Never Forget

Love and Remembrance Piercing the Darkness

Never been to see you.

However, across the Pacific I still feel you -

I love you, New York!

=^.^=

Never Forget

Dawn will come, this night will wane...
and it shall be 9/12/2001 all over again.



I promised to never forget and so

as for my own remembrance of this day,

I seek to banish hatred.

May all hatred whither and die! 

May all hatred find a place in our nations no more... 

May the reason of Man find its reason, 

may the purpose of the nations of the children of Mankind find its purpose. 

May the right remembrances be everywhere sought... 

And may it be the kind of remembrance 

that recalls all human hearts unto citizenship with the all of creation; 

that makes us builders in the LORD, nations under God, 

and lovers of the work of living life!

May we all be lovers of the work of living life! 

May our Mankind be joined in Justice and in Love 

and may all the nations of the children of Mankind find Peace

with each other - and  - in each other.

May we all be a family once again.
May good will triumph over division.
May this longest night end...

May the Day Star rise again in our hearts 

and may this awakening bring our midnight world 

unto the promised Morning of the new...

May the spirit of our humanity, 

by the grace of God and the aid of heaven, 

prevail forever over the spirit of War 

and may this unity break our bondage to the earth, 

that we may soar upon wings of eagles 

unto oneness with the sky...

May the glory of God be on earth as it is in heaven.... 

Alleluia!
---<--@

When anger is allowed to fester in the heart, an inhospitable and alien darkness eclipses the soul, shrouding all things in death...

For what is hatred but an ignorance of love? An enforced absence of sunlight in the soul of Man.


Embracing the Embracing

20110912

Salutation #49

Hear me, O my nation! The LORD, thy God, is a God of relationships.

(This one it is difficult.

You must please bear with me.)

(Our one Human Habitation)

Cast adrift in this great void of exile time,

in a remote spiral arm of our one Milky Way galaxy,

but one upon one of more than a billion known galaxies

that lay spread in their great clusters

across the vast expanse of this visible universe;

upon the life bearing regions of a nameless yellow star,

lay a nameless, native planet of earth -

a world embraced by those familiar circling of seasons

held in their great cycles by the perennial sweep

of each our measured round

about a singular middle aged star we simply call, our sun;

a world sheltering these worlds within ourselves.

This is the reality of our one planetary home.

It is a reality - that -

while seemingly being at present - obscured -

by the prevailing darkness of these times,

is nevertheless the abiding truth that prevails

as the one common reality of our one planetary home.

We are upon this earth,

a world embarked upon an inevitable journey

toward an inescapable destiny - that -

while remaining hidden and unbeknownst

even to the understanding of many,

is nevertheless the unfolding of a reality - that -

has and ever will be - a truth - that is and must be shared

by and with all human beings

as the one common reality of our one human habitation.

Upon this, our home world,

we as human beings have pondered together

the questions of our existence.

Each these question as questions bent and inward sought

like answers seeking its way into thought.

Each these thoughts as thoughts we must leave afloat

upon the cumulative tide of each those silent moments

we spend sought in our seeking.

Each our seeking like our prayers - met -

by our ascending with each moment that rises and falls

with each moment - spent -

in the pondering of that great and unfathomable Silence,

awash upon a void,

hostile beyond hostile to all Sacred Life.

We are by what answers we bear for each other,

ever like the twinkling of each of those unseen stars

rising in their great arcs

upon the great ocean of our LORD's Eternity,

an inward part of the rising and falling of one firmament,

an integral part of the seasons of our one native sky.

These seasons of our one native sky

are the interior seasons within each and every human soul

that when perceived through the ebb and flow motions

of our coming together in our great belongings under the sun,

become the great celestial sweep of that one unseen cycle

rising from deep within the soul of all Mankind.

And it is this one unseen cycle

that universally attests to our common human witness

of that one great and unfathomable purpose of all creation,

the one great celestial cycle,

the one gathering of the All of Sacred Life,

and the one destiny toward which we are purposed

to steer the one common reality of our one human habitation.

We are like the questions that we ask,

borne by each our own common experience

of our one human habitation.

We are by what answers we bear for each other

carried afloat upon the great sweep of the physical motions

of this vast and empty realm of the visible universe.

For we are through each other,

our own seamless experience of our one common human reality,

the experience of our own human habitation.

Begun at the timeless birth of all human togetherness,

we are upon the earth, upon this one great and visible realm

of our one common human habitation - with each other -

as those worlds upon worlds

bound by our own true belongings to each other

as the one lineage of the generations of the children of Mankind.

And fallen into the darkness of exile time,

at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden,

at the great scattering of worlds,

we were a togetherness never purposed to belong

upon a realm intended to be as divided, dark and barren,

as fallen, bitter and empty

as these shattered skies fallen upon our world.

When we, as human beings, gaze out into the universe

- above and around ourselves -

we must know in our heart of hearts

that even in the midst of all this emptiness and longing for life,

even in the embrace of all these questions sought

here in the darkness of exile time,

here at the great scattering of worlds,

if we are to understand the order of the physical stars

in those temporal heavens above and around our native of earth,

from clusters to galaxies, from star to star,

from worlds to their companion worlds,

we can easily perceive in each native region of space

what is reflected inwardly in our souls

like a primordial longing bound in companionships.

For there is only a gathering sense of belonging

in the all of visible creation and this sense of belonging,

reflected by the physical order

of even those shattered temporal skies

that lay barren about our native of earth

and amidst all of this exile darkness,

is the one order that have endured - and therefore -

should be the one truth that must have always to prevail

in the order of all of the visible universe.

For our one human habitation

is not comprised of individual human beings

ordered according to each individual self.

Our one human habitation is ordered

- according to the connections that we serve with each other -

as individual human beings

and those relationships borne in exile time and dimensional space

that we in our shared humanity

is purposed to serve with and for the All of Sacred Life

that we must in our own particular belongings to each other

responsibly carry out not as divided individuals but as united wholes -

ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

Therefore,

we must be able to perceive the reality of all of visible creation

with an understanding that bring us closer

to an understanding of what truth it reflects.

For our one human habitation

reflects the truth about our own persons as human beings

with and to each other - in God and Country, for God and Country.

---<--@

On Friendship

To love first your friends is to know them -

May all our friendships be without frontiers!

The Angels of the LORD,
my precious Starshine,
each of which is distinct
in Beauty and Light,
being individually endowed
with splendor of truths
unique to each their gifts
possessed by each their person
from the very beginning
of their swift flight
across the timeless void
and into eternity
into the wholeness
which is God
for lack of human words
to define the strength of a relationship
that transcend the all of time
from across that veil of shadow and tears
beyond the sum total of human experience
call each other "friends".

Each of our family
who are related to us
by corporal bonds of blood
are the friends that our LORD
has chosen for us.

Each of our friends
who become part of us
by spiritual bonds of truth
are the family that we learn to choose
in the course of each our lives
to complete what our LORD
has begun for us
in our families.

Both bonds bind us together
in the strength of human relationships
that nurture life and sustain hope
through action of community
and the service of life.

You must love,
my precious Starshine,
to transform these bonds
into that one friendship alone.

And make these bonds
into the bonds of angels
who are each in God
spirits united in their freedom
created by the strength of friendships
bound in timeless truth.

So with each other,
my precious Starshine,
you must build on the good,
and give to the need of thy beloved
recognizing in thy shared humanity
the giving of the LORD
Who is the singular Source
of all our relationships.

Be thankful for friendship wings
human, angelic and Divine,
that take us all across
from moment to moment
into an understanding of its peace
lifting us into the unity
of those wholes upon wholes
from hope to hope
and strength to strength
past, into present
and into every present
across the void
into eternity.

Starshine,

there is always a reason to smile.

---<--@

On Loyalty

What you do for your friends will be remembered by your friends. What you don't do for your friends will be remembered by your enemies.

Starshine,
the things of Loyalty
are the relationships
that shall remain
forever with thee;
so defend your friendships
with courage and tenacity.

For we are not Loyal
if we do not remain
true to each other,
moment to moment,
from always to always
appreciating those things
that we share in our humanity
and respecting the things
that make us unique as persons,
seen as well as unseen,
in ourselves and in our nations
in the vision of our timeless belonging
with one another in God and Country
as each our own true self -
as each our own true names
written in heaven.

From the descendant gravity
of the spirit of war and division;
against things born of the darkness
defeated and empty of promise
stand fast in thy friendships!

Guard thy peace with each other
and in thy togetherness hope.

Never be Loyal
to inanimate and empty things;
those fickle and ephemeral
things of vanity!

But only to each other
and in the ascendant motions
of Sacred Life.

For the realization of all our hope
rests in the glory of our LORD
in all creation.

And all these created things
are made by our one common Creator
to be Loyal to all of these.
---<--@

A Requiem Prayer -

During the first week after 9/11, I made a conscious effort to refrain from learning anything more about the lives of the fallen. I remember that first week was a week of soul searching. The whole Country was looking for meaning.

I am very sensitive to the impact of lost innocents and I knew it. I was only beginning to know my Anne and her lost generation.

The only name whose life I can remember is Tod Beamer on Flight 93. And he was a hero - is a hero. He became consigned to embrace with valor the fate which though sad, he and those others with him were able to transform into a shining light. It is easy to remember guys like Tod.

But what of the others? Those who died crying and afraid. Those who are difficult to let go? What of the youngest who I now learned is only 3 years old?

I blocked them all during that first week. I avoided knowing more about their stories. Not because I wanted to but because I had to - for me.

9/11 also happened during the darkest times of my life. I was not yet reconciled to many things in my own life. My personal life was at a threshold. I was in despair.

And then all was swept away in the aftermath. That was all exactly 10 years ago yesterday.

So last night, when I heard the calling of the names, I remembered again that first week (this is Philippine time of course which is exactly 12hrs ahead of the Eastern Seaboard). I was affected again. I felt the pain of the loss. But this time, I felt I was no longer alone. And I began to include them in my prayers to God.

I encourage you to please do so as well.

People with no connection to people will say this is all over-hyped. But if you understand what I understand, you will think of people. Because we are our relationships.

Let us pray for the victims and their families. Let us expedite their final hopes on earth.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Truth

Breaking the Siege

20110911 PM

Sunday Evenings

Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

I do not have much to add this evening. I am eager to go home, relax and watch the specials as regards the 10th year commemoration of 9/11.

You know, it is much easier to hate than to love. Hatred burns with almost any kind of fuel. Love, on the other hand, is often fraught with difficulties. For love burns only with love.

Where hatred is safe, love is often not safe. Love, by nature of its own truth, has to make itself vulnerable.

And you can see this interplay between love and hate in the life and times of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I trust we were all able to fulfill our Sunday obligations to God today.

You can never notice these things if you constantly renege on our Christian duty to offer worship to the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit above all, in this day of days.

If you reflect on the Gospels, persisting in prayer, especially during Holy Mass, then by a certain grace of God, you will be able to see through the words into the Word and the story shall in the eye of thy heart come to life.

This is why Holy Mass is the pivot of my week. And as far as I am able to, I seek to go to Holy Mass more than once a week. And I go to Mass not because I am holy but because I am a sinner in much need of holiness. I am a creature in desperate need of his God. I will perish if it were not for His mercy.

Now, the Gospel this week (Mt. 18: 21-35) is all about forgiveness.

Loving and forgiving go hand in glove. In the Gospel, Jesus instructed Peter about the nature of forgiveness.

Jesus said "seventy times seven" times.

This means we are expected by our Lord and Savior to be able to forgive others as well as self - always - and to do so - perfectly.

I just want to leave you with this thought before we enter into another work week.

Forgiveness breaks the cycle of hatred - in ourselves.

It frees us from the grip of our enemies not by subduing them but by breaking the power of nemesis by allowing ourselves to become their friends.

Everybody have a great working week ahead!

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Blindness

20110911 AM

Good morning, the Philippines!

Today is the 10th year remembrance of 9/11.

I'll take this opportunity to speak frankly with you about it.

9/11 is a day that changed the world. It is one of those moments that define us by the freedom of the choices we take as nations.

Its significance can not be lost to us here in the Philippines. (No nation on earth can forever hide from the pain of remembrance.)

Take note, my honorable compatriots, nations do not make choices. Individuals do that. Nations "take" a choice.

Now please, I want us to reflect about this as individual citizens.

It illuminates something about the liberty we, as the people, are gifted with by God; the freedom which is our inalienable right as a nation among nations.

Our democracy is strengthened by the depth of our individual understanding of a freedom that is responsible; of a liberty that is human.

It is this authentic human freedom that guides the unique vision entrusted by all our generations to our own particular Republic undertaking of Country. It is one of the nine common human needs and therefore, part and parcel of our common labor as citizens to each other.

It is our civic duty to seek, understand, love, and embrace this freedom and to protect and preserve it from its false image.

- selah -

Now, there may be condemnation about America in our world today. I can feel some of this same incomprehensible condemnation about America (and other Countries) here in our own Country.

There is a natural tension that exists between nations. But a hatred that is as blind as this may only be permissible in a culture where liberty is weak; the freedom of the people held captive by the darkness of the times.

In this sense, it is our constant duty - as citizens to each other - to liberate ourselves from who we are not.

As sacrifice is the price of Country, vigilance is the price of liberty.

All freedom that is irresponsible is an anathema to itself. This is a certainty. He or she who does not understand freedom will lose it. And a nation who does not know liberty will never discover the overcoming strength of its own truth.

With this, I shall ask again the question, it is right to hate as blindly as this? No.

It is this selfsame hatred which will prevent us from properly commemorating the essence of what we must now return to today, this 11th day of September 2011.

This was the hatred that brought upon the common people of America and all our nations, this longest night - ten years ago.

- selah - (selah means to pause thoughtfully)

Every year, I return to a reflection of the day that begun for our world, this longest night.

And every year, my singular hope is to further understand what brought us here today. Both the Scriptural as well as the Providential meaning of it all. And to bring this understanding to each of you who follow this conversation with me, by the grace of God, no matter how less or how much, as a guide to our nations - in particular to our one Filipino nation.

The Y2K event was a false start. If we had a chance back then to take a better road, only God can tell that now. What I can tell you today is we still have a chance to take a better road. And that road must begin - here and now - in each our hearts.

Love is the perfection of nations.

- selah -

So that if we make the choice of peace today as citizens, for every right reason, it will follow that our nations shall take that road of peace in our behalf.

This victory of peace in our hearts is the only way out of this war on terror.

We must forsake the War in that is raging in our hearts and drive away the darkness laying its siege against the truths of each our nationhood. This is the only way into the promise of the new age as well.

If we even begin to entertain the choice of Peace, if we begin to work on it in each ourselves, we also begin to fall away from the maddening thrall of War. And time being what it is, this season of the sky shall be our season and time itself shall be on our side.

Peace is the shape of the door that will lead our nations east, toward the dawn of this new age of thought and spirit. It is also the key that will open the way for every human heart to the vision that will lead our failing world to that promised morn.

Not peace which is the false image proposed to us by the spirit of this world but the peace which is purposed for us by the one LORD of All; the one peace which is the universal salutation of all three Abrahamic faiths; that very same peace that the whole of blessed Christendom celebrates every year in the Christmas season - the one prologue of all things new.

If this is our mindset, if this is the conviction we keep in our hearts, not only shall we overcome the mindlessness of the divisions that persist in our lands, we shall as human beings and citizens to each other, across our diverse national communities, prevail against the unknown earth.

For this peace is the craft of all nations.

With this, I leave you to your remembrances this day, mabuhay!

God bless the Philippines, God bless America and may God bless all our nations of our one family of nations with the peace that prospers!

---<--@

PHL in the ICC -

The one Republic of the one Filipino nation has recently joined the International Criminal Court. This is good news. It was further reported that our Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has been chosen to be sent to contribute to the mission of that international body as the first Filipino judge of the ICC. This is also good news.

Our Miriam is as fierce as a judge could be. I hope Khadaffi sits in her court.

If Colonel Khadaffi ever loved his Libyan people, he should concede defeat for the sake of the nation which is still his own. Both sides have fought bravely. Both sides have lost enough time, treasure, and promise. Now is the time to sober up; now is the time to think about the present and proceed to the future.

When promise awaits, there is no time to waste.

My own Republic have already recognized the legitimacy of the transitional council in Libya. And so do I recognize in them, the prevailing will of the one Libyan nation.

---<--@

The Philippine Peace Process -

The Philippine peace process has hit a road bump.

I tell you the truth, as a rock stands against rushing water shall soon find itself washed away, we can not prevent the morning from rising here in our Land of the Morning.

If we love Israel and Palestine. If we love Afghanistan. If we love India and Pakistan. If we love America. If we love the ASEAN. If we love Asia. If we love Iraq and Iran. If we love Africa. If we love Europe. If we love South America. If we love Korea. If we love China and Japan. Indeed, if we have love for all the other nations of our one family of nations - broken and in need of this peace. We will love our Philippines first and restore our nation to its proper place in time and space.

To love your own and then others like your own.

(Is this the real work of our nations?)

From these islands shall proceed the peace that prospers or none at all.

I'm talking here about tangible, sustainable, durable, meaningful peace - the hard fought peace of the ages. The peace that all nations must need to work out - under this season of sky - with one another before the one LORD of All nations and not the fantasy, feel-good peace of popular fiction.

---<--@

To Prayer -

This afternoon we shall have our Sunday Evening discussion. I encourage all my fellow Catholics to go to Holy Mass today and all my fellow Christians to fulfill their Sunday obligations to God.

The Peace of the LORD be with us all -

O MANKIND, my nations,

saith the LORD, our God,
where is thy one heart?
The heart that yearns
to be one as I AM one.

O ye believers, listen:
Have thou loved the other?

Have thou seen through

Babel's confusion?

O ye peoples, gather about!

Return to Me, O my portion,
come and learn again My ways
for My ways lead thee to life
and My peace is thy only path.

Know ye the Truth

and I shall set thee free.

I am the LORD, thy living God:
Behold! I am but one God alone,
worship Me not with thy divisions!
Serve me not with wars' ambition
but turn away, O stars of Abraham,
and serve the life of My creation.

(A Call to Remembrance)
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Citizenship with Fidelity

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

Common Ground

Healing Work

20110504

Citizen

My name is Filipino citizen.

The name of my nation is Peace.

Peace means, "we belong".

My work is Freedom.

My ambition is called Happiness.

My calling is known as Truth.

My name is Filipino citizen.

My family name is called Endless.

It means, "I love".

My Country is called Promise.

The land of my fathers is called Bountiful.

The name of my city is Friendship.

The name of my religion is Sacred Life.

My God is called Beautiful.

Beautiful means, "We are one".

My government is Service.

The name of our leader is Servant.

It means, "Great Soul".

---<--@

PHL in the ICC: Strengthening Asia's Posture on Justice and Human Rights

Judge Sang-Hyun Song (Republic of Korea), first Asian President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), in an article printed on the opinion/editorial page of the Daily Inquirer dated around February 28 or March 1, invited this Republic to ratify the Rome Statute (adopted in 1998 and joined by 114 nations).

I should like to voice out through this post my unwavering support of the above invitation:

This one Republic of the Filipino people should move to ratify the Rome Statute and officially join the ICC where I believe we can make a good contribution towards strengthening Asia's posture on Justice and Human Rights.

YEA. It think now is a good time.

(Too, I think it would have been better if OBL had his day at the ICC. The past is the past however and the issue of paramount concern remains a conclusive as well as a comprehensive end to this War on Terror.)

---<--@

Taxation is an often misunderstood subject. Of the three elements of Country, the burden of taxation belongs to the nation.

It belongs to the people to share this burden.

Because the public funds that are being constantly replenished through the activity of taxation belong also to the people. That means us, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

It is our representative Congress that holds the purse strings of government.

It pays for all necessary government services, it builds public infrastructures, and it helps to enrich the Common Market.

It even pays for the upkeep of our laws.

The Republic government through its institutions in the executive sphere are intermediaries that facilitate and enforce the process. But the benefits of sharing the tax burden must always return to the national trust - or at least, it always should.

It is a good thing to know that the government has been busy in this regard. It was recently reported in the news that tax targets are all being met. This is good news.

Part of the work to diminish corruption in our Country is to restore our common confidence in the public trust.

If we are to reconstitute these

social contracts that keep the peace and comprise the civic order our national communities, we must as individual citizens begin by learning how to once again place our confidence in these national processes.

Taxation (which drive forward the economy of the national trust) is an unmistakable litmus test in the fight against corruption.

We can gauge it truly by its visible, natural, material results.

But it really must come from we, the people, first.

It

requires a certain sense of moral bravery and personal integrity to discharge our tax duties as citizens as well as to responsibly receive these taxes from the citizenry as public servants in the government.

It is first and foremost something that is done out of a sense of personal justice.

However, these duties are mutually safeguarded also by the laws of the Republic to preserve the interests of the common good of the people.

That other people seem wanting in this duty, whether factual or perceived, whether least or great, alone or with others, is not an excuse to fail or to fall short of the civic virtue required of our common citizenry in the sharing of the tax burden.

Or to willfully break the laws that are the foundations of our social cohesion as a nation.

Also, the personal generosity of those individuals, who out of their great patriotic sentiments, go above and beyond, and therefore, apart from what is ordinarily expected in the actual sharing of this burden of taxation must also be appreciated and the spirit of their philanthropy promoted and remembered.

For what goes above and beyond the ordinary requirements of taxation in the building of the peace of our nation belong to the realm of charity and sacred duty which

transcends the realm of civic duty and fills another vital economy - that of divine grace.

The yoke that we wear now is the yoke that this nation also shares with God. It is

the double yoke of which Jesus spoke of in the Gospels. Because the burden of the national undertaking is one that we also share with God Who everyday fights for us with and through His grace.

It should be light to those who know what particular love of Country is required by this, our common Republic effort.

We do not live anymore under the pain of a colonial yoke, nor are we anymore completely asleep and under thrall of any foreign power.

We do not live in a perfect world. However, w

e can no longer use any of these ghosts of shadows past to justify those present illusions we ourselves tend to create that we - both in the Nation and in the Responsible State - are not ultimately responsible for this Republic undertaking.

Because we are - each one of us.

The pain of all our poorest Filipinos are all too real. The simple truth is that their lives matter and matters the most because i

t shall be part and parcel of our Final Accounting as a nation.

I wish to congratulate the BIR and Commissioner Henares for their brave efforts.

Let us also remember Marcelino Yap, the BIR official who was gunned down in Antipolo last February in the line of duty. He died constituting the necessary reforms in his office to facilitate and expedite the collection process.

May justice be served here and without delay.

---<--@

OBL is dead. Good.

Because human lives matter - no matter how different, no matter how similar we may be. It matters we are free.

The world changed after September 11.

All the world felt it. We didn't want it. Humanity was set back 10 years. Now the world is changed once again.

What did terrorism ever achieve?

Did it feed more hungry mouths? Did it shelter more needy families? Did it gain more for justice than it took out in war? Did it lighten the common burdens of our nations? Did it safeguard the ideals of the youth? Did it open the way for more safety and more prosperity?

OBL is dead. Good. Kudos to you, America. Kudos to JSOC and the SEALs.

Now the world is changed once again: We can now ask ourselves the question denied us 10 years ago, "what do we - those who desire peace - want?"

Because this time, its not about OBL. The tide has turned.

On September 11, everybody became one heart with the victims. They were from many nations, including mine. And the world lost 10 years worth in war seeking for justice.

Many other nations have suffered the loss of many other lives and promises in the process.

Now justice has been done, we can be one heart again and set the time forward toward peace.

Peace which is an end to this very difficult war. Peace which will bring the needed respite to our one family of nations.

When this happens, everybody wins.

And it will be 9/12/01 over again.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Amerika!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

God bless all our nations.

As a counterpoint to the death of OBL: As far as these things go, my honorable compatriots, let us always bear in mind and heart that remembrance holds its eternal vigil (here in our heart of hearts) only for the sake of those whose lives and promises now rest with their hopes entrusted to the cause of Peace and of Sacred Life (which is Country and God respectively).

No nation on earth can ever be truly and meaningfully sustained in its own soul by the evil inspiration of war criminals and mass murderers of whatever particular creed or race.

The truth tends to always break free of the limits and confines of evil inspiration.

And those of my own Christian religion knows this with an understanding of faith most especially in this season of Easter: Did not that tomb, my beloved brothers and sisters, sealed shut by an unimaginable weight of evil intention, literally explode on that first Easter morn?

Victory belongs always to real heroes, those who though vulnerable - least to great, known or known to God alone - even in the midst of great adversity remain faithful and true to their own common humanity:

Defender of the People

To the Lion of Pansjer -

The resounding clash
of steel against steel,
and the clamor of battle
was first fought
in the quiet of the night
and in the prayer of the heart
that rises like the sun
to bring forward the hopes
of your orphaned nation
and restore upon them
the guardian peace
of the Responsible State.

The devouring foe
with relentless tenacity
have only succeeded
in establishing
in the hearts of your people
a strong desire for solace
and a shelter away
from the wilderness
of their wandering hearts;
a dream that was born
from the hope that
through battle
and through loss
you have triumphed
to maintain
not for yourself,
Amer Sahib,
but for your nation.

You are certainly
most cherished in memory,
noble commander and
defender of the people.
---<--@

Ahmad Shah Masoud, the Lion of Pansjer, a true son of the one Afghan Nation (19530902-20010909).

So let us say, "peace be to Afghanistan of the one family of the nations of Mankind".

20100912

Eid'l Fitr

Belated Eid greetings to all our Muslim compatriots - mabuhay po kayong lahat! Peace be upon all Muslims at the end of this season of Ramadan: May God bless and prosper us all!

Eid'l Fitr fell on September 10 of this year and was declared a public holiday by PNoy.

We should seriously consider what the President said about raising our national awareness about this holiday, my fellow Filipino compatriots. Everything that brings us together as one nation has a special import in these times.

Because unity is an aspect of the liberty of nations: A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino.

September 11

September 11 was yesterday. I've never forgotten: It's not a time for hatred.

Lest we lose sight of the significance of it all. We are one family of nations after all - what affects one will affect all. Such is the climate of the times.

The world was changed 9 years ago yesterday - but toward what end?

Shall the ignorance, prejudices and hatred that have ruled and divided the nations of Mankind for so long be allowed to linger still?

Shall the war that was so emphatically excluded in heaven still find a place on this earth?

No, not in my heart of hearts. I have worked hard to clear myself of all of this as much as I could by the grace of Almighty God and so must you, O my nation!

For we can not have any claim to the prospering peace of these times ruled by the same spirit of war.

Therefore, from whom and from what must we guard against on this day of days by our timeless remembrance?

From war and from hate.

So be it! Let us then remember September 11 as one in this way with America and with all our other kindred nations. Let us thus be motivated by good things together.

There will always be battles, this is true. But time has come under heaven for us to fight these battles together this time. Such is the climate of the times.

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

Anthony Nicholas

Of the four faithful causes, O my nation, the fourth cause is the cause of benignity - this is the cause of minorities.

A few days ago, the local papers reported that a Briton, a long time resident of our Country, was murdered in Sipalay in Negros Occidental in what was reported to be an isolated incident.

As with the victims of the Quirino Grandstand Hostage Crisis last August 23, our sense of justice must ever be cognizant to the fact that Mr. Nicholas (and others like him) is a stranger (in the Biblical sense) and a minority living in our nation and therefore, deserving of the special care and protection of our laws and customs.

The apprehension of those responsible for this crime must be further inspired by the above fact.

My personal condolences go out to all his loved ones.

May justice for him be swift and true.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Xenophobia has never been part of our culture as Dr. Rizal himself and many of those of his great generation is able to attest.