(January 11, 2007) AFTER three weeks on the east coast, traveling from Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, I have learned so many things from this trip that I don’t even know where to begin. Meanwhile, as I struggle with this little dilemma of mine, there are also a lot of issues, both on the U.S. and Philippine fronts, that I think are very important to the Filipino-American community.
At any rate, what I have in mind is to discuss a little bit of this and that before they all become too stale that I might eve forget to talk about them. Our trip to the eastern seaboard to me was discovering America on my own terms.
When I was young, I used to read about the several states, their industries, their economies and their way of life. But it’s still different to experience the place, the people and to interact with them firsthand in the communities where they live. Except for Maine, all the states we went to are among the original 13 colonies that give you a glimpse of the values and attitude of the people of Europe where they once came from, especially in small towns where homes are historical landmarks or home of authors, some dating back to circa 1600s.
In Millis, Massachussets where we mostly stayed, wireless internet service was almost non-existent except in a few libraries and at Starbucks. You have to be hooked literally to access the internet.
Thirteen weeks in a place other than California gave me a lot of material to write about, maybe even a book. But I don’t want to bore you, so I’ll stick to the news that I think will affect most of us Californians.
On the local front, many immigrants may find it reassuring somewhat that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has filed S. 9, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, as soon as they were back in Capitol. Though details of this bill have yet to be published, even from the senator’s website, this is what he had to say when he introduced the bill: “America needs comprehensive immigration reform.” He said that although he is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, it is “a national security issue of critical importance” and, “We need to know who is in our country and who is crossing our borders.” He added, that “every worker must have legal authorization to work. Reform will allow us to focus our resources on criminals, terrorists, and those who wish to do us harm.”
But what is important is what we have been advocating in that the bill will allow undocumented immigrants currently in this country a pathway to citizenship. Reid said that as long as undocumented immigrants worked hard for several years, learned English, paid their taxes, passed a criminal background check, and paid fines and penalties for being here unlawfully, they can become U.S. citizens. That is of course if the bill is approved, which is expected to face some rough sailings.
And while I was in Boston, there was a story in the Boston Globe about Washington’s idea of recruiting foreigners to serve in the U.S. military and earning U.S. citizenship – after they have served in Iraq or any other war of course, just like when the U.S. bases where still in the Philippines where recruits of later years were allowed to become citizens after their military service. The Pentagon said this plan might shore up the number of U.S. soldiers to meet their recruiting goals.
There is even a proposal from some security analysts of recruiting even illegals to serve in the military and become citizens in the process. And just like what some critics have said, the U.S. would rather have foreigners fight their own war rather than have Americans getting killed. Knowing many of our kababayans who want to leave town and become U.S. citizens someday, I’m looking at a very long line at the U.S. Embassy if this plan is implemented and Filipinos considered for the draft.
Well, we have heard or read President Bush’s address asking for a surge of troops in Iraq. My simple response is, stop the war, bring the troops home. The conflict in Iraq is no longer a terror war which was what the U.S. soldiers were supposed to be fighting for. At first, I didn’t like the idea of leaving the Iraqis in their present state because of what we did to them, but they have to realize that they have to stop killing each other. I am going to repeat what has been said that getting rid of Saddam Hussein is not the same as the opportunity of seeking revenge.
The next few days will be interesting to know if the surge in troops will be funded, and if there would be a withdrawal of troops instead. The president’s speech may indeed be the defining moment of his term. Speaking of war, the Philippine military meanwhile announced that they will defeat the communist insurgents by 2010. A strategic victory, they said, which also falls on the year when President Arroyo leaves office.
The New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was established in March, 1969, one of the longest, if not the longest-running insurgencies, in the world. The mountains and the geographic make up of the country have helped the NPAs exist this long and because it is difficult to identify the guerrillas who are farmers by day and fighters by night. Just like in Iraq, I now want the conflict in the Philippines, be it communist or Muslim insurgency, done with.
The people are tired of war. Though much of the problems that have caused the insurgencies are there – poverty, human rights abuses, cheap labor and other forms of social injustice – it is time that we address the problem the right and humane way.
Four decades of domestic war is too long. The notion that the NPAs will not stop their protracted war until they have seized power is no longer relevant. If people have jobs, able to feed their families, have homes to live in, a future to look forward to, the insurgency will die a natural death. And let this be a warning: Their will always be an armed struggle if there remains an oppression of economic rights to where the insurgency is mostly rooted from.
The NPAs have been waging war for so long they will not even entertain peace negotiations if the government demands that they lay down their arms. And if I may add, China and Vietnam, both of which rose after years of communist revolution, are now the fastest growing countries in East Asia.(RFL)
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