51st State of the Union?

With all due respect, America had had to go through some harrowing times before her Republic got to where they are right now... And is still beset with problems comparably as tough as the problems we are now being faced with.

These are a Country's defining moments, my brothers and sisters of the Promise... when the ice sure seems thin and the breaking point is near - if we so choose to honor ourselves and our friends, and place our duty to Country firmly in the right... (so remember, no peace without adversity.)

Indeed, we share some of those defining moments with the US - especially during WWII in Bataan, upon Corregidor, along the infamous death march from Marivelles to San Fernando, the fight back from Leyte, from Lingayen, and into Manila -

BUT we do have defining moments of our own that are all our own - the spirit of EDSA '86 (politics aside, one of the great triumphs of the nobility of the Filipino spirit - think about it), the gallant Ayungin 9, the humble but resounding victories of our ongoing Internal Peace Process are but some examples.

My fellow Filipinos, we shouldn't be comparing what we have with what they have AND expect greatness from ourselves at the same time. For all great moments arise from the same (human) spirit - are of the same seed, same soil, same sky, same soul... our human habitation after all is but one realm in Creation.

But we can not have our cake and eat it too.

What this Country of ours need is sharper focus and deeper love.

AND what the US - and - this Republic of ours need is a greater and more profound understanding of the friendship that we already share,

THAT, God-helping, we shall 'ere and Now, ever always share.

For no one Nation is perfect, and that's why we have each other - that's why we are created, called, and commissioned as one Family under one God.
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We can not have our cake and eat it too.

I. The Naming

The First language knew no words -
it came winged, freely to the heart
and spoke as Motion, and was truth;
understood in action, known to All.

To Old Defiant, an ode -



O Islands,
Who art Thou
but thy own Name!

Who art Thou
but that - the Name
within thy name.

For if Thine own Heart
is within each thine own heart -
Then Thou art a Spirit at-One with Thyself
and a Nation at-Peace among thy peoples!

Therefore -

Must it matter to Thee,
what vanity Thou art called
by a world that knows thee not?

Must it matter to Thee,
what fleeting judgments it spake
than the Truth that ever burns
brightly in Thy bosom?

- selah -

Thou art a Nation
born among the Nations
(of the children of Mankind)
descended from the inaugural lineage
of the Sons of the Holy Patriarch Noah
and so Thine too is the everlasting Covenant
which preserveth the life of the Inhabited Earth.

For Thou art a Nation
among a Family of Nations
each of us distinct yet all the same,
together commissioned by the LORD
at the East Gate of fallen and faded Eden
and together endowed by our God with
each our own purposes and times.

As a Tree among many trees
grown under heaven upon the earth,
We are arisen to bless this barren world
in behalf of the children of Mankind
for the forbearance of Memory,
the Life of the generations,
and the sustenance of
All living souls!

What must matter to Thee - is -
what must matter to the life and the labor
of our Nationhood and not what vanity there is!

For every tree is known by its fruit.

Thou art humanity with belonging.
Thou art sufficiency through reliance.
Thou art harmony and togetherness.

And Peace is Thy common Salutation.

Bravery and Faithfulness
are thy most ancient of names.
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