On the National Conversation

Trying times bring out the best and the worst in people and these are trying times indeed...

One should always presuppose something human about the State and the Philippine State being what it is, democratic, a healthy clash of opinions is a good sign.

I agree with those who disagree with me in that they like myself are free to express their thoughts on matters concerning the life of our State.

One should not be the judge of opinions other than one's own.

If your stand is stood on principles, then your opinions as a reflection of your convictions should outlast the opinions of the hasty and the reckless. 

However, when we start turning on each other as judges of each other's belief, things start to turn from sour to bitter. Because this makes it political. 

Let the facts shape our belief. Let the truth dictate our vision.

I believe our civics or basically the art of how we treat each other as citizens is grounded on the truths of our nationhood. Therefore, "our" national conversation should be generally conducted in the spirit of our civics.

We as a people talk all the time. 

We are free to do so by a freedom that is our right and responsibility - "free expression", it is called. Free expression as a form of participation in the life of our nation (and ultimately in the politics of our State) is what I refer to as our national conversation.

The Filipino media, our free press, are our gatekeepers as regards the national conversation which is why to impinge upon press freedoms is the beginning of the end of free expression in the nation.

Our government and its institutions are formally represented to the Filipino public by each its own public affairs representatives. Our press is the popular equivalent. This is important.

One who believes in free expression should also make the connection in his mind that press freedom is just as important and in his heart understand the reciprocity of its good.

It has been said that a state that begins burning its books ends up burning its own people.

In much the same fashion, any democratic government or for that matter, any free people not outraged at attacks on its own free press do not understand how free expression works and place themselves in peril of ultimately losing it. Indeed, we ought by knowledge of this be forewarned about the twin values of press freedom and free expression and live our freedoms accordingly.

Brother and sister Filipinos, we should care about the quality of the conversation we are having as a nation. 

To this end, I should laud our media people who are working hard to make all this talk a worthwhile thing to have for all of us.

I too believe the talk we should be having, for our national conversation to bear us good fruit, should be focused on quality. Our conversations about issues that matter should always honorably reflect, in spite of the sobering reality of so many woes, our highest ideals and beliefs.

Our national conversation serves the quest for truth, and truth in service of the people.

I think we should mostly be concerned with solutions to our problems and not on identifying problems we already have but fear to own... maybe because what once was a molehill has now turned into a granite mountain seemingly right before our minds.

When I say this conversation becomes political, I mean it in the sense of the politics that is exercised by our politicians in the formal government of our State.

We are not all politicians after all nor should we all desire to be. We are all citizens though and as not all of us are elected (by us) and set apart by popular mandate into those formal positions of public service within our Republic, our politics are basically expressed through the national conversation in support of the politics of our representative leadership in the formal government of our State.

If one would and takes this all a step further, one writes or contacts directly, his or her representations in the formal government of the State in the Executive, Legislative or Judiciary branches.

Politics are important and because it is, public participation in the political life of our Republic is vital.

All things political to our nation arises within the State from the soul and into soil of our nationhood... its science shaped and empowered by the art of our civics.

Not all of us are politicians, brothers and sisters, but all our politicians are citizens and to the extent that they are, all our politicians should be statesmen and stateswomen.

And those of us who should freely submit ourselves to their leadership ought duly and willingly participate in the national conversation.

In a democracy, we are all leaders.

As all good leaders know, all leaders learn the art of their leadership as followers. In a democracy, all of us too are basically led by the light of our own truth. Hence, leadership in the sense that it is democratic should know and understand that to lead and to follow are one and the same responsibility.

If we know and understand this, and if we trust in the decisiveness and clarity of our vision, all our talking will lead to the one walk - along the way of ascent that will lead us to the eventual and true awakening of all our national dreaming...

All our words should lead us (again and again) to the realization of the promised truths of our peace.

Because truth is truth and at the summit of our Republic Sky lay for all our hearts, the ideals drawn from our highest truths - of proven principles that enable us to conceive together a vision of the State that is always comprehensible to the Filipino soul no matter how different our opinions on the ground may be...

Actual proof of this is our written Constitution, this national document being a distillation of the Filipino spirit handed down to us in physical form. (Have we ever wondered why from one proceed the many and how from the many, one? Have we truly taken to heart its Preamble?)

I trust that leaders be responsible for their own truths and for speaking it out with respect of their own dignity and the dignity of other citizens not unlike them - being honorable Filipinos. 

And so we begin... again and again... while time is time. Till every question and answer become unto us all simultaneously one and the same thing...

Let us have a conversation as a nation... and let our free expression propel our democracy forward to the good of our Republic as a service to our nation and therefore, to the benefit of each and of all.

God bless the Philippines. Mabuhay po tayong lahat.
---<--@

The Litmus Test of our Democracy

Elections.

Even the most freest
and the most fairest of them all -
does not keep us free - nor our politics fair.

Entering the gate alone does not build the city.
---<--@

We experience self-determination as an individual right when we exercise it as a national community during elections.  

The right of suffrage also bestows upon our shoulders the responsibility of a mature electorate. This electoral culture is the substance that enlivens and empowers the act of voting. It does not suddenly come to life only on election days. (And goes back into the crypt afterwards.)

It is a living and integral part of our National culture and one  that should be constantly renewing itself as an aspect of our freedom borne and won and gathered together - in Liberty.

Though the choices we must make in secret ballot is per individual - we do not really cast our votes as individuals - we vote as a community of individuals.

Majority rules - Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

But that does not mean the minority suffers. Remember, the majority exists also on their behalf.

The power of the vote is to affirm. 

In an elections, there is no negative vote. We have to remember this if we want to effect a positive change in our electoral culture.

We do not vote people, we vote platforms first.

Therefore, the measure of the virtues of candidacy in a popular elections is not fame or notoriety of person but proven personal sincerity and believability of political intentions.

In this, we do not look for those who only look good by making others look worse. That is the first sign of superficiality.

Of course, politics will at times present moral challenges to the personal integrity of our candidates but this should never exclusively dominate the electoral debate. Partisanship benefits us politically only in relation to the relevant matters at hand, that concern what we are really voting for - not just the who.

We seek in the questions our candidates must courageously ask, in presenting to us in the forums of the Republic, what platforms they stand upon and promise to build (upon entering the gate of the city, and into the helm of the Philippine State), what has resonance with what answers we are looking for - as a mature electorate - that is representative of the majority in our Democracy.

Therefore, there are no losers in an elections. Only those who receive our affirmation. We do not vote in the negative, remember.

There are no winners in an elections either. Only those who, according to their positions-elect, accept the mandate of the people - to serve the good of the Nation entire in the Republic government.

The mindset of winner-loser is the first thing out the window. It produces the violence that oft shock us by the bloody taint it inflicts upon the politics of the Philippine State - that scandalizes the many.

This politics of violence (along with the politics of money) in a Democracy such as ours is unacceptable.

Those who really win in an elections are those who run the race to the full, who with vigilance stay the course they have intended (to advance) for the people - at the outset of their term: Those who build - under God, what they - before Him and before the people, have said they would - according to their honest, human best - which is the reason why they became (Providentially) in the first place - it was popular. Their dedication and the merit of their works - for the people. Not just fame in and of itself.

They merit a succession of terms because they merit a succession of terms.

And will be remembered well for it.

All good things have a limit, a measure, and a time under our Republic Sky. It is clearly understood that there will always be a limited number of positions available in an election season for candidacy.

Our candidates, God bless them all, should know it. And understand that - whether they receive the affirmation of the vote or not - the vote is not a matter of losing or winning but a matter of time.

All good things in their good time. And good leaders in their due season.

Let us remember this also, we question what is questionable. We do not look for what is evil, as far as our politics go. Like the human body and its immune system identifies what does not belong to it by first knowing what does, in the organism of the Republic - we look for what is questionable, and challenge it by virtue of our knowledge of what is native to our common good.

Individual good exists nested and embraced within greater and greater realities of the good that make them all common. We can not choose between a lesser and a greater good. It is a false choice. Like saying one had to choose between breathing and eating.

So to know ourselves, is to know what belongs to ourselves. And the cycles of our elections should make us better and better able to deeply understand what is clearly what - as a mature electorate.

We, the people, do not vote to lose, we always vote to win.

How Rule of Law and the traditions of our Republic and its Democracy is kept - alive in our culture - matter a whole lot more to us now in a Republic that how our rulers are made elect.

In short, the litmus test of any democracy is how it's leaders lead and how it's followers follow (how rulers rule, and how their rule is kept) and in between them, how freedoms are kept free.

Entering the gate alone does not build the city.

The power of the vote guards the gate. The culture of our electorate determines how well the watches of the city is drilled, trained, and maintained.

Our leaders are drawn form this culture and are citizens first like we are.

They do not and will not pander to base intentions. They will not think to buy your vote nor should you think to sell your vote to them.

They will keep sanity and nobility the Republic government and virtue and compassion in the forums of the Philippine State.

They will support the good and uphold the common good and we will support them - all the way - for doing so - in all our behalf.

For they will enter the city - at the gate -
and persevere with her through her labors by day
who in recognizing the Beauty of her face in the morning,
rejoice with her at dusk, being at peace with the setting of the sun,
dwelling in goodwill among her peoples, prevailing through the night.

If we can reform our Electoral culture then the rest of the matter as regards Electoral reform shall be mostly about funding. This is a question of Law. And exists as a different matter altogether.
---<--@

The Politics of our State

Two thought exercises -

Sea and Sky

Politics in our Republic
is like Sea and Sky

The Nation the Sea, the State the Sky
thought reflecting thought, blue upon blue
salt and water and spirit - in faithful motion
we, the people, in deep conversation.

Turbulent water disturbs it,
stormy Skies don't calm it -
but then, Nights turn to Days,
clouds, storms in their great rounds,
governments, parting ways, election days,
gold and silver rays.
---<--@

The Talk in the Walk

Let us first recall to mind - 

Countries take, people make. 

And that this is true for all Countries, including ours... 

More interested should we be in what Countries do 

than in what their people say - whether true or false. 

Because as regards decisions, 

people make them, Countries only take them - 

that Country may translate water into Motion. 

Country, for the intent and purpose of this blog, being a verb, 

its motion is only as faithful as the substance that give rise to it. 

And the richness of this substance 

depends on the depth of our civic spirituality 

as a human people. 

---<--@

If our Nation stops talking the talk, 

our Republic stops walking the walk.

Now, imagine if you will, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

that upon this - our Land of Promise - 

you were this Republic - 

the particular spirit of Country 

tasked by the deeper workings of Providence 

to shepherd this one Filipino Nation, 

not the Nation itself, mind you - 

but our Republic organism.

Imagine it were you. 

What would you like to hear from your Nation? 

Worthless banter? Bitter silence? Empty thoughts? 

Unfeeling, uncaring politics? Contemptuous prattle? 

Distasteful murmurings of unbelief? Scornful distrust? 

The incessant noise of battle, of war and discord? 

Hate speech and the ignorance of your Liberty? 

Or the happy chatter of a joyful people? 

Let us look now at our National bird - the maya bird - 

An industrious, little, long-suffering creature with wings. 

Almost invisible to us Filipinos for its commonality. 

T'is a bird 

who lives in the moment, 

not because it wants to 

but because it has to

humble
with a life span of only a fraction 

of what is allotted to us human beings  

yet courageous enough for its future 

displaying great fortitude for their young  

at times even more solicitous
than human mothers. 

Hear them sing in the morning... 

just before they go about their day, 

its almost like a daily prayer 

of praise and adoration 

to our God. 

- selah -

Do you think our Nation sounds like the bird 

we carefully took to symbolize and represent 

something we cherish in our people?

Certainly,
we can not all be incapable of worthwhile talk. 

But certainly also,
there is still much to be desired 

in that same regard.

- selah -

What is the center of the Republic? 

The place in the heart 

from which we speak to each other 

as citizens not unlike
one another. 

If we, in this thought exercise, 

should come to the same conclusion 

that there is indeed insufficient 

"chattering of a joyful people" 

going around these days, 

then we must find this center - 

the citizen in ourselves. 

And rejuvenate
the National Dialogue - 

that we may fill it once again 

with substance becoming 

of the Philippine State.

- selah -

My brothers and sisters in the Nation, 

nowhere can we find the best solutions for our problems 

than in ourselves. 

For we are each other's keeper  

keeper to our common humanity, 

our human community, our remembrances, 

our liberty, our posterity - before God.

We were born into it - 

by a choice to live the values 

that make our citizenship 

noble and worthwhile. 

Hence, 

whether natural or naturalized, 

we profess one spirit.

So let's talk the right talk, 

and together walk the right walk.

We can not build the right world with the wrong values.

Nor the right Republic with the wrong civics.

---<--@

=^.^=