Are we a nation of strangers?

It is said that a Nation is a community of strangers.

While it remains true that each and every citizen within our Nation may never come to fully get to know each other on a deeper, personal level, we are not a community of strangers. That is my argument.

The one Nation that is ours is a community of communities.

Life here is a gift and a right possessed by both individuals as well as communities.

As individuals here live lives distinct, so do our communities live also.

As individuals have rights, so do our communities possess rights distinct also.


And while it is true that as citizens it is impossible for everybody here in the Nation to connect to each other in stronger, more personal bonds of friendships - each of our communities, we may be assured, know each other. Think about it.

We are individuals within a community of individuals who are themselves individuals within a community of individual communities all of whom fall into the one fold - the Nation.

Interdependent human community.

The strength of our kin and kith ties are all bound up and embraced within a system of "weak ties". This may only become apparent if we dismiss the thought that we are a "nation of strangers" and attempt to understand the life and reality of our national communities.

We, the people, are all - in the Nation - at the very least, "civic acquaintances" - known to each other at the very least, through the life and reality of our particular communities.  

These communities may be tribal, religious, economic or other cause-specific affiliations, private as well as public of whose foundation is inherently our political community and its subdivisions - from barangay, city, province and their particular regions also. 

Each these communities represent us - reflecting many of the things we commonly understand as human beings. As each of our personal "acquaintances" may be developed into full-fledged friendships - so too may the (formal) connections between communities within the Nation be deepened, through the workings of the Republic, to incorporate stronger (informal) bonds and therefore, more effective relationships. 

This I believe is the reason for their many different Leagues and Councils. As an aspect of the term I use - Executive Coherence, this specific dimension is the horizontal dimension - horizontal coherence.

---<--@

Thoughts on the City Community

First of all, let us recognize the life of a City community with a separate peace, apart from the peace that we must together as one Republic accord to each other also as human persons and individual citizens. 

Let us love and regard the being of a City community as if it were a single person - born with a similar nature it shares with other Cities in our Republic as well as unique characters special to each one.

At the heart of every City is a promise. 

This promise is directly related to an old Chinese saying, "to get rich, build roads first."

When I reflect on this proverb, I am reminded of our Cities; that the orderliness and efficiency of their roads are a direct reflection of their health and well-being.

For our Cities are where our people work. Our Cities build together the national wealth. 

Self-interest is not the rule in any City community.


Wealth is the rule. 

People may come to be greedy. But a well-established City community prospers only in liberality.

For a City is never build. It is envisioned. 

Problems do not manage a City, it subdues its nature. Greed subverts its character and promise.

The City Executive is a manager of the City wealth. He or she must deal everyday with a restless kind of wealth, seeking always to break new ground and conquer hitherto unknown boundaries.  

He or she is not a manager of problems. The Mayor wisely envisions his or her City, manages its wealth, and the problems, whenever they shall arise, are managed by it. 

Sheer momentum of prosperity will repel most of it. 

Therefore, if one seeks to see into the heart of a City, bring it better wealth.

That each City may consistently be a realization of itself - shared by all.

Taken the right way, this is always true.

The way through a Mayor's heart is through his or her City. 

Right now, I am of the belief that our traffic problems are managing us. We are not managing it. It is essential that our City Executives come together in behalf of their communities and work it out... 

Envision it. 

I know we can. I believe it.

---<--@

Salutation #194

Man is an extension of his community.

(The People Principle)

Salute the life of the people.
Salute also the life of their communities.

To love the people
love also their communities
each one - as it is -
not as one would have it be.

Exercise
human respect
in the Nation -
in this way.

Ponder in thy heart the people principle.

To respect the life of the people
is to honor the peace of their communities
and to do so where ever and whenever it may be found
drawing from thy own love for thy own community
arrive in peace - and leave in the same spirit.

Say to them in the stillness of thy own heart,
"Prosper the peace, prosper the people".

Then thy own Nation will know you
and love you.

For love of the people - as you do yourself.
For love of their communities - as you do your own.

So love all of our peoples
- as they are -
honor them across their communities
and then learn to love the act of loving itself.

Because
these things are not forgot.
The earth, t'is asleep -
but heaven is not.

Let go of the fear of being forgot.
The real fear is of being remembered
as you are not.

Fear for thy citizenship as it really is.
And of not living up to its bliss.
---<--@

At a time of falling leaves...

I asked the leaf
whether it was scared
because it was autumn
and the other leaves were falling.

The leaf told me,
"No. During the whole spring and summer 
I was very alive. I worked hard 
and helped nourish the tree, 
and much of me 
is in the tree.

(Thich Nhat Hanh)

I then asked the tree,
at a time of falling leaves, 
whether it was scared
to be as bereft of its lush greenery
and it said to me,

"No, seeker, 
for I am a tree".
---<--@

A Word on our Barangays

O faithful Republic of my people -

Some are all about height and distance,
but thou - let thou be all about width and nearness.

Nearness to the people is what governs;
thy popular mandate to reign is derived from it.

Width is all about completeness;
it is the fullness of thy will to embrace the Nation
in faithful service of thy most sacred trust.

From nearness to the people is derived
the authority to govern thy peers
and from completeness of will,
the ensuing exercise of Power
is consequently recognized
as legitimate.

Our Barangays
are the living sails of our Cities.

If the life of our Cities
are the wellspring of our Sovereignty;
the vitality of this life is singularly an attribute
of the general state of health of each our Barangays.

Our leadership in the Barangay are essential to the Nation
and so we must be free to seek them and they, to seek us -
through the electoral processes that is appointed for this task.

Indeed,
the toughest battles, invisible to the rest of the Nation,
to build up from the Unknown Earth, our Republic Vision -
are fought and won upon the ground of our Barangays.

It is here within our Barangays where - at every age -
the Divine Commandment to prosper and to make good
the sacred trust of our Nation - across our generations -
is everyday from the Providence of the LORD received -
and the labor of the Republic with each morning begun.

It is here where each our citizenship is everywhere exercised
and the blessings of our togetherness with each night kept -
the greater will of our Peace, each and every day won.

They are the oldest
and most venerable part of our Republic.
---<--@


The Diwata ng Lahi, a replica of the ancient Balangay boat, went out for a test sail in Manila Bay on July 11 2009. The word "barangay" is derived from an ancient Malayo-Polynesian boat called a balangay. It is commonly believed that in pre-colonial Philippines, each original coastal “barangay” formed as a result of settlers arriving by boat from other places in Southeast Asia.