil we have together fought and prevailed against in the last age).

It is a thought prejudicial to our Liberty!

For the Nation that is ours is a soul that dwells in and among our peoples, and through it stirs the spirit that gathers our generations together and sends our generations forth into forever.

No human being or temporal power hath placed and purposed this Nationhood in our souls.

The belonging that calls to each of us within our souls is issued among us by neither man nor angel.

Nor may our citizenship, one with the other, be received by any earthly or temporal dominion save our own love and remembrance of all the good and blessed things that made us accountable to the God in heaven for the peace and good will that we are made freely and humanly responsible for together here upon this earth as a sovereign undertaking of Country.

We are made equal in dignity and promise - before God and the assembly of the Nations - not by virtue of external appearances or the whim of fashions temporal but by the truth of what is permanent in our spirit and what is for always to us in the truth.

Race hath no place among us. We are all the colors of life.
---<--@

The Burden of Democracy

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Liberty is the light that guides our freedoms together.
This unifying light is the burden of our Democracy.
It is a burden that builds. And makes strong the nation.
It makes right our freedoms and steadfast our spirit.


Of the Burdens that we, the people, must within our Democracy through individual freedoms as citizens bear, there are Five that are common (Arms, Justice, Liberty, Wealth, and Posterity) and Four that are personal (Superior Command, Enlightened Citizenship, Uncommon Exceptions, and Equal Taxation).

According to their relationships arranged as thus -

       The burden of Arms
              The burden of Superior Command
       The burden of Justice
              The burden of Enlightened Citizenship
The burden of Liberty
              The burden of Uncommon Exceptions
       The burden of Wealth
             The burden of Equal Taxation
       The burden of Posterity

We shall expound on these burdens as we go...
---<--@

Thoughts on Democracy

If we get this right, it will really be right for us.

Democracy is not a rule of State. The Republic is our system of rule.

Democracy is our way of nurture. It has everything to do with the peace that lives in the heart of our people. A people at peace with their freedoms is a people strong and steadfast, fully capable of building up the earth and of bettering their society.

Democracy is freedom kindled by the unfailing light of reason. Liberty is its sheltering burden. The rule of the State is thus received freely by the nation and popular government is enlightened by it.

Democracy is received by the soul of a people. It may only be sown by its own citizens and grown from out of the soil of its own nation. It must be received by the sovereign State. It is an unfolding of itself in time. It must therefore be directly experienced by the people.

It may be helped along in good will by learning of the shared successes and failures of Countries similarly nurtured by its guiding ideals - through reforms. It can not be safely transferred intact and complete from Country to Country.

Elections are not it's measure. What lasting wealth it establishes in the community of the nation and the fruits of it in the people are its true measure. Justice, Equality, Liberty, Humanity are some of its common ideals.

The way of amity among nations. The right of family with the nations. The duty of common defense and the ideal of dedicated arms. Sovereignty emanating from the unity of the people. Citizenship established through faith in God and faith in each other. Sufficiency through reliance with Providence as the highest Reliance.

Enlightened liberties as primary guarantor of justice and domestic tranquility. The dignity of the human being and the unleashing of the human potential. Human development led national development.

Human citizenship. Common rights and human responsibilities. Free expression. Rule of law. Equal protection under the law and equal justice before the law. The protection of minorities and representation of the dissenting voice.

Belief in human enterprise. Belief in an enterprise economy driven by capitalism. Economic cooperation in a free market structure driven by initiative, daring, entrepreneurship, opportunity, and competition. The pursuit of happiness. The multiplication of capital, the improvement of means. The alleviation of the humiliation and poverty of the human condition in the nation and also among the nations.

Love of the Flag and the symbols of Country. Deep regard for and recognition of civic virtues. Respect and appreciation for the power and glory of the human spirit. Pride and participation in the living communities of the people. Global sense, local presence.

Plurality of religion without hypocrisy or syncretism. Freedom from war. Civilian superiority over the military. Freedom of the national press. Freedom of academic thought. The establishment of National and Civic Endowments for the sciences and scientific research, technologies, arts, sports, humanities, and life values.

Reciprocity of the good both common and individual. The integrity of the family. The integrity of the national ecology and the preservation of indigenous flora and fauna. The conservation of the national will and culture through interdependent, plural and harmonious community.

The conservation of the national wealth through proper stewardship of resources. The common trust of the generations. Posterity as a living and spiritual economy.

Equal Taxation and responsible use of public funds through due representation in the formal affairs of State. The prudent preservation (through necessary transformation) of national institutions, laws, and infrastructures of State to guide the national progress and support the vision of the national success through changing times.

Food, water, power, human mobility (transportation and communication), and human safety (public health and public hygiene, medical emergency and healthcare access) as principal elements of human and national security. Physical elements of human and national security being only secondary.

Historical sensibility and a sense of sacred remembrance of the living and eternal memory of the nation. An understanding of the place and purpose of the nation among a family of nations. Love of friendship.

These are all principles of a free State. If we, the people, desire democracy we have to be willing to carry its burden with vigilance. Much depend on the spirit of our citizenship. And how steadfastly we identify truthfully with our labors, failures and successes.

There is no perfect democracy. It shall always be a work in progress while time is time...

Every generation shall be challenged by evils sufficient for their own days.

The LORD shall require a harvest of the fruits of these enlightened freedoms every season. He shall from every generation demand His portion of the life of our nation, according to the whole of each His intended good for each our generation.

Through covenant decreed by the Almighty from eternity, His Providence shall not increase or decrease His portion for each human life.

How it is we shall succeed depends much on our meeting the challenges of each present time as a lineage of human generations embraced and sheltered by our nation, represented and guided by our State, and fostered and served by our Country.

Thus, we shall never be able to triumph or fare well enough to raise the dignity and promise of our common humanity without abiding in a peace that does abide and prevail in us. For without peace we place ourselves under the dominion of war and it shall our troubles and woes multiply exceedingly with tears that make bitter the earth. We shall have no defense against the despoliation of the sword that wanders the earth as a restless spirit. It shall with violence and blood lust consume our people and destroy us from within.

Neither sky nor earth, night or day shall come to our aid until we remember in ourselves no more: That life is sacred. That each human life is to be cherished. That these are our values. That our society is in the service of man and woman as living souls made to shine for the earth, in behalf of the life of the earth; a little less than the stars in heaven but precious to God above all.

Adversity shall come against our democracy. It shall as a violent storm crash against our foundations and hurl itself against our labor of Country. Time and time again it shall test our generations - how deep are its roots? How much watered by the soul of our citizenship is our peace? How right are our freedoms? How sovereign our Liberty?

We will endure the test and leave things as they were, we will fall short and lose length to our days and light to our years, or we will together prevail over it, prosper our people in glorious triumph and add to age of our Country in time, the memory and sacrifice of our own life and times.

In our civics, unlike our politics, little things matter... small things count. From the exercise of little things - for ill or good - arise the magnificence of our values. Democracy is a way of awakening and of nurturing the seeds of these values.

That we become in time, surely as we must. 

If we get our democracy right, it will be really right for us.

If we get it wrong, we are always free to make it right.

Vigilant trust. Self-determined destiny.
---<--@

Second Class Citizen

I am a second class citizen,
living in a second class Country,
in a dead-end corner of the earth,
three worlds away from the memory.

My struggle is not for Liberty,
my dream does not reach that far,
I only want something to fill my belly,
and a safe bed to dream in under a star.
---<--@

The Question of Cain

Let us meditate a little more
on this war within the Filipino soul -

The absurdity of this war is
that it constantly propagates itself among our people,
multiplying the reasons why we should abandon our Nationhood,
when all the while, it is precisely this Nationhood
that can redeem us.

It feeds on the life of our beloved peoples,
overpowering the human spirit - from weak to strong.
It lies to our faces - that it means to do us good
and then proceeds to devour our children,
sparing none.

In war, the only winners
are those who learn its lesson.

War is the tutor.

Peace is the test.

And to pass this test
brings success.
---<--@

The Land of Nod

As a Nation, let us be reminded that to serve the power of our arms is to be slowly but surely crushed by its burden. If we continue the course, we might find a day when we realize we can not eat our weaponry nor this continued violence against our own Nationhood allow for our people the best and the brightest means to satiate our common human needs.

BUT we have in the past ceded the nature of this internal conflict to the power of arms, and sought to further invite this war among ourselves like it were a friend -

and so for decades, we fought over this war. 

That this so-called "friend" may by its power vanquish our hatred of others, our fear of their "otherness". (Is there such a thing as "otherness" in a soul that is one? We only mirror our own hate.)

And so we became enemies to ourselves. We fought until hatred and despair, themselves offspring to war, became another reason to fight. (Fighting for the sake of fighting alone is not a lineage that leads anywhere.)

We fought until attitudes of murder crept into our own self regard for the Filipino soul, and became as Cain. In ourselves we have come to also behold the person of the Adversary - in our brother, our fellow siblings to the one Nationhood.

If we are not careful, we will be like Cain - a fugitive to his own heart, restless for Justice yet unable to return to its source.

There is a certain kind of fear that dwells in the land of Nod, it is a fear of others - a fear that is not a tension of the respect - due to God and to our fellow human beings - that leads us in time to discover how to surpass its own limits - it is an inward thing, imploding and shrinking the soul of a person.

It is a fear that prevents common respect and human community and dwells in a restless land devoid of faith and trust, in God and Country.

Our Nation is proof against that fear, and restores Justice where Justice needs to be restored. Not the justice of Nod, but the Justice original to our Eden. (After all, did not the LORD give us our clothes? And more so, in the Gospels is found the greatest remedy to this restless fear - for the Seal of Christ dispels it - for Charity covereth a multitude of sins.)

We exist - in this particular regard - to do both the brothers Justice, Abel by Remembrance, Cain by the Love that lives within the compassion of our peoples - exemplified by our famed hospitality, our native trustfulness and willingness to give welcome to the person of the stranger; and the power to make of them - strangers to us no more.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

Cain is not free to find it. So we do not expect answers from Nod. The answer is - in us - as citizens and keepers to our common humanity. And if we seek to do both the brothers Justice, then each of us must choose to remember - and then, to renounce the War that brought to the first generation of our Exile so much woe.

And a woe - let us recall to memory, terrible upon terrible, that we have had to live with ever since.

Nod is in the Unknown Earth. It exists in places where the Goodwill of our Peace - as one Nation and as one Family of Nations - have not yet taken firm root upon the soil of our world.

If we continue to allow this war in the soul of the Filipino to remain, we shall exile ourselves like Cain, and nothing that is lasting shall ever be built upon this world by our labors of Country for our Nation. And the fruits it shall bear shall always never be enough to nourish the goodness and the life of our people.

Nor shall we be any more good to other Nations than our chosen weakness - our fellow Nations who are kindred to us in this world - in the Truth - to whom we do rely and who also look to us for their reliance.

We shall as a people proceed upon the Unknown Earth as Cain, restless for Justice and thirsting for a true sense of belonging - yet fearful for our own Reliance - to God and Country; wanting to return yet unable to return - set apart from our Peace by our own lack of choice.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

The Decalogue made it clear that murder is a transgression in the eyes of God - in beholding the Divine Law; this is universally recognized in the ethical codes possessed by the great lineages of the Children of Mankind and a common prescript reflected by the Law of the Nations.

In the time of Cain, the killing of Abel was murder - as an act of War. It was not Cain who did murder his brother. But it was he who opened the door of his heart to it. And "it" - the Advent of War - caused him to kill his brother - by his own hands.

At the onset of the Nations of the Children, the LORD introduced to the Nations through Moses and the faith of His Nation Israel, a common prohibition on murder. So in our days, murder is clearly and heavily sanctioned.

Because murder too was exiled to Nod - with Cain. And as we are - as Nations - called to gather all the Children of Mankind - in the way of our return to Peace - neither War nor its many offspring which are lies, hatred, pestilence, famine, murder and genocide - must have a place in our life and labors.

Yet where war is, there shall the shadow of its offspring linger. Is this war among ourselves our "friend"?

That we should mouth its lies,
partake of its ancient and relentless hatred for our common humanity,
clothe ourselves with its violence, and allow its adversarial spirit
to feed on the life and labors of our human communities -
only so that it may proceed to devour our children
ruin the order and purpose of our generations
and profane the peace of our communities.

The nature of this war among ourselves is such that it is an evil to us - only inasmuch - as we are - in ourselves lacking in the good. We are sufficient for the Peace we must profess. We should never be afraid of our own Reliance - to God and in each other.

War is, of course, a greater beast that the one we must together in this Nation confront.

But if we come together in this Nation of ours - in Peace, as a Nation - let us also understand, we are with other Nations together capable of staying the beast - as one Family we are able to build up a world that is better for Peace, through Love for common humanity and living Remembrance.

Nevermore shall the stirring in our spirits stir for War - but for the many hopes the past generations shall to us entrust, when we make our peace with their memory.

But first, we must end this War within ourselves by a free and human choice. (War chose us - it seeks for us to open the door of our hearts to it, we do not have to - there is really only one choice we have as a Nation - renounce it. Let Peace be our policy. Let us also wonder and be grateful at the foresight of the architects of our 1987 Constitution - are they not like us?)

I believe there are many opportunities these days to exercise citizenship with fidelity. And to be able to understand and to make this choice for Peace freely is a prime opportunity to do so.

Is it not good practice - to find the right questions - why our Nation must end this war, and let go of all the wrong reasons - how, and how may one proceed from choice - to civic efficiency - to human exercise?
---<--@

Practical Application -

Found here is the provenance where from the CARHRIHL is in spirit derived. The JASIG sought to draw the line upon the sand whereby we may together reverse the nature of the conflict.

That this line may only be realistically held under the flag of a robust and honorable truce is where the present difficulty lies. We shall overcome this difficulty or we shall be overcome by it.

Let us be for the overcoming. 

Amen, let us begin. May God continue to bless and aid our efforts - mabuhay!

A Nation's Treasures

A Nation's wealth is the life and promise of its people - across all our generations.

My people, as we emerge as a Republic in our ages, before we are burdened more and more with the responsibility of material wealth - I want us to remember the simplicity of our happiness in this picture.

It is commonly said that one ought to find one's happiness before doing anything so that anything one does shall be of good profit to the self. This is true.

But lest the world anymore complicate it, this is true only if one can keep one's happiness in the soul and keep it there - present and abiding as a joy in thy spirit - without anything else.

So that in knowing this, we shall always know, as we together undertake to further progress our journey of Country, Earth from Sky - the bounds of our reach and the reach of our limits - where the freedom of Man ends and the Freedom of God begins.

For our freedoms
shall always be our bounds,
our happiness shall to each of us
always remain within their reach
appearing as limitless to our hearts as the Sky
only as far as their limits are known to us here on Earth -
therefore, to transgress the freedom that keep us real
is to distort the happiness that keep us free -
as the gravity of material things tend to do
to remind us of responsibility.

Let us always remain with the truth - we are a spiritual people and therefore, when it comes to our dream of happiness - simply, a simple people.

Everything we need is within each of us - from this unity, God-helping, we shall confidently build.

Now, let us carry on - into the morrow.

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

We are to be wealthy first before becoming wealthy.

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.
---<--@

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.
---<--@

A Perfect Democracy?

No Perfection Without God



A perfect democracy can not exist in this world, as it is.

All we can hope for is
to achieve an optimal tension.
One that ensures within our society
- under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God -
that the responsible side of our freedom
- those authentic human freedoms -
are always - ALWAYS - well on their way
to winning the conflict - against their false and evil side:
That the truth is ever over untruth, light is ever over darkness,
good is ever over evil, spirit over matter, and Peace over War...

Thus, preserving the Creative Ideal - in every generation 

for All our generations to the very last generation.

For -

Freedom is to know freedom.
Democracy is to love it.
Liberty is to be guided by it
and Happiness is to be able to live it
- alone or with others -
under the eternal vigilance of God,
imperfectly in this world
and perfectly in the Next.
---<--@

Our slavery is a bond.
But our freedom too is a bond.
The former, of death and oppression.
The latter, of life and liberation.
One is a betrayal.
The other, a vindication of the betrayed.

II. The Republic

To Old Glory, an ode - 

Thou, 

at thy Birthing art forever conceived -

the home of the free, for the free, by the free

ensuring a government for the people, and by the people

carrying aloft the will and the mandate of all thy generations!

The vision of thy conception thus enshrined 

and the ideals of thy belonging thus conserved

through the economy of thy generations preserved

that Thou, that Dream - orphaned to thy own world, 

in spirit borne unto shores, distant and new, by pilgrim wings, 

to become a peculiar appearance upon the earth, a peculiar people -

art One - reborn into a unity of many, embracing a nation that is free 

and forever now endowed with thy own Spirit, faithful and true

vigilant in thy defense, and kept by God forever true to thy memory -

a nascent labor of Country, gained in Him, and through His grace

constantly achieved by thy own faith in His Providential trust.

Thou, 

at the Crossroads of Independence -

refused to be a nation in thy Spirit suppressed

by any power of hell or human dominion spread upon earth

nor enslaved by whim of tyrants with freedoms, evil and strange,  

than THIS, the dominion thou hast at thy Birthing established
in Covenant with God, and before all thy kindred nations in Eternity,

for Thou art fully invested in thy becoming, as a work of His hands,  

stronger for each thy hope in each thy present generations arising 

brighter for each thy days lived in memory of every generations past,

thou art like a song that in the stillness of thy heart gets better and better 

with every music that begins to play for all thy generations left unsung.
   

Thou wert a labor of the LORD, forever unworthy of another!
For the freedom of God shall be the inheritance of thy nationhood

and its principles thou hast with all thy heart resolved to keep forever.

Indeed, this is thy Liberty and well suited to thy love and allegiance  

and Thou art today for shame if thy own freedoms are not wholly thine

and that Thou art for naught today if thy own honor thou shalt desert

for truly Thou art in courage better served - always - than in fear

and so Thou called forth thy own Great Defender to thy common defense
(for Thou art His, the LORD's, and may this be of thy conviction forevermore)

and an army rallied to the first thy great and noble Fathers, George the free,

for as a nation thou resolved to be led - even unto war and its attendant evils.

Thus in thy will of love and fraternal sacrifice,
even unto the shedding of thy blood and thy tears
Thou - through the travails and terrors of battle enduring and persevering -

did come to recognize in the ensuing clarity, the quiet dignity of Thy peoplehood;
of what formlessness has made Thee as a form upon the earth - 

of what Spirit truly made thy citizenship utterly and completely thine.

And 

dedicated to the Principles Thou undertook at thy Birth
thou forsook the old in order to become the new 

and took on the name, America, the United.

And in thy bravery and in thy self-reliance 

and with all thy imperfections glaring, 

and with all thy hopes still shining

thou went to be thy Republic - 

From the fires of Yorktown

arose thy eagle wings!
---<--@



Guard thee thy remembrances well and in this faith persevere...
Lest we forget, lest we forget: This we'll defend: This Memorial Day 2013.

I. The Birthing

To Old Glory - an ode



Of all the colonies,
Thou alone were in spirit unbowed,
thy nationhood ever conceived in liberty,
by pilgrims seeking the simplicity of a freedom
that is not wearisome and a faith that is pure -

Ah,
thou wert a peculiar appearance upon the earth -
a root of the old world carried to the new!

Thou wert strangeness and beauty all at once.

Thou, a people called and a spirit arisen - 

amidst a thousand ancient nations, the very last;  

a new community sown upon the soil of the new

bound not of blood nor tribe nor earthly bonds

being a people called through waters of the spirit   

into a nation born of vision and nurtured in liberty,

the first in thy founding and the last to be found.

Thou, at thy Formation determined -

thy destiny lay in the care of the Providence of God 

and that thy peace is strength to overcome all adversity.

And 

in wisdom still lacking but with determination so rich

preserved by thy faith and in thy freedoms nurtured 

thou enjoined each thy generations in great earnest,
despite all the many things yet left uncertain to thee,

to the call and the labor of thy emergent nationhood.

Through times of peace, and through times of war, 

life and abundance came before thee to nourish thee

and the care of friends met thee at every crossroads

for thou wert blessed by the LORD with sure safety
setting thee aside to work a work of glory in His Name

even as tears and calamity followed thee in thy wake.

And 

thou numbered the days of thy youth in great measures 

as thou grew in wisdom and age and strength of years.

Spirit and Freedom were thy most ancient of names.

---<--@

Salutation #167

Benignity preserveth, Justice bringeth, Law leadeth, Life giveth.

(A Just Society)

Let us be a Republic
where people know of goodness
and recognize in themselves this goodness
and having no fear of the spirit of our Justice
   (who likewise love and recognize the same goodness
   idealized in our Vision of a peaceful national community
   and protected by the prevailing laws of our Country),
have every recourse to and confidence in the same
and by the same Justice fostered in their Liberty.

Let us be a labor of Country
where no man or woman who is good
fear neither the goodness of other citizens
nor the triumph of the spirit of evil in our midst.

Let us live in this society.

- selah -

Let us be a Just Society!
---<--@


The Nine Common Human Needs

Salutation #4

Of the common human needs that make us responsible to each other as citizens, one to another, there are nine: Hunger, Thirst, Clothing, Shelter, Personal Security (i.e. Security of Person and Property), Basic (or Functional) Literacy, Just Society, Authentic Human Freedom, and Meaningful Existence.

(Light)

PEACE, I salute you.

Evil which is poison, when once by mischief,

allowed entrance into that Kingdom within

becomes the malice that corrupt the purity

of the human will's intention for good -

dividing the one House of that Man within

against the Sanctuary of the LORD in the heart

making the soul vulnerable against itself

inclining fallen Man to sinful things.

For malice is the corruption that is sown

upon the ground of the human heart

to become those manifold and diverse tares

which are the vicious habits of sin

that overgrow with choking weeds

that evergreen garden of the human soul

where we take our walks with our God

in the stillness of our wakeful prayers;

that same timeless garden

that one must through God's good graces

cultivate with much virtue and light.

And sin is a lie that creeps

upon the threshold of the heart

seeking to assault and overthrow

the reign of our sovereign LORD within

that it may slowly overcome with its darkness

the golden blue of our native skies.

Now, our LORD being the one God Who is

revealed unto all of our shared humanity

in complete and utter finality

through the Sacred Humanity

of the Incarnate Word,

Who is the Second Person

of the one triune Perfection -

our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

our one Truelight, our highest Exemplar,

and First of our First Magnitudes,

is the self-same God Whose Presence is

for all creatures, seen and unseen,

that one, holy and sustaining Light,

when once in exile time completely denied

by the arrival in the soul of Man

of an absolute and irrevocable choice

to embrace and to obey the will of evil,

which is the will of sin and the ambition of war,

become in absolute reality manifest

as a smoldering and inescapable wrath

for when the Daystar Sun is completely eclipsed

by rise of Wormwood, that false star of Satan,

this darkness shall by its terrible descent,

completely consume into dust and ashes

all that remains in that Man,

both body and soul,

suffering the first death

which is permanent

as well as the second death

which is everlasting.

What motivates Man in the heart

is either one - good or evil -

and so therefore, that tree of exile

that from our faded Eden cast

the singular lineage of Man

is that self-same malice that

in the garden of our hearts with God

must first be uprooted

and its poisonous darkness

overthrown from within our souls

that evil and its corrupting lie

may from our eternal good be cut off.

This is how we shall acquire

one standard of Liberty for all.

Therefore, let us be good,

beloved friends and constant companions,

let good things motivate us,

let us be a people of the good,

let us seek to dwell on true things,

knowing by heart unto where

and from Whom all good things come,

persevering always in prayer,

both in private but above all together,

with the seen as well as the unseen,

thus, becoming intimate with the Intimate,

and seek no more to profit from evil things

nor make provision in time for evil things

in the timeless abode of our hearts

dwelling with God, alone with the Alone.

For it is human weakness that is forgivable

but malice once by the Spirit of God challenged

when yet willfully and unrelentingly embraced

become that final, festering, poisonous rot

that shall turn into ashes

the timeless life of the spirit from within

that it may forever join Satan

and all that condemn itself to the hell

that shall soon claim all evil things.

Sin that is embraced with such utter finality

is indeed, truly unforgivable

not that our LORD is not merciful,

for our God is a merciful LORD

and kind to all creatures,

large and small, seen and unseen.

It is evil that is without virtue

and once made into a god

in place of our most beneficent LORD,

shall then execute its lethal reign

upon that unhappy soul.

Verily, none of us

should like to question motives

yet when motives are questionable,

indeed, one can not help but question them.

This is a root cause of division.

And so let us ever be mindful

of that constant counsel

that any division within our one peace

is the beginning of all evil.

What we should always question,

my beloved friends and constant companions,

are our methods together,

that we may never cease from seeking

to refine the many ways in which

the abundant grace of our God

that we though unworthy of such a good

have so abundantly merited through our Lord,

Jesus Christ, the one Redeemer of Mankind,

that we by our willing hands and loving hearts,

may become increasingly useful instruments

that diffuse as light into the darkness

this unmerited grace of God

shining for all souls without distinction

that God's loving Presence in time

may be a paternal comfort and a constant help

to our suffering humanity here in our poor world

so needful of heaven's timeless embrace

that hearts may be one in God,

and peace may be all in All.

We are human beings

and therefore,

we are a becoming in time.

We share in our humanity,

a lack that can only be filled by the timeless.

A lack that is felt in our souls

as a reaching out to God

and manifest in our bodies

as common human needs.

And so, lacking, needful, bereft,

we are come to a knowledge of God

and of each other in God.

Verily, as our faith sets us apart,

our hopes join us together,

indeed, this is what makes us truly human -

our need for God and for each other -

and so in our belonging together in God

we must come together to build

through these, the generations of life,

those truly human communities

where all roads constantly lead to the dawn

towards the morning that return Mankind

to the one Love that has forever kept

all of our nations close to Its own bosom.

A society of need is a human society.

It is a society that goes hand in hand

with a government of gratitude.

Therefore, we must profess

a politics of thankfulness,

being a people of hope,

and work to enable a culture of peace

of which truth must be begun

in the darkness of exile time

by the first of the generations of life,

which is this, our generation

as well as those members of the elder generations

who are similarly called by our one LORD

and whose wise and steadfast companionship

our good God has so generously blessed us with,

ennobling us by the substance of their experiences

and the strength of their years.

War is a tension that is insufferable in this new age.

But hope is also a tension,

my beloved friends and constant companions,

and one that is more apt to liberate our nations

from the mire of poverty and despair.

It is an expression of God's own peace

which is the Peace of Jesus Christ

and an extension of the one paradigm of the peace

which contain in the one whole truth of itself

the reality of a promise of old to all our nations

made by the one God of our Father Abraham

that the numberless stars that we are each called to be,

shall bless the communities of Mankind -

when we shall in the darkness of exile time

by each of our own life's width and breadth

through our LORD's unfaltering Light be made to shine

for each other in, with, through and for God and Country -

here upon this, our poor world,

upon this inhabited earth in the grip of the midnight of war,

as a labor of hope upon this last wintering,

upon a time of falling tears.

Finally, as regards to our one peace,

we can not, as a whole, abide by lukewarm halves -

we must each enable each other through God's grace

to profess this as a one whole paradigm,

one whole truth in the universes within our souls,

one whole truth in our families,

one whole truth in our local communities,

one whole truth in our national communities,

one whole truth in our regions,

one whole truth in our continents,

and one whole truth in our one planetary whole -

in reality, wholes upon wholes aligned towards life,

built on winged truth, an ascendant motion in time,

advancing the cause of life which is lasting happiness

through civilizations that with our nameless and honest labors

rise like incense to give glory to the God of all life

as the one family of the nations of (the children of) Mankind.

If we shall give war an inch,

my beloved friends and constant companions,

if we shall willingly allow

a segment of our shared humanity

to become vulnerable to evil things,

if we freely and recklessly abandon

our Lord's poor,

in the weak, the defenseless,

the displaced, the dispossessed,

the widow, the stranger, the orphan,

we shall indeed soon find

that war and the ambition of war

has again overtaken us all

with the final defeat which is its curse.

For what war does to one, war does to all.

So let our one peace forever remain, one whole one.

---<--@

(produced 20090128)

Armed Freedom

During my time with you America,
I have often thought about you...

And during this difficult time,
I still think of you and pray you prevail
as we all must, as one family of nations, prevail
over the darkness that threatens our world
with madness.



O noble lady,
O valiant queen,
for whom do thou make
thy glorious stand?

For thou have
always beckoned
to me in my thoughts.

Art thou a sword to divide
a shield to deter, a spear to defeat -
a weapon of conquest?

Art thou a virtue to consider,
a light to lead, a guide to encourage -
a graceful lover of liberty?

For thou art a vigilance at my side
that give peace to our remembrances
and to my heart endows a spirit of duty
in times of peace and in times of war.

Do thou stand for some
and against others?

Nay, this thou most certainly am:

Thou art
the triumph that defends
from the not knowing thee.

For thy own truth
thou stands to guard the nation
that the nation may always be
from the many to the one
blessed with thee.
---<--@



Today is International Day of Democracy 2012.

We will at times differ,
but of the same heart we shall always be...

Opinions will divide us
to temper our thoughts
and strengthen our spirits
but our values will always remain
to unite us - when our unity -
calls for unity.

Freedom is to know freedom.
Democracy is to love it.

View in Review 20120623

We're half-way through 2012!



I think we're doing splendidly, my brother and sister Filipinos.

You must ask yourselves today, have the first part of this year of years made us stronger together, even slightly stronger, than the days before?

And you must ask this bearing into mind and heart the reality of our nationhood, who we are, as well as the present guardianship of our Republic replete with her memory and institutions, what we stand for, even as you reflect on where time itself has taken our freedoms today.

I personally think we have become stronger for our coming together.

For our liberty as one nation is bound by the strength of our freedoms together.

This liberty is our Republic pursuit, the fullest extent of which is happiness for all our citizens - in this world (of trial and probation) and if we are wise, in that promised world that is to come forever.

Let us remember to stay focused for the rest of this year of years bearing into mind that - yes indeed!

Little things matter, invisible things matter, for these are the essential things.



I recently saw a documentary about the prophesies related to 2012. 

These would have proved disturbing to me have I not learned to anchor my heart upon the prevailing spirit of the times which the LORD has ordained specifically to bring these events into order and perspective that we may each have a choice away and apart from all the confusion.

We have a prophesy of our own we can lean upon... (refer to Daniel 12).

So that if things do get difficult and confusing, we know with the understanding of faith and conviction of heart to all the more place ourselves in the responsible and human service of each other as a nation among nations - under and before - God, our King.

Bear always into mind and heart also, my compatriots, that ye may have a good measure of the horizons of our hope spread in their arcs across time, we have the year 2046 as our intended destination.



For it shall take two generations -
two generations to sow, nurture, and establish
the necessary changes in our Country
and allow for it to take root in the soil of our land,
two generations to work out the labor of peace
that will restore our Republic to herself
blessing all those who patiently wait
for the blessing of the LORD.

So let us give each other a little more love each day -
loving our own and loving others like our own.

Let us be understanding of our weaknesses,
considerate of our brokenness,
accommodating of our own common human needs,
unyielding in our determination to see this undertaking of Country
we call the one Republic of the Philippines through this longest night
and into the new morning of that promised day...

After all, are we not the Land of Promise, 
my brothers and sisters of the Promise?

Remember,
our democracy is to be nurtured like a tree,
its fruits are virtues eternal, and golden like the stars -
our Country which is our labor is to be honored with fidelity
and our nation which is our community cared for with kindness and love,
for these are the blessings of our peace and defended with vigilance and sacrifice.

Is this not the truth?

We are a free nation

because we have rightly chosen

(in the course of our history in time)

in our hearts and across our generations

to be guided and ruled by authentic human freedoms

where each our free and human choices

no longer become one governed by chance,

but by each individual strength of will

and the power of God's own grace;

freedom giving its life to freedom,

liberty shedding its light for all.

Sometimes these days,

and these days are becoming more frequent again

when I reflect on our population issue -

I think about

the prevalence in our collective thought

(as a free nation among the nations upon the earth)

either of (1) randomness (fatalism, or the "bahala na" habit)

(which in a free nation is a moral evil)

or of (2) free and human choice (relativism, amoralism)

(which is evil BUT ONLY if it is left to chance

for freedom that is irresponsible is anathema to itself).

Now,

of these two evils,

the question we must gauge is

which is presently the greater evil 

and so the one we must subdue;

between the one answer and the other -

a proper formation of a moral conscience 

is the arbiter.

   

One can not forsee

all ends in the RH bill debate,

and as a devout Roman Catholic,

I am anguished by its many nuances

BUT notwithstanding our action or inaction 

we are left to deal here with a clear and present evil

which is poverty and the increasing means and degrees

to which individuals and families within our own population,

have become helplessly subject to its many afflictions.

Indeed 

poverty has now become 

a social justice issue in this Republic

where failure to act decisively is consequently

a failure in the prevailing morality of our culture.

   I would even go as far as 

   to consider poverty as a national security issue

   for I am of the growing conviction that 

   poverty in our Country is becoming life-threatening

   to this Republic.

Admittedly, 

there are many facets to this issue

but in the context of the RH Bill debate 

adequate and effective population management

which is a primary responsibility of individual family units

within the peace of a democratic society such as ours

when it is left irresponsibly managed by our common failures

as a Republic whole to redeem our prevailing culture 

from the evil of randomness and chance - will and does - 

become a burden to our nation as a whole

and this burden when it becomes debilitating 

needs the swift action of our Justice and our Law.

What we do about it matters.

What we don't do about it matters even more.

A little mental exercise #1

If tomorrow it is declared, without a shred of a doubt,

that there are absolutely no petrochemical deposits

lying in the bottom of the West Philippine Sea,

I wonder how this will affect the region?

Will it soften the self-destructive stances of the politics of conflict?

Will it serve to alleviate the military tension in our common sea?

Will it add to the peace of our neighborhood and therefore, lead to a further strengthening of our futures together?

What if there really is no economic value?

What then are we really fighting for?

What for are we committing the lives of our most faithful sons and daughters...

...the desolation?

A little mental exercise #2

There is a dispute on Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal).

And this dispute involves two sovereign undertakings of Country -

the RPH and the PRC.

Do we recognize there is a dispute?

Do the two parties recognize there are two parties in this issue?

Do the two parties recognize each other?

Do the two parties who recognize each other recognize there is a respective claim of sovereignty over the area?

Have any of them already made up their mind to deny it?

Unless these questions are answered meaningfully with due regard for the greater good of the region, of Asia, and of our world - this division will remain unchallenged and unhealed; a neglected space in time wherein the contagion of War may fester and spread.

Peace may only be built on agreements.

- selah -

If the PRC insists on a bilateral remedy to the dispute without even considering the equality of our claims of sovereignty over the area, what it really is implying is a peace enforced by force of arms.

We may not win this fight in the short term but this shall prove ruinous for a power like Beijing in the longer term view of things where the value of any civilization is actually invested in time. 

It shall be to the mutual interests of both our Countries to pursue, if not through the ITLOS, a regional solution worked out with an independent regional or multinational tribunal (probably the ASEAN+China or other recognized body) bearing into mind the vital significance of the longer view of things, especially in this new age of spirit and thought, and the larger good of our Asia (and remembering the number for peace is 3). 

The truth is we can not live without the PRC and the PRC can not live without us either: We can not change the geography of our region, the currents of our common markets will lead and evolve into each other, nor the connected nature of our cultures, they shall always share an affinity wrought in spirit and blood - we may have these passionate disagreements today but all indications are we shall have to make this peace work.

And the sooner we can work this out the better.
---<--@

If we find ourselves,
despite everything and in spite of all,

still dead-locked on Panatag Shoal

and in the Spratlys,

let no bad news be good news,

let no (military) action be good action -

BUT always, 

we should be mindful

of our building together from within,

we should always be mindful

of the real labor of our nationhood,

and all these things shall turn out

for the good of the nation

that is faithful to its own truth

and to the one LORD of all truth.

For in the meantime, 
we shall build.
---<--@

Between War and Peace is indecision and this is the worst choice of them all.

"so because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." 

- Revelation 3:16