BY: SALVADOR ISORENA | GREEN ALERT
| Freedom is defined as the “property of the human will whereby man determines himself in his acts towards the end. The will is directed to the fullness of good. It is the power to be fully oneself. There is the goal: to become what one has the potentiality to be. That is why many roads freely chosen are not roads to freedom.
Thus only in the beatific vision is man’s will determined, actuated necessarily [ i.e., by a necessity from the will itself, a perfection of freedom determining itself.] Inner freedom includes [1] freedom of exercise –to want or not want and [2] freedom of specification—to want this or that.
A large part of the present-day confusion about freedom is because we think of freedom as being free from external restrictions; and we forget that it is much more a matter of being free from internal restraints, from self-imposed or self-sought restrictions which hinder our development as true personalities. It is a matter essentially of having, and being able to exercise, an internal and personal power, a power which includes self-dominion, self-possession and self-realization in intimate relationship.
To this, Farmer said, ’He is not yet free. He must still free himself.’ Nietzsche wrote: ‘You call yourself free? I would hear of your master-thought, not of your escape from the yoke. Are you a man that should escape from the yoke? Many have cast off all their values when they cast off their servitude. Free from what?
How does that concern Zarathustra? And may I hasten to add: “How does that concern Johnny of the Cross [read: Juan dela Cruz?] Let your eye answer me frankly. Free for what? From ignorance brought about by poverty due to government’s benign neglect by previous and, worse, intentionally by the incumbent dispensation?
Truly, the cosmetic, mangled, unconstitutional legislative act of Congress allocating lower budget to education and other major sectors in favor of their resurrected pork barrel insertions speak volumes of corruption and greediness made by the BI-CAM [some says it’s BI-SCAM?
No wonder, UP Economics Professor Cielo Magno [as quoted by Jarius Bondoc] lamented: “It’s the crookedest budget in Philippine history.”After 25-year hiatus from street parliamentarian rallies, she went back to the historic Liwasang Bonifacio etc.
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Modern man wants to be free from. But he does not know what he should be free for. And as a result he is in danger of losing or abandoning his freedom, even if simply because he is less and less capable of seeing any really worthwhile use to which it can be put.
Stuck at the crossroads
In the end freedom is of little use to the man without values or ideals, just as it is of less use still to the man who is afraid to commit himself. And it so happens that modern man is both very suspicious of almost any real commitment.
Freedom is of little use to the man lacking in values or ideals, for if he has no worthwhile goals to his life, then his choices can mean little to him. Fundamentally his problem is that he cannot respect the things he chooses. Even if it were that there is more freedom [external] in the world today, of what use can this be so to a world with a lessened sense of values? If it is sad to boast of at least having all the roads open and unrestricted before if one, if at the same time one has a growing feeling that none of them seem to lead anywhere. . .
And what is the point of having all roads open before one, if deep down, one is afraid to choose any of them, or afraid at least to make more than tentative and very temporary choices; ready to take a few steps along one road but even readier to retrace those steps as soon as one gets bored with it or finds the going tough/and then to try another road [another job, another cause, another husband, another wife . . .], and another, and another?
“Man today is so suspicious of committing himself that he is in danger of voluntarily paralyzing his power of choice, his very own freedom. For every choice is a commitment. And those who are afraid to choose or exercise tentative choices and quickly rebuke them contradict, and annul their own freedom. Modern man, like the men of all ages, stands at the crossroads of choice. But since modern man is afraid to commit himself, he remains at the crossroads.” [Source: Participant’s Handbook for the Seminar Series on Values Education, Center for Research and Communication, Institute for Development Education, Pearl Drive, Ortigas Complex, Pasig Metro Manila, 1987.]
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The Holy Bible [or Scriptures] is generally accepted by Christians as the “Book of All Books.” In 1789, George Washington, the founding president of the USA acknowledged the crucially imperative blessings, guidance, and protection of the Almighty Tri-Une God saying: “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”
Historically, this annual event started in 1982 after former President Ferdinand E. Marcos signed Proclamation No. 2242 declaring a nationwide Bible celebration declaring the first Sunday of Advent and the last week of November every year as National Bible Week [NBW].
R.A. 11163 otherwise known as “An Act Declaring the Last Monday of January Every Year as A Special Working Holiday in observance of National Bible Day” was passed on December 20, 2018. The law declares that, it is the policy of the State that the government shall aid and encourage the development of the moral character and spiritual foundation of the Filipino people.
The same law proclaimed that, as a predominantly Christian nation in the Asia Pacific, this Act recognizes the value of the Holy Bible as the core of the Christian Faith. However, the celebration in January came about during the term of President Corazon C. Aquino who issued Proclamation No. 44 in 1986 which transferred and made official the NBW celebration in the first month of the year.
Furthermore, the proclamation was reinforced by President Ramos in Proclamation No. 1067 which urged that “national attention be focused in moral, and social fiber of our citizenry.”
“As more and more people read and study the Bible, the universal truths found in its pages empowered them to live with hope and courage in these days of despair and difficulty,” wrote San Andres incumbent Mayor Leo Z. Mendoza in his book: “A Vision For A Better Community That We Love’ [2022].
Finally, under proclamation no. 124 signed by President Duterte last January 5, 2017 declared that for every year, the month of January will be National Bible Month. The proclamation stated that “it is fitting and proper that national attention be focused on the important role being played by reading and study the bible in molding the moral fiber of our society.”
Manifesting its inherent religiosity, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Catanduanes passed Resolution No. 233-2013 on November 13, 2013, enjoining local government units and all concerned to participate in the celebration of the year 2014 NBW in the province of Catanduanes.
Consequently, LGU San Andres, Catanduanes welcomed and acknowledged R.A. 11163 and observed this celebration by having a formal installation of the Holy Bible in a particular or conspicuous place in San Andres, Sangguniang Bayan Building. As of writing, I don’t know whether the same was installed in the executive or main building.
Due to a plethora of breaking good and bad news, I’m not sure whether said NBD/NBW/NBM was celebrated or not last 27 January this year, it being Monday]. Too bad if it escaped our people’s awareness and remembrance. Be that as it may, the Catholic Church and other Christian congregations might have observed it last month. If not, ‘Yan Sana!
Me too coz I’m wasn’t aware and, the truth is, I really didn’t know about it. I came to know it when I browsed the first ever book written by Mayor Leo Z. Mendoza. In the preface of that coffeetable book, he said: “The three things that every man should do in his lifetime on earth are: Plant a tree, have a child and write a book.”
Surely, he fulfilled those three things at this point in time. Personally and modesty aside, I have yet to do the last thing—the writing of a book. The good things is, I have already written the outline. And before the end of 2025, it being one of my major new year’s resolutions, I’ll finish it.
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The world famous leader, Mahatma Gandhi, identified the “Seven Blunders of the World,” to wit: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Worship without sacrifice. Politics without principle.
May I add these mind-boggling plethora of Blunders of the Philippines:
Abusive-contempt-weilding-convicted solons. Accountability-delicadeza-bereft leaders. AC-DC mediamen. Atheists. Banana-Investigative Republic. Budol-budol leaders. Baby-surrogate mothers. Congress teeming with Lacoste & Vipers. Crookedest Budget in Philippine History. Hacker-phishers. Doubting Thomases/Judases/Pontius Pilates. Human Bodies-Organs Agents/Sellers/Traffickers.
Environmental-Mind Polluters. Huwad-Tuwad Com. Irresponsible parents/leaders. Lawmaker-lawbreakers. Left-leaning Partylists. Men & Women in Uniform Scalawags. National Budget with 28 blank items. Paid hacks/trolls/vloggers. Political dynasties. Polvoronic-pork barrel leaders. Scammers/scumbags. Terrorists. Vote-buying-selling. Zero-dagdag-bawas budget allocations.
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Continuation of this month’s trivia. February 17—Maria Rosetti born 1827; Marian Anderson born 1902; February 18–Mary 1 born 1516; John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress published, 1678; National holiday in the Gambia; February 19—Nicolaus Copernicus born 1473; Constantin Brancusi born 1876; Thomas Edison patented the photograph, 1878; U. S. forces landed on two Jima, 1945; February 20—John H. Glenn, Jr. became the first American to orbit the earth, 1962;
February 22—Charles VII born 1403; George Washington born 1732; Edward Kennedy born 1932; Spain ceded Florida to the U.S., 1819; February 23—George Frederick Handel born 1685; W. E. B. Du Bois born 1868; National Holiday in Guyana; February 24—Wilhelm Grimm born 1786; Winslow Homer born 1835;
February 25—Jose de San Martin born 1778; Pierre Auguste Renoir born 1841; Sixteenth Amendment to U.S. Constitution set up income tax, 1913; National Holiday in Kuwait; February 26—Victor Hugo born 1802; Honore Daumier born 1808; Buffalo Bill born 1846; February 27—Henry Wordsworth Longfellow—born 1806; John Steinbeck born 1902; Independence Day in Dominican Republic; February 28—First U.S. railroad, Baltimore & Ohio, chartered, 1827; Vincent Massey became first Canadian-born governor-general of Canada, 1952.
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