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As part of its Filipino American History month celebration, the Philippine Embassy is sponsoring a book launching of Sarah K. Joaquin’s memoir, “Of Laughter and Tears,” on October 5.

This is an occasion to pay tribute to one of the leading lights in Philippine theater, a beloved teacher, and a dear friend who enriched our community in more ways than we’ll ever know.

Last year, on the fifth anniversary of September 11, Rachel Sistoza of Woodbridge , Va. reflected on the meaning of that tragic morning in light of what happened to her cousin, U.S. Army Cpl. Shannon L. Squires of Virginia Beach . “There would have been no Iraq War if the attacks in New York didn’t occur," she said then. “My cousin would still be alive.

I hated it when Bush started this war on terror. I hate it even more now. It took away someone close to me, someone I grew up with, someone so young and full of promise. That’s what hurts."

In earlier times, ice was used to chill treats for royalty during hot summer days. Today, it’s used to cool the masses, serving as balm for nasty burns and welcome relief from sizzling heat.

But there’s another kind of ice that’s dreaded even in the hottest of summers. This one literally sends terrifying chills up the spine. It’s Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. It’s mission, while ostensibly reassuring, is actually quite frightening when read between the lines: “To protect America and uphold public safety ...by eliminating vulnerabilities that pose a threat to our nation’s borders."

I left the mainland for a week earlier this month with a group of fellow United Methodists from our church in Kensington, as part of a “Volunteers In Mission” team to help the people in a Nicaraguan village construct a classroom next to a church.

I left the mainland for a week earlier this month with a group of fellow United Methodists from our church in Kensington, as part of a “Volunteers In Mission” team to help the people in a Nicaraguan village construct a classroom next to a church.

When a community gathers - whether to celebrate or commiserate - one is always reminded of those occasions that relate to the faces that you meet. As one’s encounters unfold, it’s sometimes hard to believe that it’s been years since the last time one said a word to the other. We’ve either drifted apart, taken on different paths or simply fallen off the radar screen. Still, the connections are always there.

But first, there’s the struggle to remember names. I know I’ve seen that face before, I say quietly to myself as my mind races back to retrieve something, anything that would save me from embarrassment. Call it senior lapses, but it’s still no excuse even for someone who became a grandfather more than five months ago.

We're so close we can almost taste it.
That’’s how our Filipino veterans and community activists are feeling nowadays, after many years of grassroots organizing, lobbying in the U.S. Congress, marching and demonstrating in front of the White House, and getting jailed for civil disobedience. Call it cautious optimism. There’’s lots of good reason why we can expect to finally win full equity for our Filipino World War II veterans –– a struggle they’’ve been waging for 61 years.

And so it rained. Not just for an hour, but throughout the day. Not just intermittent showers but heavy downpours that forced people into crowded tents, some shivering in sleeveless tops and summer shirts.

Yet cloudy skies and chilly winds failed to dampen the daring spirit of the hundreds who came on that first Sunday of June. As scheduled, the Philippine Festival went on. And they came, some with umbrellas and raincoats but many more just soaked it all up with a cavalier grin. Wet brings out the Pinoys at their best. Dry is not us.

On the fourth day of May, the news from the war zone reported one soldier killed and six wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. Mark Ryan Caguioa, a Filipino American soldier, was among them –– one of more than 24,000 U.S. soldiers injured in Iraq since the American invasion.

Doctors at Bethesda’’s National Naval Medical Center are doing their best to save his life, military officers assured Mark’’s mother, Maria Lourdes, who lives in Stockton, Calif. with Mark’’s step-father and three other children.

"We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us," Winston Churchill said after Nazi bombs destroyed Britain. Expanding on Churchill's intuition, University of Chicago Professor Albert Borgmann explains that our political environment is "not a neutral, passive backdrop, but instead is infused with moral content that shapes who we are and how we live."
In looking into the institutions that were built to create the United States , Borgmann says that "ours is a decent country," but one with troubling features, particularly its "waning support for values of equality, dignity and justice, and for traditional American concerns for the poor and the environment." Generosity and resourcefulness, he contends, are "the virtues that distinguish U.S. history when we have been at our best. Instead, these values are being displaced by the focus on production, consumption and affluence."

In the Roman calendar, the Ides of March is imbued with a sense of foreboding. That was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators who called themselves the "Liberatores." They justified their actions not as murder but as "tyrannicide' because they were trying to preserve the Republic from Caesar's alleged monarchial ambitions.

In this town, the middle of the month definitely evoked a dark mood reminiscent of doom and danger. Like the martial law days. Then, plainclothesmen with clutch bags and menacing looks took notes and pictures of activists considered enemies of the state.

Las Vegas, NV - Here in this desert oasis, Filipinos have grown in numbers over the years -filling up the insatiable demands of a booming tourist economy. They are visible in casinos and concert halls, hotels and restaurants and stage shows. The Society of Seven and Jasmine Trias are among the top acts. Apart from service workers and entertainers, there's also a growing number of retirees who find this city a suitable playground for their passions and pursuits. In the last decade, the Filipino population in Nevada has increased dramatically - by more than 500%. This surge has drawn the attention of political, religious, civic and labor leaders who view this explosion as an opportunity for organizing. Among them: the National Association of Filipino American United Methodists (NAFAUM).

At a recent public forum, tribal leader Ron His Horse Thunder - in his keynote address for the Library of Congress’ celebration of Native American Heritage Month -questioned the belief that Americans are "one people with one culture." Native Americans, he said, are not part of America ‘s culture, as do many Americans who came to this country.

Citing stereotypes of Native Americans as sports mascots or Hollywood caricatures, the tribal chairman of the standing Rock Sioux Tribe argued that these distortions “reinforce the idea that we are a second class people." Images used to portray minorities as inferior beings are not respectful of who we really are, he adds.

My latest article talks briefly about my speech in one of my classes at Georgetown University on the "Surge of Troops in Iraq." While everyone does not share my position, I am compelled to lay down my argument for the sake of political discussion and literary style. Although it is not safe to say that Virginians want a new war strategy in Iraq but I am inclined to believe that even Republicans in Virginia themselves are getting uneasy with this multi-billion mess by the White House. I believe that it is neither “macaca” nor the “gender issue” that shaped and defined the recent election but the war in Iraq and mishandling of intelligence report by the Bush administration.

TRENTON, New Jersey- I’m sitting in front of the TV in my daughter’s living room, holding my 3-week old grand daughter, Maya. She’s been asleep since we got in after a 3-hour drive from Kensington. I was hoping she’d be wide awake and babbling by now. But I am reminded that at this age, babies just sleep and sleep and only wake up to feed. “So, don’t wake her up," I am sternly told by her grand mother. “And don’t kiss her on the face, just on the head and hands." I guess I’ll just have to wait.

Again.