LOVE, HOPE AND FAITH EXIST AMIDST THE NEWTON TRAGEDY AND EVEN AMONG PRISONERS THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON

LOVE, HOPE AND FAITH EXIST AMIDST THE NEWTON TRAGEDY
AND EVEN AMONG PRISONERS THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON

          It’s less than  a week   before Christmas, and I am quite  saddened,  feeling so unproductively distraught and helpless as we are bombarded by bad news around  the world,  like the ongoing civil war in Syria, the hundreds of poor people who perished from  the flooding in Mindanao, Philippines and  the massacre of  innocent young children in a school in Newtown, Connecticut.  In the USA, this horrific tragedy in a Sandy Hook School in Newtown dominated  the news and the airwaves for days that became an aberration for a  joyous Christmas holidays.   This worst tragedy in that peaceful city has caused in me mixed feelings of sorrow,   frustrations, helplessness,  anger and lots of questioning that beg for real answers, which I possibly will never understand  in my lifetime.  As a father, and now a grandfather for two very young girls  I could never imagine how I would  endure the agony of being the father or grandfather of any of those pure and  innocent 6-7 year old children being mowed down, worse than wild animals in the jungle!  I have questioned my own God, who I have been taught to be a just, loving and merciful  God  why  these evil  things happen especially in schools,  where  peace and quiet are traditionally the norms  where  children are  nurtured and molded to  become the best they can be in the future! 
           Schools are not war zones, but sacred places like churches where children spend a good part of their day  surrounded and lovingly  guided by caring teachers, the noblest professionals of all,  who love to do what they do, not to become  super rich  like business executives in Wall Street,  but to   help develop  young people to become good citizens of their own community when they grow up.   But In just a couple of minutes last Friday,  an indescribable tragedy the lives of twenty  young children  were  snuffed like the life of a pesky  mosquito attempting to suck someone’s  blood.  How can even the brightest person ever explain why these things ever happen in our society?
        Last weekend, I spent many hours just watching CNN coverage on this tragic event in a town named Newtown (which I pray will get a  New HOPE, New Beginning,   New Promise amidst worldwide sympathy and  publicity this Christmas), that included live coverage of a multi-denominational memorials of the 26 people who were killed.  President Obama took precious  time  to personally deliver his emotional yet meaningful  message and his challenge to everyone that we must do more to end these yearly tragedies. Rationalizations and so-called professional analyses were aplenty but they  were always  inadequate to fully justify the existence of evil,  the dearth of love or lack of respect for human lives!
          To help me make sense of all these, I have to reflect, ponder deeply  while I kept myself busier. Despite of that,  however,   I was still very frustrated and angry, as if I could not cope up especially in my solitude during  a cold  rainy  winter weekend.  I am fortunate, however, that  my faith brings me to accept the reality that all things  here on Earth  are finite, that everything, everyone  will have its own ending.  Sooner or later, we too will die as our journey on this planet is just an ephemeral trip.  I was told that we are in all in a train of life, and we really do not know when our  final destination ends, when our own train of life stops.  For these children their train ride  stopped just after a short distance of 6 or 7 miles, some will be 60 or 70 and a few lucky ones may be 100 or more!  It will certainly come when we least expect it.   This Year of Faith, that Catholics started universally last month, is quite timely for us to really reflect what matters most in our lives, as our train  may stop tomorrow or even tonight! Christianity admonishes and reminds us believers that “what doth it profit  a man if he gains the entire world, but loses his soul?   Speaking about power and wealth,  who really leaves  a better and lasting legacy for the upliftment of mankind, a wealthy person like Donald Trump or a poorer person like Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi?  Or a shallow material girl like Imelda Marcos or Evita Peron or a simple woman named Mother Teresa, whose material possessions may be contained in just one airline luggage?    Writing these sobering thoughts on a cold winter morning  forces  me appreciate that I am still alive with all these human emotions and to have an alert mind to still recognize them.
          To cope up and de-accelerate the build up of stress and frustrations, I  have kept myself  preoccupied with many activities  the last couple days, so I  can tire l tire myself  to leave no time to worry over these “bad things” that I have no control.  Last night, I joined 3 of my fellow certified church prison ministers to  provide our Catholic services to the inmates in an  Orange County Jail.  The full two hours that we were in prison providing a well structured Bible Study and Catholic Services,  and listening to  the prisoners’   laments or dreams and praying  with them  as  we  try to answer some of their doubts and questions,  were quite therapeutic  to both the prisoners and us  ministers. 
                         As a Christmas topic,  we asked  the prisoners  what they would dream  to have this Christmas.  As this was my first pre-Christmas visit I never had any inkling or premonition what I will hear.  Indeed  it shocked me  to hear some very   intimate revelations.  All  of them wish and crave to be with their loved ones or families:  spouses  and children, and to be able to hug  and tell that  they love them!   One man  became quite emotional to narrate what his son wrote him   that he has written the judge offering  him  that he  can get all the gifts  at their house in exchange for his father to be home for Christmas!  No prisoner  even mentioned about  revenge,  injustice  or hatred against their lawyers or judges,  but some said they pray to be  forgiven as they would like to forgive others too!  
         As token gifts for them this  Christmas,  we were allowed to give  them  Christmas cards with postage to each prisoner, but not cookies like we did give  to the deputies and guards, and  the prisoners were  quite happy to have them.  For many  of them,  those  Christmas cards may be  the only “communication” they may have with a  loved one this Christmas.
         With just over an hour service that were rendered  per group of prisoners, we were appreciated and even asked us if we were going back next Tuesday,  that challenged us if we were to come back on  Christmas day!  On our drive back to our parish  together, it was the consensus that  unless we are in the hospital for indigestion or unless there a real emergency,  we will invest another couple of hours to visit them, cognizant of the fact that  normally most of them do not have close families or friends to visit them even on Christmas season!  As many prisoners have intergenerational relatives in the prison system like themselves,  this is a factual reality that  I never ever imagined.
             Before going to bed last night,    I felt that some of the prisoners  seemed even more optimistic and hopeful than I was the last several  days!   Their sense of  optimism  and hope for better days ahead, after serving their sentences  in prison  magically infused and  reinvigorated my dying spirit  and  somewhat replenished my almost  empty spiritual gas tank.   I felt better and grateful that I forced myself  ---- as I was quite ambivalent the entire day ---- to go with my fellow church prison ministers.
         My almost one year experiences in prison ministry has  given me  great lessons in humanity  that I never imagined before and have received  some intangible  dividends too.   Undoubtedly,  the  prisoners  are also learning something new at this  stage of their lives from our ministry.  Now  I am no longer surprised why some of our prison ministers have been doing this kind of  volunteer work  for decades, as I am no longer shocked  also why some prisoners become better persons or  Christians or even become Christian ministers and authors like Charles Colson,  known as the “hatchet man” in the  Watergate scandal during  the Nixon years  after his  incarceration.  The life of an “unholy” man named Saul  who persecuted and killed  Christians before his conversion by Christ himself who eventually became St Paul, the great Apostle,   is another  example of a  conversion miracle  that can happen in any prison of any  country in the world. 
                                                                              * * * *
              In the spirit of Christmas,  let me share (again)  My Christmas Prayer, although written  many years ago, is s still very relevant today, especially this Year of Faith with all the tragedies occurring in our world.   It’s a year that some even predicted the “End of the World” according to some Mayan calendar.  I pray that with the tragedy in Newton, a New Hope, New Promise and New Beginning will happen  that  should start from the heart and soul from everyone, and then it spread through the family, then to the community, to the town or city and to state, to the nation and then to the world.  To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi “Let the change begin in me!”

                                 MY   CHRISTMAS   PRAYER
         
          It’s Christmas time again and  I feel all alone --- except with my thoughts, reliving where I have been, where I am now and where I want to go from here.  Although I am a man, I  can’t  help but become nostalgic with  mixed  emotions while composing this unorthodox Christmas prayer.
           Oh, Lord Redeemer of the World, is this what it takes to be alive? To witness and undergo the endless deprivations and tribulations on your people on Earth?  Why can’t your children be happy and at peace  not only during this season but every day?  Not only in dreams and words but also in reality?  For since I have flown from parental nest, I think I have seen more human sadness and struggles that the “joy and hope”  that Christmas traditionally brings!
             During this festive Season celebrating the Nativity of the Savior of Men, it has always amazed me that people do unusual things to bring out their brotherly concern towards another;  it continuously puzzles me why can’t your people show signs and acts of love and charity every time?  Tradition says, as I was told,  that’s the way it was and that the way it is and that’s the mystery of Christmas time.  But I asked in my prayer:  “But why not?”
        Dear God, I know I am just one creature who does not always understand and conform with what  I see in this world,  please help me that in my desire to be successful and strong,  I may also become a  more compassionate, understanding and loving person;  that  this Christmas and in the coming years, I may become more sympathetic gfwith those around me despite their divergent views of the world we share,  as I also hope and pray that other people would also see your light and do what is right, and not only those actions  that are convenient.  This is my Prayer for the world and for all mankind.
          Dear Lord, please hear these prayers from my heart and soul,  I implore you especially  that my health and general well being as well as those who I care and love, including  my enemies  will be at its peak;  that the basic material things that are necessary to be happy and fulfilled be provided for;  that my hopes, fears and dreams in life are shared lovingly with all the very special people in my life, and that  my life on this Earth will have real purpose and meaning.
          Oh Lord, my Savior, hear me, grant me my Christmas Prayer!
                                                 ----  3 0 ---

Email writer:  ernie.delfin@gmail.com   or  drbannatiran@yahoo.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: his F.O.R. M.

ERNIE DELFIN

F = Family Background:

I was born in an agricultural village in Northern Luzon, 4 hours north of Manila, Philippines, of hardworking parents who never knew the word, leisure, as their lives revolved around work and raising us their children to have a better life than they found it. Bless their souls as they were successful! All my siblings : 3 sisters and 2 brothers and I became professionals, including a sister who is a Dominican nun who has been assigned in many parts of the world the last 28 years.

I came to America in the mid 70s in my early twenties, after passing the CPA exams and working in a big CPA-auditing firm, as a young single man. Like some of you, I have always been free spirited and always lived life to the fullest. I got married in Los Angeles 3 decades ago to another Filipina CPA, now an interior designer as her second degree and career. We live in the same house in Fountain Valley the last 31 years.

We have two wonderful grown up children: Donna Karen, an M.S.I.S graduate from CalState Fullerton (now a web programmer at Disney Corporation)and E.J. graduating with English major (now working as assistant teacher at his alma mater, Fountain Valley H.S.) Neither my son nor my daughter wants to become a businessman, a thought that sometimes baffles me why, although I am also very happy that they are enjoying their own career paths. Twenty years from now, they might want to be their own boss too. I really don’t worry about it. Only time will tell.

I can’t believe where years have gone, as I now have spent more than half of my earthly life in America! Life has been good, although getting older and wiser, I feel as young as most of you right now! I feel I still can match the energy level of some of you in this forum!... So much with this section.

O = Occupation, profession, business:

Double major in Accounting and Economics from Colegio de San Juan de Letran (now a university) one of the elite universities in the Philippines, oldest college in the Philippine, founded is 1611, run by the Dominicans, then exclusively for boys till 25 years ago), I sat for the CPA exams right after college and pass it in one sitting and was hired by one of the CPA auditing firms and my years of travelling starting as I was seldom in the city. I also took graduate courses in CalStateUniversity – Los Angeles.
I continued to work in accounting-auditing during my first years in California including a 2 year employment as an auditor in the County of Los Angeles (a job that left a bitter taste in my mouth having witnessed how work in the government stifles creativity and productivity!) I left very good employment to become my own boss. I took several licenses in real estate, insurance, securities plus some graduate courses in business and entrepreneurship. I have been successful in writing my own good paychecks since l985… I have been fortunate that through entrepreneurship and owning my own businesses, I never had anyone to tell me what to do every day (except my wife who does not want me to “retire” yet!)

R = Recreation, hobbies, interests:

I love creating, writing, and reading, and working with people who are energetic, enthusiastic and intelligent. I cannot stand mediocrity, that’s why I fired all my employers. LOL. I love playing chess and poker, if I have the opportunity. (that should be a prerequisite for any one going into business to teach them taking calculated risks that always go with winning) and also a hobby of watching, observing people, why they behave the way they do. I am as passionate partner of our JustFaith (Social Justice) ministry of our parish as I am a passionate leader of our Rotary District in Orange County.

M = Motivation, Message or Philosophy why I do what I do:

My passions at this stage of my life are in the areas of YOUTH services, Social Justice and Entrepreneurship. I believe that empowering other people to reach their full potential, lending a hand to those who are struggling, and inspiring them to never give up is the best work of life.

My heroes, both dead and living, are not necessary the richest (but it does help to be wealthy like Bill Gates who gave $355 Million to Rotary Foundation, using his wealth to better the world that he shares with all mankind!) include people like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mandela, JFKennedy, Churchill, Warren Buffett and the many people (often unsung heroes) who join the Peace Corps who leave the comforts of their own families and birthplaces to be with people in other lands assisting them, educating them, inspiring them to have a better life.

My Rotary involvement, including the chartering your Rotaract Club, has given me experiences that are priceless and makes my life worth living for. With Rotary and Church volunteer work, I believe I have reasonably balanced my life in the four important quadrants of a successful life: PHYSICAL (TO LIVE), SOCIAL (TO LOVE), MENTAL (TO LEARN) AND SPIRITUAL (TO LEAVE A LEGACY). I believe that service to humanity is the best work of life and to see the fruition of your work is quite fulfilling that money can never buy.

And yes, working with this group of young people who also believe in “SERVICE ABOVE SELF” is helping me fulfill my life’s purpose to “leave a legacy” to make this world a better place than I found it ---- like my own parents did in their brief sojourn on earth, that is now contained in that little hyphen that separates the year of their birth and the year of their death on their tombstone. That has always been very sobering thought for me; it is a reality that our lives are so short and that it could end any time. It motivates daily to do my best to help make a difference in this world. As a Christian, I also believe that my life is God’s gift to me and what I do with my life is my gift to God.

Let me end this personal sharing with Socrates’ admonition: “AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING FOR!” to summarize my message and life’s philosophy.

FREEDOM, FAMILY, FRIENDS, FAITH: FOUR REASONS TO BE GRATEFUL THIS THANKSGIVING DAY 2012

THE METAMORPHOSIS

By

Ernie D. Delfin

FREEDOM, FAMILY, FRIENDS,  FAITH:  FOUR REASONS TO BE GRATEFUL THIS THANKSGIVING 2012

       Happy Thanksgiving Holiday to all of you, dear readers!

       It’s Thanksgiving week,  just another month before Christmas Day!  If you are  reading this,  you are blessed and lucky that  you are still alive and hopefully you can also come up with  enough reasons to be grateful to your Creator----- if you are a believer---- and to your loved ones. Like the change of the seasons  from summer to autumn,  winter to spring, this Thanksgiving-Advent Season is an opportune time  to take inventory of what we have and be grateful for having them.   And this is my philosophical subject for this issue of our weekly Asian Journal:    Freedom, Family, Friends and Faith,  with the ardent hope that the reader is also encouraged or inspired to come up with his or her own personal reasons to be  thankful   this season.

FREEDOM:

           Just recalling the origin  (the Pilgrims giving thanks to their  God for their survival and plentiful harvest and the new-found freedom with their new friends, the American  Indians)   of the first Thanksgiving festival  in America by these first European immigrants (without greencards!)  in  1621, who braved countless dangers and uncertainties in their bold adventure from the Old Word to the New World  where more  than half died along the way,   is enough reason to be grateful.   These Pilgrims started what America has become and paid dearly for it.  Their dream and vision of self-government became the solid foundation of democracy as the world knows it today.   Re-reading America’s history, from the bloody American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Emancipation centuries ago, as well as all the  armed struggles and bloody involvement of Americans in many wars in the world,   we, the living should be grateful.  For instance, just memorizing   Pres. Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg address of 1863 can stir one’s soul  and can easily relive and realize  the steep price --- over 60,000 American lives perished --- that our forefathers   have  paid for our freedom today that many Americans  voters now take for granted.

          Fast forward to the  21^st century,  our  steepest sacrifice  now is to  pay our fair share of taxes to our  ”government of the people, by the people and for the people”  and our primary obligation is to exercise our right of suffrage  wisely in every election, with  eternal vigilance not to allow any of these hard earned freedoms taken away by anyone, including our own gullible politicians who want to change or control our way of life.  History is a great teacher, that can teach us not only to be humble and gracious but also can and should  inspire us to continue to be ambitious and become better human beings.

                                                * * * *

FAMILY:

           Every time I participate in our Catholic Prison Ministry (providing Bible Study and Communion Services to the inmates in Orange County jails)  I cannot help but count  my many   blessings that  most people  take for granted. Millions of citizens (was one of these citizens before)    do not  even know nor realize how  inmates  or prisoners live without the  company of their friends and family, food, recreation and above all the luxury and the FREEDOM to do anything that one desires. Yes, they are given food and shelter and even medical care, but those things are never a  fair substitute for the beauty of freedom and family!

       Family is indeed the bedrock of any  society.  Prison statistics shows that the vast majority of the prisoners come from broken families, households with no fathers and/or mothers.  Oftentimes,  the inmates in county jails (by the way,  inmates  are called “prisoners” once they are convicted and sent to state or federal prison) often times they have intergenerational relatives----from grandfather to grandchildren--- in jails or prisons for one crime  or the other.  Many come from dysfunctional families where the old fashioned values of love and respect and industry were  not practiced every day in their lives.

           Without stable families ---- ideally two parent households where the young children are molded to become good citizens----- a stable country is almost impossible to maintain.  It is  the family, complimented and fortified by a good schools,  that plants  the first  seeds in a child’s  developing  mind to become his own person,  to reach his full potential as a human being that is carried on upon leaving the  parental nest till he dies. What is learned and internalized during  the first years of a child’s life, good or bad,  will live forever.

       Being a part of our church Prison Ministry, like our Rotary work,  is life-sustaining and  quite a fulfilling volunteer work.   Daily, I  recognize  that I am truly blessed that I have a good family that I love unconditionally, and that loves me too.    I truly believe that love begets love. Our family believes that  even our  6-month old, grandchildren  Sofie and her almost three-year-old sister Olivia instinctively know and feel that they are loved, and are showing their love in return.  As they are learning that love starts from the womb to the grave, we are confident that  they too will do the same when they grow up.

                                                                * * *

FRIENDS:

         There is nothing more beautiful in this life than a good friendship. It is said that if you find five true friends in your life time, you will have lived a life infinitely blessed.   That is a statement that  I have often  pondered  as many  friends come and go.  Very few of them remain your friends for decades, much less over  a life time. Once the glue that ephemerally binds both of you dries up with the summer breeze or winter snow, the friendship fades away. What then is a true friend?

         In his book, “Rediscover Catholicism”  (highly recommended for Catholics or anyone) the best selling author, Matthew Kelley describes about friends and their attraction and influence in our lives.   He writes: “As a child, I thought about friendship was about hanging out together all the time and sticking up for each other when others were critical or cruel. In my adolescence, I thought a true friend was someone who liked everything you liked and never did anything that upset you. But as an adult, I have learned that the defining characteristic of true friendship is someone who encourages you to be all you can be and challenges you to become the best-version-of- yourself. It is these people who tend to energize and invigorate us. What types of people do you like being with? What types of people energize you?”

                 Mr. Kelley continues “For this reason, when I have time to spend with friends, I try surround myself with people who make me want to be a better person. I admit they are not easy to find, but when you do find them, they are more precious than any treasure or pleasure this world has to offer.  If you want a litmus test for choosing friends, use this question: Will spending time with this person make me a better person?” …. You will learn more from your friends than you will ever will from books.  Therefore choose your friends wisely!”

               What a profound advice to a man in search like  me! At this stage of my life, however, I think I am more discriminating in choosing my real friends who I want to be with,  either in person or in  cyberspace.  In the vacuum of true friends, I can still be with many “friends” dead or alive,  through their works or writings, at will, by simply going to Barnes & Noble any day of the week!

               I have enjoyed the company of a few chosen friends, both the intellectual types like authors and philosophers and also the humanitarian and/or religious people who find life’s meaning and purpose in serving others.  I am always  in awe and find great admiration to rare individuals  like Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi, Rizal,  Lincoln  (see the movie!) and Mandela who strived to love their  God more, and did great sacrifice for others.  Their work and  contributions to the world  even the blind can see!  Collectively,  these kinds of people inspire me to become a better person that I want to be.

                 ****

FAITH:

        Faith like life is a mystery to be lived and believed.  It  should never  be a problem to be solved during our lifetime.  Like oxygen, it cannot be seen but can  be felt deeply   within us.  If we can remain still and quiet, and just ponder why we are here on earth in the first place, faith and humility are automatically breathed into our being.

         It’s a fact of life, that our minds can never fathom nor comprehend many things and events around us.  Even  scientists who are endowed with superior intelligence  believe that there is there is   Mighty Hand that causes all things to exist and perform what they do even  without man’s guidance and control.   These  mysteries are manifested  in  the harmonious order  of our universe, the magnificence of the galaxies in  the sky or the majesty of our solar system.  God’s creation  are made  more tangible for us to enjoy by  the roaring of the sea, the flight of a bird, the growing of a mustard seed into a huge plant and the birth of a baby from the union of a father’s seed and the mother’s egg.

         Faith is life giving;  life without faith is a life without meaning and purpose. Faith is not a religion but spiritual, a way of life. Faith is also believing  that things happen for a reason, and accepting them despite the fact that we often  do not fully comprehend. .  Faith also provides us the humility and the dexterity  to accept  that we are not immortal, that our physical life has its beginning and ending.

        Faith gives us hope for a better life amidst the vicissitudes of life and our man-made vanity  that contributes to our unhappiness and life devoid of meaning.  But faith also gives us the humility to  surrender to a Higher Power, especially in moments when  our body and  intelligence  seem inutile to solve our own problems.

         When all is gone, only our faith, our hope and love (Love is God) remains. The first line of our Jaycee Creed sums it all:  “ That Faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life!”

              HAVE A HAPPY AND BLESSED THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY EVERYONE!

                                                ----  30  -------

THE METAMORPHOSIS FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

                        “A person is born,   starts to walk, goes to school, finishes college, gets a job,  marries, raise a family,   retires and then just  reminisces his lifetime that may  last a few decades or even 100 years!” Then, he grows old and eventually dies! Is this all there is to life?                                                                                            

                                                                                    Dr. Banna Tiran

Email writer:  ernie.delfin@gmail.com  and drbannatiran@yahoo.com

U.S. ELECTION (2012) IS STILL THE ENVY OF THE WORLD

THE METAMORPHOSIS

By

Ernie D. Delfin

U.S.  ELECTION  IS  STILL THE  ENVY OF THE WORLD

        President Barack Obama just made history,  being re-elected to his second term as president of the USA,   despite the financial fiasco in the housing industry and the collapse of the stock market that almost brought America to another great depression, and amidst the lingering  anemic U.S. economy and high unemployment that  characterized Obama’s first term of office.  The very spirited challenge from his Republican Party opponent,  Mitt Romney, made the election very nerve cracking to the very end.   Now, the proverbial  reaching out and mending of  broken egos and relationships between the victors and losers must commence  for the common good of America.

          Like millions of Americans,  this writer was also glued on the TV screen till the early hours in the morning just to watch the real time happenings, political surprises and analyses of this exciting political exercise in  the greatest democracy on earth.   Although the surveys  several weeks before the election were quite accurate that  the battleground states, namely Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia, Iowa, Florida   would  determine the final outcome,  the hours after the election  was still full of excitement.

             The wonders of social media added to the excitement and drama as millions of people learn and become witnesses of what is happening in  all the swing states in real time.  When CNN predicted just after 8:00 PM Pacific Standard time, just 18 minutes after California closed its polls,  that President Obama was re-elected for a second term, euphoria erupted, especially among the Democrats in their Headquarters and also in Time Square, N.Y. as if it’s another   New Year celebration!

         It’s also commendable that within  a couple of hours,  Mitt Romney called the President to congratulate him and shortly thereafter made his brief but very graceful concession speech sprinkled with hopeful wishes  and prayers that the reelected president will be do good for America.  That was followed by a stirring acceptance speech of President Obama that is filled with challenges to all his supporters and fellow Americans that there is still much work to be done to make America great again ---to be the beacon and envy of the world. That is quite moving to hear as the president apparently has the pulse of the people as his message resonated well with the hopes and fears of the  majority of the popular vote, that also led to his impressive  victory  in the  Electoral College.

               The recent America’s  election, political leadership  and the shinning  example of democratic exercise  became the center of the world  stage for a day and remained the envy or dream of many countries on Earth.  The spirited debates, often with some sting of bitterness,  among opposing candidates espousing  their  different visions for the  country were openly discussed and analyzed.  Despite the high octane in the verbal duels among  the candidates and their passionate followers, however, the political atmosphere was peaceful and  no one was killed or assassinated (unlike in third world countries, including the Philippines) due to political reasons. The speed and reliability of the results hours after the nationwide election  is commendable and second to none.  Politicians all over the world can emulate the deportment that America’s political leaders exhibited  throughout their campaigns across the nation.  That is the greatest centuries-old legacy that America can give to many countries in the world in their quest for a true democratic government.

                                                         * * * *

             A day after the election, however, I am still wondering  how many voters like me experienced that inexplicable angst or anxiety for feeling  out-of-sync with the American mainstream  electorate,  when I compared  my stand,  YES or NO vote,  on  all the Propositions in the ballot.  I felt some degree of anger and/or sadness that only about 40% of them passed! Simply, I did not agree with 60% of California voters!  To put in another way,  only 40% of them agree with me on the  same issues!   It will be consoling to hear, if there are readers who are feeling the  same anger or sadness that I had felt after discovering  that majority in the electorate and I no longer believe in the same issues.  Or does it really matter, if someone does not conform with the majority?

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   Although I voted in the Philippines only two times before I left for the United States almost 40 years ago,   I have also followed the  political and democratic journey of the Philippines  to this day.  Although the Philippines professes to be a democratic country like the  United States, the political atmosphere and exercise between the two countries are still day and night in comparison.    For instance,  many candidates in the Philippines change party affiliation for convenience and their philosophies and convictions  change also with the political manna. In the USA, it will be highly  preposterous that a Democratic leader like Hillary Clinton or a Republican leader like Newt Gingrich to abandon their respective parties just to be a candidate of the other party.  Furthermore, Philippine candidates, especially the filthy rich buy votes from the voters in order  to win and be in a lucrative government position,  while in the USA,  it is the candidates and their party that request for political contributions from the electorate to finance their campaign expenditures.

           Due to these stark  differences between the land of my birth the Philippines and my adopted country, I am ardently praying that the political exercise be improved significantly  to really reflect the deep yearnings of Filipino citizens,  to be truly free from their political and economic shackles that is controlled by  the upper 5 percent of their so-called leaders, both in public and private.   It may take another one hundred years that this ideal scenario may happen, but it is never too late to start the process now. Education, coupled with more stable socio-economic and financial stability of more Filipino families and voters will accelerate the maturity of the Filipino  electorate, who will not sell and compromise their votes during election time.  The problems are man-made and their solutions must also be man-made with vigilance.

           There is another election in May 2013 and what happens between now and then  will be a good start. Furthermore, any electoral reforms initiated before the May 2016 presidential election will also contribute to the enhancement  of the Philippines political system, thereby strengthening the country’s democratic foundation.

           Only time will tell.

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Email writer at:  ernie.delfin@gmail.com and  drbannatiran@yahoo.com