Carpe Diem

Do you still not know why the Stars call you, Old Defiant?



93,000 souls lost to us in Syria. I can not even begin to imagine such indeterminable damage being inflicted on our nation without the heart of our people breaking... I just can not.

God help the Syrian people wherever they may be, may the LORD keep each of them, and may God gather them all in safety and peace, according to His necessary purposes in time and upon the earth, preserving them each in their humanity.

No nation on this earth at this present age of maturity of all human remembrances can withstand such agony without flinching. Yet the hurting, the weeping, and the dying continues unabated.

No, the conflict in Syria I believe has morphed into something else. This is no longer a civil war. What it has now become is a greater regional war concealed as a battle for the Soul of the Syrian Nation.

The incomprehensible pain of all this unrestrained fighting have now given rise to a conflict fueled by a much more deeper division. And there are greater dangers concealed in the midst.

Our Peacekeepers have to be extra alert. Everything vital about the UN mission on the Golan have to be made clear to them and to us, the one Filipino people, so that it should stand out starkly - bright against what we are trying to hold back by our commitment to guard those heights.

We have to be lucid. We have to take care.

My compatriots, this is perhaps, one of those defining moments... we have come to the lead position in this respect, to find a crossroads in the forest of time - we have to take a path for our family of nations, we have to seize the day.

Against the gathering storm, Austria has pulled out its troops on the Golan. We all must understand we now hold the line on the Golan and this line has to hold. It has to hold.

We have to understand, at least in this present time, this moment is ours.

God bless us all, mabuhay!

---<--@

Human Rights in Syria Now!

Human rights in Syria now!

About 18,000 people
have already lost their lives
- and - their promise
in this struggle for internal control
of that beleaguered nation...

18,000!

This
represents a sizable tear
in the fabric of our humanity!

For
we can neither bring them back
nor can we resurrect
what good they would have stood for 
in our needful world
if their lives were not cut so short...

Now,
the opposing sides of the Syrian conflict
might have already decided to pursue
- through armed conflict -
each their necessary outcomes
and we might not be able
to change that now...

BUT 
if we - everywhere - stand up
for human rights in Syria - now
and if enough of us starts doing it,
and truly believe in it's work 
though we can not directly affect
the prevailing will of the opposing forces,
we can move to effectively lessen
the unwanted suffering of the Syrian people.

We have our own outcome to work for in Syria; 
an outcome seeks to responsibly preserve 
that nation's own spirit and energy 
for the task of the rebuilding 
that is certain to come after 
this bitter struggle.

Human rights in Syria now!
---<--@

Who Are You, Syria?

Who are you, Syria?

Why are you trying to murder your own nation?
Why do you seek the final overthrow of thy own soul?
Have thou forgotten the justice of thy own peace?

What for art thou, O Syria - who are you these days?

What are you laboring so vehemently to become, O troubled Republic?
Who for are you pledging all these pain and suffering?
What do you seek to reap for thyself in the midst of all this blood and tears?
What do you seek to gain from your undying sacrifices?

Return to a memory of thyself...

Shall you stand alone 
in the midst of all this clamor and din 
only to find for thyself 
a sword aimed at thy own heart?

Return to thyself, O Syria!

Thou art at the brink of a million-year crossroads.

Come back to thy own reason, and reclaim thy own peace...

Make the choice to be one once again -
O beloved nation, kindred to my own peace,
let not the spirit of War deceive thee in thy heart of hearts!

The void has not overcome thee yet.
---<--@

View in Review 20120324

We have got to buck up and support a pro-human rights stance in Syria.

We have to confront North Korea at the strategic level in a way that is clearly defensive in stance. (That missile is aimed at the route of least resistance and speaks volumes to my ears about the state of our own readiness.)

The DPRK's language is often symbolic and belies its intentions in a manner which is seldom direct. It is an unspoken language, however, always consistent with the spirit of that Country.

Thus, its not the satellite in showcase here, its the launch modality.

This threatens us only indirectly at this time however. Whether we respond or not (more importantly how to respond or how not to respond), must always be calculated to mitigate the threat that this becomes direct.

We must bear in mind and heart we belong on opposite sides of the 38th parallel and historically always have.

We have to be able to state a clear, cohesive, long-term plan of non-aggression, dialogue and de-escalation in the Spratlys as an integral part of the ASEAN regional community, with our allies in principle, and with China as an integral part of a continental whole (Asia).

We have to be both clear and consistent on what is ours (which can be jointly developed as a sovereign part of our Republic) and what is not ours (which can be jointly developed as part of a common trust territory solution).

War, in our age, can no longer be confined to particular regions, with specific or area combatants.

In an age where we, as the (free nations of the) one human race, are becoming closely related as a global community, conflagrations of any size shall be the concern of all our nations.

As in a forest of tress, War is the peril of all. (For War presents to our civilizations a threat as existential as fire is to wood.)

We have to stand on our own principles, clearly stated in our Constitution.

We have to be able to expound on these and understand them in depth from first principles.

It is from these principles that we may obtain certainty in a time of uncertainty.

It is upon these principles, we must return in order to build for our own generations the beginnings of an enduring, better capable, forward thinking, one and faithful Republic.

It is from an abiding understanding of these principles that the re-discovery of the truth that fills our nationhood with substance is made possible and this will fuel the rejuvenation of our great and noble society.

- selah -

Where does it all begin, my nation? At the heart - that is why, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, I can say to each of you, "we already have everything we need".

Now, if we should criticize each other, let it be. BUT let it be done so always with a sense of civic affection and indivisible loyalty to the nation.

Let it be understood by each Filipino that in the end, when push comes to shove, we will all fall onto but one belonging - to the last!

And that ultimately, we love each other for being Filipino, just for being Filipino.

---<--@

20110808

Good morning Philippines!

And a very good Monday start of the working week to all.

It's a humid, overcast day out there, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, all my fellow Filipinos of every stripe, almost gloomy - but weather IS a relative thing - especially the weather we choose to live inside of ourselves.

"Establish within thy soul

an unyielding firmament of Day"

- Salutation #9, Perseverance

Keeping a perspective on things is important, O my nation, especially during these days of unprecedented change.

Truly we are a people guided much more by the steps of our hearts than by the fickle fashions of the spirit of the world.

The world outside of ourselves is undergoing so much change - in more ways than one, even the climate of space is shifting. Indeed there is much cause out there for needless worry.

But if we willingly place ourselves as a people together upon the original peace of our foundation, we shall not be harried so much by the storm that must pass us by, O my people, if only through sheer grit and conviction that we are one nation entire.

If we know who we are, no external weather system is going to cause our nation to derail itself from its long march eastward to destiny. Because this is the way back to our Eden rebuilt, O my beloved people, the way God has established for all human nations.

This is our return to promise.

- selah -

Unity is important to any emerging undertaking of Country.

Let us be encouraged by the recent dialogue between the GRP and the MILF.

Let us be mindful as well of the willingness of each our kindred nations across our needful world to provide us assistance - let us remember their kindness always.

This kind of remembrance will go a long way towards preserving our own sense of a prevailing national good will. Let us refuse to become evil-inspired and pawns to the relentless hatred of the enemy of all human nations.

Let us learn to keep our liberty, preserve its value, know its cost, and use it well.

Let us work to become individually informed as well as better involved in the vital processes that shall help to actualize the dream of unity for our Republic and peace for our nation.

And let us be altogether convinced that this peace is our only way forward into the miracle of national development; a miracle our people have deserved for so long.

Let us be vigilant about this peace, my honorable compatriots, bearing in mind and heart how easy it is to become sleepy and complacent about it. Few to none of us have ever known it in our lives to be empirically convinced of its merit.

Generally speaking, it is very easy to be lulled back into the deadly embrace of 2000 years of division in the human heart.

We must never allow War back into the abode of our souls with the LORD.

Indeed, all of us are now coming to perceive the void that is staring our failing world in the face to realize the existence of a better way, a road less traveled, as it were, an eastward way back to an Eden rebuilt; a way of return for our one family of the nations of Mankind.

This eastward way is guarded by an angel. And this angel shall require each of us to complete each our own remembrances as a nation distinct but not apart from our one family of nations. This angel shall query each of our hearts for the quality of our belonging as a people upon the earth; a nation under the LORD; a Republic with a soul of submission and a heart of peace.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, this is our road back to promise.

---<--@

The Twilight of Choices - The Milky Way Road

You can see how our other nations suffer from diverse things. We ourselves know some of their suffering. If we, as a nation, better ourselves - if we defy the sins that have defied our society in the past - we acquire from God the timeless lessons that shall help to heal our other kindred nations. In this way, we help our region, our continent, and our world - indirectly at first.

Look up at the night sky outside of your souls, my honorable compatriots, you know it in your own love that if we help ourselves, as we are doing now under President Noynoy and under this season of the Sky, we add to the strength of our one family of nations.

We no longer live in a void. We have chosen to be as the numberless stars. Indeed, if we shine all the more harder together, the nearer we get to the Light, the more we add to the strength of our one whole Sky.

---<--@

Your Prayers Here Please -

To all my brothers and sisters in the Promise - all the numberless stars of our Father Abraham, guided by the Light of the unity of the LORD and empowered by the one Peace of God - Let us pray for Syria - for an end to the spiral of violence, for Libya - for the protection of all its civilians from War, for Israel and Palestine like twins joined together in War or in Peace - may they both stand together in Peace rather than fall apart in War, for Egypt - for its own necessary searching for its soul of Country, for the United States - for the peace within her own self, may it prevail in the name of the common people, let us pray for the peace of all our nations.

To all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ and to my Holy Mother Church -

Let us put all these prayers in our hearts, in our rosary of hope, and above all, please take them all with you to Holy Mass as I will.

Finally, let us pray for the souls of Attorney Benjamin Pinpin of my home parish and for all the fallen warriors of our nation and of every nation in this crucial twilight of our nations awakening from the longest night of our needful world.

We will expedite his final hopes on earth.

"A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle."

Holy Father Dominic de Guzman, pray for us.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Healing Work

One Nation

War in the Heart