Mamasapano and the BBL

Mamasapano and the BBL are issues distinct.

Justice and Politics are matters separate. They are related only in significance, one proceeds from the other.

Justice is indispensable and the truths Justice serves are changeless. For the ideals of Justice are older than time, original to being, and inherent in all living purpose.

(There is a kind of justice that harms. Sadly, we know of this kind of justice in the aberrations we feel our own justice system is capable of. Know it enough to harbor mistrust in the Justice of the State and even fear it. This we will reflect upon in a separate post.)

Politics is necessary but its effectiveness must rely upon how well our Justice is able to deliver - not to change what has already happened last Jan. 25, but to make amends and ultimately reconcile ourselves to what we had lost by the gain of their memory.

It would be disadvantageous to the Republic to confuse the pledge of Justice which is eternal with the mission of Politics which is temporal.

Anger will not serve us in the pursuit of Justice.

Anger if it can be transformed into a passion for what is necessarily a good, may fuel the Political but may also cause it to exceed itself. Politics are always bound by the real and what can be real is always limited by many things. Anger turned to hatred can be boundless.

We may recall to mind examples of this... politics of last resort. Politics must be joined to a vision that is a good that embraces the nation to safeguard it from excessive passion. Reason shepherding emotion.

Lives lost is never a political issue. These things do not go away. There is a saying, "the angry can be made happy but the dead can not come back to life."

This to me is a principal lesson that we ought to understand from Mamasapano:

Let us be careful when it comes to human life.

It pays to appreciate how fundamental human life is to our nationhood; how central human dignity and human promise are to the obtaining vision of the Republic and the success of the national peace.

Even if we were as a nation blessed by Providence enough to obtain from the memory of our painful experience in Mamasapano, the most good it may offer to our communities there will always remain among us the silence of those names... (if only we can hear what from behind the silence cries out...)

All of them, every one of us who perished during that day, everybody we lost who are each of them Filipino by grace of God - especially those civilians no matter how few who had nothing to do with battle and only wished for something better than a constant state of war.

We are, by our names, always more than just numbers. The visible universe is made up of numbers. We who behold the universe and ascribe it beauty are much more than the universe.

I want us to remember this...

For however political one may wax and for any reason one may think, they were all of them Filipino and this nation shall be made to account in the truth. The absence of this "we" presence in our hearts and therefore, in our times is a primary source of all our internal troubles.

I am not defending any evil done. I wish to consolidate in our thoughts and in our love on what in us is good that it may be easier for our communities to let those evil days flee in and of itself - because we are as we are.

Think about it.

Some say the Moro people do not or have never considered themselves to be Filipino. 

What matters to me however, is that I recognize the fact that they are. Because I am. And I will never do them justice as least spiritually if I allow myself to be swayed by the misguided political opinion of others.

In another place and time, all those whom we lost that day could have been fighting shoulder to shoulder for a cause that is common to all... building, building, building toward better days.

Some disagree with the usage of the word Filipino because of historical or other reasons. 

Words are both meaning and sound/script - essentially the meaning of words can neither be voiced or written. Words say something they can not really express by calling our attention to it - by sound or by other mediums physical.

Think about it.

What you hear or read and what you understand are two different things.

What matters is that one understands.

It is better to wear your truth inside your heart than to speak it loudly just to be heard.

Past generations of Filipinos including Rizal and Bonifacio and their illustrious generations did not have any qualms in the usage of the word Filipino. To challenge this now would only dislocate us further from the line of our history.

There is an expectation and a responsibility in citizenship. 

Most of the ideals that have shaped, informed, and enlightened our civics belong to the memory of the nation. Our identity remain constant to our mind and hearts even in the midst of change. For everything about being a Filipino are truths that are for always. All these things has to do with the national peace.

I wondered at one time what the real name of our nation is. Before the Philippines was. One can reach back into the past only so much until it becomes wishful thinking. Know the truth, and you will know the name of it. It is motion.

In the temporal realm, we go by name first introductions. The name itself is not as important as the acts that proceed from friendship or lack of it.

In the timeless, one recognizes the truth first, the motions of it, then the name. The name is the most intimate expression of unity, and makes it whole.

Our nation goes by the same principle... What matters is not things before, though we have an obligation to memory; not things a day past today, though we have a responsibility to duty and vision, what matters is the here and now.

Citizenship is what comes out of your heart.

And so I do not feel any prejudice nor am I imposing any upon anybody by saying I am Filipino.

A street kid once asked me for alms. I was by a fishball cart at the time and offered him fishball instead of money. He was happy to have it. I was happy to give it. And the fishball seller had a smile on his face... That smile gave me a thought. 

Who were we to each other to relate like that? We were not related by blood. We were in that timeless moments, Filipinos, that is why.

In a way, all nations are like that...
---<--@

In summary, 

The value of human life in this nation is to be realized. Human respect and the recognition of the human potential in every single Filipino is an aspect of our equality as citizens.

Integral to our sovereignty as a nation is the inestimable value of the life of each Filipino.

Mamasapano is a Justice issue. Central to this issue is the question of overkill or proportionality of response. If we lost too many because of administrative lapses (the sanctions of which I understand will vary accordingly), this is no excuse for us to have lost too much because of the bloodlust of a criminal few. These individuals being as they are - unchanged and unrepentant - have no place in Mamasapano, in the future Bangsamoro or in the whole of this Republic - ever.

The BBL is a Political issue. The citizenry ought to return to our ideals of what good governance is. How we, the people, commonly enjoy the simplest of everyday things within a state of domestic tranquility that may be characterized as dependable, durable, meaningful, equitable and quite cognizant of our human needs. And how this state of domestic tranquility may be shared.

Instead of tearing the basic law apart let us please ask, "how may the blessings of our democracy (meager though it may be at present) be shared more equally across the Republic, and in particular in the ARMM region?"

I believe the question of constitutionality is a question of accommodation first. 

What is truly unconstitutional is what is missing and what is lacking in our peace to make it more perfect. Why is the ARMM a failing experiment? What can the BBL contribute to make it work?

How may the promises of the 1987 Constitution be more effectively brought to the lives of the people on the ground in that beleaguered region?

Constitutionality becomes a question of exclusion only when we derive from it laws and political behaviors that are unclear, being furthest from the guidance and intent of its policies, principles, and provisions.

The BBL in the first instance is an approach at accommodation.

The legislature ought find the balance between the both Justice and Politics to arrive at a final form of the draft law; one that is effective, equitable, and compatible to the end by which the peace process is dedicated to - which is a more perfect peace in Mindanao and by extension, across our one Republic whole.

I, having determined my own limitations, will devote another post on my own personal observations on the draft law and go into detail about it. That I may keep my civic peace. And my thoughts be brought forth into the councils of the national conversation.
---<--@

Tungkol sa Mamasapano

Masakit isipin ang Mamasapano. Isa itong trahedya.

Bagama't naidaos nang mga Tagaligtas nating SAF ang kanilang misyon sa Mamasapano mapait pa rin itong isipin. Masakit pa rin sa damdamin nang nakararami ang alaala nito. Bakit?

Sapat ba talaga na 44 na buhay ang ibuwis nang ating kapulisan at nang Bayang nating Pilipinas para sa isang terorista lamang?

May kakulangan ba ang mga opisyal natin sa gobyerno at maging sa PNP sa 44 na ito? At kung meron, sino ang mga ito at ano pa ang ating dapat linawin at isaayos nang Republika sa ngalan ng kanilang alaala upang maiwasan ang mga ganitong pangyayari?

Ang kabayanihan nang ating SAF 44 (at nang lahat na rin ng ating magigiting na tagapagsilbing sundalo't kapulisan) ay hindi natin dapat malimutan. Iyan po ay totoo.

Subalit 44 na buhay lang ba ang dapat nating pangalanan at alalahanin dito?

Hindi ba ang katotohanan po ay Pilipino lahat nang namatay at namatayan sa Mamasapano? Lahat sila ay responsibilidad nang Estado at sakop nang kapangyarihan ng Republika nating lahat maliban marahil kay Marwan (na isang kilalang banyagang kriminal datapwa't labas at labag sa ating batas ang pinanatili dito).

Ang responsibilidad po at kapangyarihang ito nang Estado at nang Republikang kumupupkop dito ay dapat sana nating pagnilay-nilayan. Dahil sa isip, sa salita, at sa gawa ito ay isinasabuhay natin araw araw sa diwa na rin nang ating sariling kasarinlan.

Paano natin gagamitin ang mga adhikain, prinsipyo't gunitaing nagbubuklod-buklod sa atin bilang isang Republika upang maging makatotohanan tayo sa ating pagka-Pilipino?

Ang prosesong pangkapayapaan ay nakasalalay sa katotohanang tayo pong lahat ay mamamayang Pilipino at may kakayahang mamuhay bilang isang bansang mapayapa. 

Republika po ang ating itinataguyod na katigan nitong kapayapaang ito. Datapwa't sa kadahilanang ang tunay na kanlungan nati'y isa't isa, pakikiramay at pakipag-kapwa tao po nawa'y gamitin ding batayan nang ating pulitika ukol sa mga isyu na umuukol sa Mamasapano habang ito po ay nililinaw.

Hindi po sana natin iatras ang Pilipinas nating lahat sa pagdating nang isang bagong umaga nang kapayapaan dahil sa sakit at kawalan na ating pinagdadaanan dahil sa trahedyang ito. 

Malinaw po sa akin sa kabila nang lahat ang panawagan ni General Espina. Ang itinatanong pa rin po nang puso't isipan ng maraming Pilipino ay kung paano mabibigyang hustisya ang pangyayari para sa lahat...

Para sa lahat.

Huwag po sana tayong mahulog sa kawalan ng pag-asa, manalig at maniwala sa Diyos at sa pangako nang ating Pilipinas na mahal... at nagmamahal.
---<--@

A Milestone for Mindanao

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Bangsamoro: A Dialogue of Unity

This does not mean the way ahead shall be easier for our nation, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, but it does mean we shall now have more of our own strength to overcome the difficulties that lie ahead of our peoples. Our unity does not make the straight path easier, it makes the journey safer... for all Filipinos.

For today we have resolved to walk the way of our nationhood - together this time - in the shelter of peace than in the shadow of war.



"Bangsamoro" shall be the dialogue of unity we shall now have with our Muslim brothers and sisters of the Promise within our one nation. It shall be a continuing dialogue - political, economic, cultural, and spiritual - but most of all, it shall be national. For within it we shall now endeavor to speak with one voice.

Within and between the nations there exists this vital dialogue (mostly invisible) composed of thought, time, discernment, and will - flowing like a river of whose tributaries lie at the heart of each of our citizens, a river that nourishes everything that is built and grows in our Republic. The freer the flow of this river, the mightier the reality of our peace together, the better our peace, the greater our prosperity - spiritual as well as material. 

(Material riches by themselves alone bring only misery and to claim to be spiritually rich without economic prosperity is a lie. To be truly rich, my nation, is to be rich indeed - in spirit and in time.)

Let us remember this, my brothers and sisters of the Promise - we who are raised from the diversity of the earth and joined by Providence Divine into one heart, one labor, one destiny:

We are a free people and so must continually exercise this liberty in order to temper it and make it strong, being very much aware of its costs and its inestimable value to the life of our Republic undertaking of Country.

Let us know that if we shall now choose to begin speaking with and to each other as citizens and human beings equally engaged in building a shelter of Country worthy of our common peace together as Filipinos...

If we shall now choose to become more than the words and become the essence of the nationhood inside of ourselves...

If we shall now choose to secede from the rule of War that have for so long denied from our generations (and from our world) the blessings of our own nationhood and enter into this new conversation of peace and national unity and human good will - together this time - we reclaim the hopes of the past...

And it shall serve us well, my people, for we too shall have been reclaimed by their memory. What we have lost in those terrible years of internecine conflict before this time would not have been in vain.

For we would have begun through this conversation to come alive to their enduring legacy.

No one falls back to the earth without uttering this one hope in the heart - a hope for better days, a hope for brighter times, a hope for kinder tomorrows... a hope for peace. Shall we, as a nation before God, abandon the remembrance of our dead to feed the hunger of War?

My people, my beloved people, the new age opens itself up only to those who are willing to enter into its embrace - my brothers and sisters of the Promise, and this - this seminal peace - is the way for our nation to enter into the new age.

Go and look at the darkness that we leave behind us - the depth and terribleness of it - and let us each ask ourselves today if there is any other way.

Let us reflect upon those tomorrows we, the people, commonly dream of - a future that is our right and our destiny - and let us seize the moment. Let us gather unto the gathering of our nation and heed the call of our peace - today is the day and now is the favorable season.

Let us allow ourselves to be joined together as one Country - being distinct in each person, family, and tribe, but never again distant in spirit - let us entrust ourselves to each other as citizens under the vigilance of Almighty God - let us work for this one outcome - that of unity - together this time

For our enduring compact is one of unity - in this compact we shall entrust to each other our everlasting good being called by Providence into one nation forever.

I have printed a copy of the Framework Agreement and shall be with you in prayer as well as in the labor to complete a comprehensive agreement by the end of this year, 2012.

Indeed, we have much work to do but I can see now that no longer - after this year - shall it be a labor of bitterest tears but a labor of hope.

My heartfelt thanks goes to the negotiating teams from the GPH and the MILF, the MNLF, and above all OPAPP and the Office of the President, as well as the tireless efforts of those nations - especially Malaysia - who have offered us the third element necessary in all peace processes - that of Peacemaker; a conqueror of heights.

May we all be blessed, may all be blessed by all - mabuhay po ang Bangsamoro at mabuhay po ang Pilipinas nating lahat: Shalom. Salaam. Peace - God bless us all.
---<--@

The brightness of thy Banner undiminished in triumph waves,

the glory of thy stars and sun are lights that shall never fade.

Ang kislap ng watawat mo'y tagumpay na nagniningning,
ang bituin at araw niya'y kailanpama'y di magdidilim.

Salutation #100

SO WE CHOOSE PEACE TODAY

and let peace take us into itself tomorrow.

(The Beginnings of Peace)

We do not enter into a peace process

to convince ourselves of our common need of peace -

the fruits of War itself

should have made this need apparent

to our convictions beforehand.

Indeed,

the last 2000 years

is prelude to this one choice alone.

(This is why it is important that our national leadership -

especially those who are at the forefront of the peace process

are the persons most convinced of our need for Peace over War.)

Because

lasting peace does not begin

at the stroke of a pen.

Lasting peace

for our nation begins

when hearts become turned away from War.

- selah -

It is a mistake to think

- here in our native Philippines -

that the peace process is anything complex.

For if we prevail over one of its major areas of concern,

this makes it easier for us to prevail over the others.

(The spirit of War is cunning but it is still one spirit alone.)

This is why

our main focus must always be - in Mindanao -

because, my brother and sisters of the Promise,

- if we are able to bridge -

the deepest and most enduring of our divisions as a people,

then the peace for our Philippines

is sure to be certain.

We prevail over War together

- my one nation Philippines -

or War shall have us all!

Therefore,

we do not enter into

our own particular peace process

to pursue a path of defeat for anyone -

(for Peace is Peace and War is War)

we enter into our peace process

to find a way of victory for all Filipinos.

(Many other things require our energies...)

O when shall we sing
our victory songs, my people?

When shall we see
peace reign across our land,
making our hearts whole,
and our spirits glad?

Now is the favorable time...

This War among Filipinos must be brought to a swift end!

---<--@

Salutation #69

Do you think hatred cares

what wood it may devour

to keep from burning out?

Nay!

It shall seek to devour all trees

and consume the whole orchard!

For hatred is a dark fire

and shall burn until it is out.

Hate is never meant to last.

But Love is a bright fire.

Love consumes but is never consumed.

Love burns Eternal.

- selah -

What limits War from prevailing over our communities

is the presence of those who despite all the violence and the rage,

continue to hope, pray and work tirelessly for peace in this Country

all those who in spite of this unhappy state

of a prevailing temporal enmity among brothers

have chosen - in their heart of hearts -

to place unity over division for the good of all Filipinos.

What limits the darkness

of the Night from devouring our nation

is the presence of these living lights

who are of the stars of our Father Abraham

and born to that one promise of old

that we shall bless our national communities;

a promise made not by any Man

but of the one God of all Mankind.

(A Message to the Bangsamoro)

To the Bangsamoro -

Peace, I salute you.

I acknowledge each of you,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

as you are - and so -

as you cherish yourselves,

I cherish you.

And I tell you no lies.

Because what I want for us is peace.

You possess through your lineages

a distinct cultural and ethnic identity

containing within each yourselves,

a noble and lasting heritage,

worthy of our one Republic undertaking.

I also realize

- there still lingers -

the evil of days past.

I offer you no apologies for them.

For I too am hurt

by the pain of those evil days.

Though I am not born from thy own descent,

I am hurting as you are hurting.

For I am different yet I am the same.

(And I am certain there are many others

who are like myself - a citizen not unlike yourself.)

- selah -

O Bangsamoro peoples,

there are some things we can never undo,

for they are not meant to be undone.

Some pains are meant to bear us away

from the evil of things past.

The darkness of the night

can never flow back into itself.

It may only deepen - if we are not wise -

and darkness that is deep is madness.

If we focus on the pain of our history,

we shall be found forever looking backward

being without a present and without a future.

For the hurt that we witness in our history

- goes deeper and deeper into the darkness past -

but the wound we need to commonly address

must always rise into the present.

Truly, the past can be painful

but we can never heal these hurts

without first letting go of them.

We have a history and also a destiny.

We are one nation - Now.

We are one people

beloved of God and bound

to the freedom of each others' gifts

into one Republic undertaking of Country.

We represent each other's common human hopes.

Therefore,

I will not allow you to be forsaken in the night.

Believe thee with me

we have suffered enough

and the recompense we desire

is a just and lasting peace

for our one undertaking of Country.

This is why I am ardently supporting

a lasting and meaningful peace in Mindanao

specifically to bring to your homelands,

a measure of prosperity and freedom

that is met for you - and -

to bear our Country away, here today,

into a future that is met for all Filipinos.

For we are a forward looking nation.

and must now look eastward to the dawn.

I realize - that -

we shall face many difficulties

along the way - this for is certain -

but a nation is intended by God

to overcome these difficulties.

No one individual, family, or tribe

can master the untamed earth

nor can any human community

short of a nation among a family of nations

- build up the inhabited earth -

and fill the darkness of this world

with living lights.

However,

only a nation united

- as one truth in the heart -

shall prevail over the unknown earth.

Indeed,

we shall do this work of raising a Republic

worth all our sacrifices and common dreams

as one nation - together this time -

one whole sky.

We shall build a shelter of Country

for all our generations - mabuhay!

If we are merciful to ourselves, O my nations,

if we value the life that take their shelter under our wings,

we shall ardently seek peace, one with another.

We shall look to the dawning of the new age and never look back.

Eid'l Adha Mubarak!

---<--@

20110131

To the People of Mindanao of the one Republic of the Philippines

Peace, I salute you -

Let me confirm in all of you,
my dear people of Mindanao,
what I know is already instilled
within each of your heart of hearts -

We are a nation, my dear people,

by pain of battle born and bred
but we shall never attain to victory
if we allow war to rule our way.

Believe with conviction of faith
that there is no hope in war.

For in war is division
and the end of community.

In war is the seeds of discord
and the end to all understanding.

In war is the darkness of deception
and the shadow that keep us in confusion.

In war is the despair of dissolution
and the destruction of our every hope.

So let the stirring in our hearts
awaken us unto a sacred remembrance,
at every present and from every past,

that our promise lies in peace.

Let us strive for this peace,

my fellow Filipino compatriots,

let us work for this remembrance

unto those freedoms cherished
unto that prosperity dreamed about
under the waving of that Banner
that Old Defiant -
of this, our one Republic,
our home away from Home.

So raise that Old Defiant -
rally to the calling of peace!

We shall never suffer loss
without our longing for Justice
but Justice which leads into hope
and an understanding of the peace.

Let that longing within each of us

recall our hearts to the promise of peace
my dear people of Mindanao,
let that longing that have for centuries
beckoned to the will of our people
enable us to know once again,
O my one Filipino nation,
O beloved people of Mindanao
of our one Republic of the Philippines,
what it means for us to labor

together this time

as human beings

responsible for each our common humanity,

under the eternal vigilance of the LORD:

Christians, Muslims, Lumads -

building from hope to hope

and from strength to strength
as citizens to each other,

here and now,
O my one Filipino nation,
at this present time,
and into every present time
for all of our generations

for all of time.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas, long may our remembrance serve us!

Cradle

20101123

Pathology of a Tyranny

Today, the whole nation commemorates the Maguindanao Massacre.

Exactly one year ago, 58 of our fellow Filipino compatriots, including 32 journalists, were ruthlessly murdered in a great and astonishing crime that shocked the nation and sent ripples around the world.

What was shocking about these murders is the sheer audacity by which it was carried out. It was committed with an air of impunity and brutality that was so great as to be astonishing.

It stands out singularly and distinctively as an evil fruit of an evil tree.

No evil of this magnitude suddenly appears without first being allowed to maturate, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the Maguindanao Massacre was not an accident.

Tyranny takes many mature forms but are born of one beginning; the people has to allow it. For without our permission, in principle, no tyranny will ever reach its most absurd heights.

This was allowed to happen, the evil tree was allowed to bear evil fruit.

In times of peace, in a Republic such as ours, it would have been more difficult for a tyranny of any shape to evolve into a form that threatens the freedom and order of our civil society.

But these are defining times, my fellow Filipino compatriots - we are still in a twilight shadow for a decision looms over the threshold of our hearts - a choice for a meaningful, sustainable, durable peace toward a better, more vital Republic of the Philippines.

It is the common work of tyrants whether temporal or spiritual to deny us our ability to benefit from our human freedom.

Indeed, how can we consider ourselves free if there is an area of our life that is ruled by fear and ignorance? How much do we know of ourselves? How much do we know of our fellow Filipinos?

Differences and divisions are only fearsome if we allow ourselves to be ruled by it. Our Country is wracked by these divisions and nowhere are the wounds of our nation more evident than in our beloved Mindanao: As one of the three stars of our Old Defiant, she deserves to shine no less brightly than the first two.

Therefore, we should let our remembrances today stir our hearts and spur our minds onward, God-willing, toward a better understanding of ourselves as a people - that we are one people; a nation established by God; a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

We deserve better, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and because we do, the work is ours today to make it so - the work of Country: We are a Republic because peace is the will of the LORD for us, the peace that prospers.

No power on earth can ever bring back the victims of the Maguindanao Massacre. But we can dignify their passing by a celebration of their lives, their hopes, undimmed and unforgotten, now joined to the hopes of all our heroes and martyrs for a better, more vital Philippines for all Filipinos.

We shall grieve with the loneliness of those who have lost their loved ones but not with tears of bitterness shall we weep today, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

For we shall bear with each other the pain of their remembrance, O my nation, and make it our own and we shall see this season of sorrow pass away into new seasons of life together this time.

Truly, it flies in the face of the Republic, here in this day and age, to have such an evil hovering over the hopes of our compatriots -

It not only requires but demands justice:

Justice delayed is justice denied!

The later it takes to bring the cause of justice completely to bear upon this great an evil, the more potent its spirit shall in time become to haunt our generations over again.

Televise the trial for the benefit and the healing of the nation.

Indeed, let us also always remember not to punish the innocent with the guilty. In the pursuit of justice, we must never repay evil with more evil.

May our remembrance of that fateful day be both blessed and meaningful.

And let us all continue to pray for justice and for peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Salutation #3

(Darkness)

TO THE NUMBERLESS LIGHTS
of our kindred belonging,
greetings of sincere hope
and good will -
my love and prayers:

There is evil in our days,
as it was in those days of old.

Evil where it is allowed to endure
into every present time
to stand against the line
established in the Now of the moment
is an enemy that is never meant
to defeat the will of the good.

For the arrangement of all past things
in every person's life
like a romance between human choice
and the serendipity of God's grace
is always intended in such a way
by the beneficence of Divine Providence
so as to culminate into every present time
which is always sufficient in its own Day
with regards to the particular evils
that each and every individual soul
must in each their own time and place
learn to recognize and vanquish
by and through the grace of our LORD
in and with the support of our human communities,
civic and religious, national and international,
that exist for our benefit

- in exile time -

to safeguard and foster our common good.

Should there be evil in our day,
even if the past had a large part to play
in its appearance in our present time,
indeed, it should not be here to give us reason
to conveniently dwell on the darkness of past things.

Where evil is allowed to endure
into the present reality
of souls and communities of souls,
it is so that we may learn in our own lives
how to effectively close the doors of past things.

Believe that evil endures
not to defeat the human being
but to allow him or her the opportunity
to recreate in every present moment
in God and with each other,
the beginnings of better, brighter and nobler things.

Peace.
---<--@

Darkness is but darkness that does not lead to the light.

---<--@

I hope that Tilapia roast they had over at Maguindanao makes it into the record books! Salaam: Peace be to all of you from all of us.

Eye of the Heart