My wife finally became a US citizen a few months ago because it was important for her to participate in the 2008 elections. We had dutifully paid our taxes, employed 15 people, followed the law all those years but because we did not want to renounce our Filipino citizenship, a prerequisite to naturalization, we were disqualified from voting and running for public office.

All our children were born in the US and we are disturbed by the growing divisiveness in US society that is fuelling the power of the Republican right wing and securing their disproportionate voice in the formation of the national agenda.

Many Americans believe that the continuing occupation of Iraq is a favor to the Iraqi people. Many like to believe that it is worth the close to 4000 American lives to depose a tyrant like Saddam as long as they stop asking why the US allowed a dictator like the recently deceased Suharto to kill many many times more people to get away and die in peace.

Many Americans believe that the majority of illegal immigrants are freeloading off the system and taking away more than they are putting in. Many like to believe that jobs they consider beneath their station and dignity are better left unfilled; that these immigrants pay into plans like Medicare and social security even if they will never get anything from their contributions.

Many Americans believe that the US is a major contributor of aid to poorer countries. Many like to believe that the US is feeding the world for free and distributing free medications when in reality, the biggest beneficiaries are countries like Israel, Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan and these nations are forced to buy arms and ammunition with the “assistance” they receive. The US lags far behind Europe and Japan in terms of aid as a percentage of GDP.

Many Americans believe that the pursuit and attainment of happiness is their birthright. Many like to believe that irrespective of what situation you are emerging from, the playing field is level. You work hard and you bask in the rewards of your prodigious exertions. Never mind the weak, the defenseless, the poor and those simply shit out of luck. Less taxes, 0% down payment, max out the credit cards, take a third home equity loan--who is going to contract cancer anyway? Who is going to have an MI? The kids will turn out stronger individuals if they acquire and pay for their own educational loans. Life is too short and we need to gorge on whatever it has to offer.

If I could vote, I would vote for Hillary Clinton. My wife and I drove to Little Rock in 1990 when her husband was governor. We attended the inauguration of Bill Clinton in DC in 1993. I was so impressed with Hillary Clinton when she visited Brooklyn in 1994 when she was trying to pass revolutionary health care reform. That was when I realized that if you want to change a nation, you go by the political route. This is a woman who is extremely gifted and who is viscerally hated by many for reasons that are totally unfounded. Just stop for a moment and try to think of a single reason why she should deserve this hatred. And then ask why you would not hold other politicians to this same standard.

In 2004, shortly after reading “Dreams from My Father”, I remember telling my wife that it was time for us to return to the Philippines. It was a powerfully inspiring book from a State Senator from Illinois who had lost a congressional race. I am all for transformational change that my America badly needs but I know in my heart, as a minority, that the US electorate is not yet ready for a black man to become President. Many people will tell you they will vote for Obama but alone in the voting booth, a lifetime of conditioning will keep them from casting the right vote. John McCain would have made a good President in 2000 but his all-out support for the war in Iraq has sadly quashed his heroic qualities. We have had enough of these Republicans for now.

The wonderful aspect to all this is the excitement being generated by Obama’s candidacy. It will wake up the young people in the US and make them become more socially conscious. With the support of the Democratic heavyweights going to Obama, the primaries will cease becoming a coronation pageant. Hillary Clinton will have to work hard for the nomination but this is one reason why I have faith that my America will rouse from all this ennui resulting from the sub prime mortgage fiasco, the recession, the debilitating war, the intolerance: when America begins believing again in its fundamental character of faith, fair play and respect for the common good.

My youngest sister who is 14 years younger than I am got married last week. There is no better way to capture romance than poetry and nobody could write about love better than Yeats. “Brown Penny” was made famous by the recitation of Christopher Plummer in the film “Must Love Dogs”.

I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

We grow old and I think I’ve featured “When You are Old and Gray” in an earlier post, but here’s another favorite, “The Song of Wandering Aengus”. You want poetry of the highest quality?

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

My friend and classmate in Albany, NY emailed our high school egroup asking for assistance. Seems that it is a big tradition in his son’s school to hold declamation contests. Last year, his son Xavier recited the soliloquy from Julius Caesar beginning with “O Pardon me Thou Bleeding Piece of Earth”.

I suggested Henry V’s stirring speech in the Battle of Agincourt to rouse his outnumbered, dysentery-racked troops fighting in France facing annihilation (even if after 600 years it was established that Shakespeare made full use of his poetic license to exaggerate the odds a bit).

This speech is a favorite of mine because it is so romantic in proposing the idea that even a grand design, like retaking an entire country need not require the cooperation of the majority. All it takes is a tight committed group of people fighting for the honor of defending their nation.

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING. What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

About the time Magellan washed up our shores, Daidoji Yuzan wrote: “one who is samurai must, before all things, keep constantly in mind, by day and by night…..that he has to die”. Masaharu Homma was born in 1888, 11 years after the leader of the unsuccessful Satsuma Rebellion, Saigo Takamori, among the last of the samurai committed seppuku. Homma wanted to become a writer but was drawn by the “pitch of patriotism” brought about by the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. He enrolled at the Military Academy and graduated at the top of his class.

He was sent as a military attaché to Britain, at that time an ally, and learned English. He was able to travel extensively around Europe. As a major, he lived for three years in India which he described as “the most fascinating country in the world”.

Despite his vast differences with the increasingly militaristic ideology pervading in Japan, Homma rose to become a general, assigned to various commands in China. In November of 1941 he was given a few weeks to prepare for the invasion of the Philippines. Homma wrote “War against the USA would be a disaster, I knew, but I could not show any feeling in it, as … I would have been called a traitor”.

He was the commanding general who handed the Americans their largest surrender since Appomattox and dealt our favorite General Douglas MacArthur, the Hero of the Philippines with the worst defeat in his illustrious career. Ironically, Homma was retired in 1943 because he was deemed too lenient with the Filipinos and not aggressive enough in warfare. He spent the remainder of the war in Japan until he was extradited to Manila in 1945 by the victorious American forces. There was an International Tribunal in place in Tokyo but MacArthur insisted he was running the whole show.

The trial lasted three months. It took place in what is now the American Embassy. While vigorously denying that he had knowledge of the atrocities that were committed during the Bataan Death March, the outcome of the trial was never in doubt. Homma was executed by musketry in Los Banos on April 3, 1946.

Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy who had served as Philippine High Commissioner wrote a critical dissent that was also prophetic: “this nation’s very honor is at stake. Either we conduct such a trial as this in the spirit and atmosphere of our Constitution or we abandon all pretense to justice, let the ages slip away and descend to the level of revengeful blood purges. Apparently the die has been cast in favor of the latter course. Tomorrow the precedent here established can be turned against others… . No one can foresee the end of this failure of objective thinking and adherence to our high hopes of a new world… . A nation must not perish because, in the natural frenzy of the aftermath of war, it abandoned its central theme of the dignity of the human personality and due process of law.”

Homma spent a little over a year in the Philippines. He observed: “Filipinos needed more vocational education, more social efficiency, more sense of duty and obligation.” Homma could not understand why Filipinos were so loyal to their American masters from an altogether different continent and culture. He should have considered the fact that until that time, whatever “Filipino culture” consisted of shared experiences less than 100 years old. The Japanese had had it going for 5000 years already. Obviously, we have much to learn from Japanese culture. Jose Rizal broached the idea of founding an educational institution in Japan for the express purpose of training Filipino youth.

Zen stands for “good” in Japanese. Kaizen means “change for the better”. It has been the system employed by Toyota Motors as a method of continuously improving production by encouraging all stakeholders of the company to experiment with subtle adjustments in order to minimize waste, defined as any activity that adds cost without increasing value. Methods which have been proven to enhance productivity are subsequently standardized.

Kaizen was institutionalized early on at Toyota and is responsible for the culture of disparate stakeholders getting together to continuously generate small improvements towards the unattainable goal of perfection. It helps explain how a large group of people can engage in seemingly monotonous labor for long periods and still achieve progressive growth.

Kaizen is not simply results-oriented. It continuously examines the various processes that produces results. In evaluating these processes it employs a constructive, non-blaming technique (blaming does not add value and is wasteful) and emphasizes systemic thinking, looking at the big picture in order to avoid problems down the line.

We must be able to study different models that are effective in enhancing productivity. This definition of insanity is attributed to Einstein: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Our country urgently needs to change for the better.