Our passion with the American dream is turning into a Filipino incubus. Our people have become a paradox of the Filipinos of past. They now laugh at such virtuousnesss as filial regard and obeisance. They think these virtuousnesss are dreadfully. hopelessly antique. They scoff at our traditional cordial reception. our heat and friendliness. because they have been enslaved by the crass philistinism of the age. Is it so difficult to believe that we can stay Filipinos and still process onward. of all time forth to our national fate? Are our heads so narrow. is our intelligence so limited that we can non recognize this truth? Can we non see that we can follow the foreign ways and yet retain the enduring. the admirable qualities that can do the Filipino great? Have we been so westernized that we find the Filipino manner foreigner to our manner of life? The Filipino manner is our bequest. It is found in the finding and fortitude. the finding that made it possible for our brothers in the mountains to construct the breath-taking rice patios.
It is found in our bravery. in the bravery that sustained us at Mactan. at Tirad Pass. in Bataan. It is found in our simpleness and modestness. in the beauty of Angelus at dusk. and in the earnestness of our devotedness to our God and our state. These qualities are still in us – in all of us. They are still in our heads and in our Black Marias. We can still delve them out if we would merely bury about our compulsions with brown Americanism. We can still delve them out if we would merely delve hard plenty. I am looking for a Filipino. I can non happen him among those who shout sanctimoniously about patriotism and nationalisation. I can non see him among those who preach about Filipinism but whose sermons are empty and meaningless. Will my hunt be long and vain? It will be. I am afraid unless we wake in clip. It will ne’er stop unless we realize the sacredness of our heritage. unless we see the profusion and the beauty. the glorification and the admiration. the promise and the fulfilment of the Filipino vision.
