A Personal Assessment: An Eyewitness Account

 

Our entire family of six started its migration to the US of A in 1980.

Jimmy Carter was President.  The economy was in disarray with high inflation and overall malaise.  Though we were no strangers to such conditions, having come from the Philippines where the regime of despotic Marcos was in bloom wreaking havoc everywhere. Somewhat similarly the politics in the US was trending badly.  Iran held the entire US embassy staff hostage to the surprise of the entire world.  

As a matter of fact on our very arrival where we bunked with the mother-in-law, we first met her in her flat after she had come from her downtown employer having attended a city-wide union protest rally for higher wages.  The entire hotel industry in the city was on strike.

Still we were in high spirits having landed in the proverbial land of milk and honey.  Rearing to go in pursuit of our American dream.

We readily found entry-level jobs, while the kids were quickly enrolled in public schools.  San Francisco as then was a revered land of immigrants, so the following adaptation came quite easily for us minority migrants.

Quickly the presidency of Carter ended, and he was denied a second term.  So the golden area of Reagan ensued.  And our spirits went up even higher.  In the midst of all this, our journey to normalcy and integration to the local polity came relatively smoothly.  We had nice regular jobs, sufficient enough to enable us to save for and buy our first home. And a few years later we secured our second home in pursuit of better dreams for our kids.

But we could not say the same for the public educational system.  It started failing its reputation as exemplar part of the vaunted US public school system unarguably regarded as second to none.  The advent of failed multiculturalism started seeping into the very core of the aging system.  All in pursuit for accommodation of the many ethnic groups in the growing immigrant categories.  Test scores started ebbing as with other critical rankings, all this while the state was spending more per capita.  Though the powerful teachers unions progressed and held sway, exercising great political powers.  And with access to almost unlimited resources it did not take long for them to engage in politicization of their positions.

This polarity is seen running deeper into the core and foundations of the country. The incipient drive to divide the country between the natives and the new immigrants started to show in policy and law.  This carried over in the social milieu and into politics.

Now the country is badly divided, as to make it hardly recognizable from the times of its founding to its ascent as world power in the 50's.  So that now even the concept of making America great again finds no unanimity, with some groups bent on framing the country as undesirable because of what it has done.  Thus, nationalism has not only lost its luster, but many now regard it as an unacceptable concept.

Trump's overarching goal then is to bring the US of A back closer  to what it was, during a halcyon time when the country was well regarded and respected for its strength and power.

But a bitterly divided country does not lend easily to agreement in purpose and action.  Recalcitrance being a very difficult obstacle to tame.

A Self-Imposed Boundary

           The self-imposed boundary that should never be.

Many of us caution, that to keep friendship and family ties intact avoid interactive talks about religion and politics.

Yet how sad that would be.

Politics is what makes our temporal lives complete and tolerable, allowing us gregarious people as we are,  a chance to live in harmony with our own kind and those outside our circles.

And religion of course is what aligns and centers our precious lives to our ultimate mystical purposes in this world.

Yet we are told to keep those sacrosanct topics to ourselves, unable to peaceably share and enjoy with others?

All because as a species we cannot restrain or compose ourselves to stay within the bounds of civility and charity?

How sad, indeed.

Spot the Differences: A Tale of Two Cities

 My unheralded arrival brought on the onset of good rain in northern California, welcomed not only by its humanity but also its flora parched dry by many months of drought.  Shimmering fall leaves teamed up with the rain, racing to the ground for tenancy.  The brownish hillsides are beginning to color themselves the hue of green.  The nippy temperatures have suddenly become bearable, save for the occasional gusts of breezes that push the thermostat down. 

By some stroke of design, the rain has stayed away during my jogging sessions at the park, visited only by occasional colder breezes.

TV news people have been quite unanimous in their positive assessment of the rains, interrupted only by occasional accidents caused by hydroplaning in the many freeways around the state.

So over all, all’s well in the world and California.

Then yesterday, social media configured for local news in the homeland burst forth with news of heavy rain in the hometown, Cagayan de Oro City.  Initial reports shouted good news too, since the place too had been dry for quite a spell, though not yet in drought mode.

But it did not take long for the tables to turn.  Ominous news of flooding in the usual areas.  Brownouts in the city.  Leaky rooftops in both homes and public places like malls.  Antsy citizens stranded in different parts of the city.  Commuters either unable to find their way home, or needing instructions on which routes to take to avoid floods, etc.   All making a citizenry quite harangued and harried. 

So over all, all is not well with the world.

For us old Cagayanons our outlook about our hometown has by default been long-term. Since we were born, raised, educated, and worked in it, we are inclined to consider the long-term repercussions of things happening in the place.

But no such predispositions can be expected not only with current city officials, but maybe even those who do business here.Their main concerns are with the here and now. Government yearns for more taxes, businesses for more profits. This myopic vision has brought us to where we are now.

The concept of being a true Cagayanon as defined in the past is now largely in the minds of a few old Cagayanons. Thus the overriding identity of the place has been lost, save for the artifacts that remain, like old streets, buildings, celebrations, etc

Prayer: Not a sign of Lunacy

  

We humans are truly difficult to understand. At times.

In one vein, everybody tells us to pray always, regardless of the result or whether or not our pleas are answered.  We should never relent with prayers.

But in another vein, we are told that doing the same things over and over again expecting different results is a sign of lunacy.

Is there any logical explanation to this apparent contradiction? There certainly is.  And both sayings are justifiably true. You see, the act of prayer is more than just the motions associated with it. It includes all the resolutions to action that accompany it as a natural consequence.

Going back to the Ignatian definition of prayer:  Pray like everything depended on God, but act on it like everything depended on you.

Therefore, inextricably intertwined with it are the host of actions we resolve to do so our prayers can come to fruition. And thus, if our prayers are not initially fulfilled or answered, we pray again and this time with another host of resolutions to guarantee our pleas are answered.

Therefore, our prayers are not simply repetitions, but each time, unique and different in its own ways.

Many of us do forget how we ought to pray efficaciously, and thus, court the mockery of others who dismiss our praying as simply either a fool's errand, or the protestations of a crazy person.

This because we limit our interpretation of praying to the words we express in our supplications as we lay prostate either in solitude or in church. We mouth the same formulaic verses, and repeat them countless times like in the rosary and the litanies, and after that we wait for any response. No doubt others feel justified in their criticism.

So remember prayer does not end with pious words said in solemn moments. As we learn in the Morning Prayer taught us in school. When we pray we also offer not only prayers, but all "works, joys, and suffering" we go through each day.

Thus each time, our prayer becomes one unique, fresh, and distinct plea to our Creator for his assistance and grace..

Hindsight Perspective - Tatoy Vs Atoy

How two persons with similar nicknames could come into some alignment to allow for some kind of decent comparison, in the grand scheme of fate or coincidence.  Simply for comparison because both took separate  routes  and thus led lives so diametrically different from each other.  And thus, maybe the similarity in nickname remains the only viable connection.

We as complete family migrated to the US in 1980.  Though not solely for economic reasons, but still largely because we wanted a different life.  The availability to move to the US as immigrants made the choice more facile.

Because of the presence of other family members, we ended up landing in the San Francisco area, where we commenced our relocation process.  Of looking for suitable housing accommodations.  And of course, of jobs to take care of financing our stay.

As expected the path toward prosperity and contentment was strewn with daunting challenges from all quarters. For one, San Francisco we learned was essentially a tourist destination.  Thus, the limited economic opportunities centered on that one essential driver of prosperity.  Hospitality and hotel places and food services businesses increased and prospered.  They thrived becoming the main source of employment for many immigrants.  Union jobs to start a new life in a strange environ. And for me since I had some banking experience, I thought I could segue to what I thought would be a more promising path.  Only to learn that renumeration-wise entry-level banking jobs could not compare well with union jobs which were plentiful.

In short, I ended up in the hospitality business employment till it was time to retire. Admittedly, going this route still enabled the family to live the American dream in a decent way.  But could it have been more or better?  That is the question.

Atoy on the other hand had a different experience, though going through the same timeline.  He had come here as a youthful high school graduate, together with some other youthful relatives from the old country.  They however landed in places closer to Silicon Valley, ground zero for the tech revolution.  And job opportunities necessarily were clustered in that field.  

So he got himself employed in a small start-up company as draftsman. That was the age of small start-ups that could suddenly blossom into gargantuan companies, like the likes of Apple and Microsoft. He was sent to some schooling in drafting to improve his native skillset.  Under this set-up he labored, honing his skills, and holding on to stock options that became part of pay packages during that time.

The time came when that small start-up company with its creation of a specialized app was bought by a bigger and richer tech company which found the start-up's  product useful to be integrated into its own product. Suddenly then all those in the small start-up became millionaires parlaying their little shares into millions of dollars.

And thus another success story to be reckoned and listed in the history of Silicon Valley, one more sample among nameless others.

One cannot then help but make comparisons.  What if we had instead started work in and around Silicon Valley rather than in the San Francisco Area?  Could we not have been swept in the same deluge  that brought those into the same lap of fortune?  It takes only for one to be in the right place for fortune to visit.  Luck is better served if one is also in the right place.

One itchy question that will remain unanswered.