Far From Neutral Notions - Philippine politics, culture and stuff

I consider FrancisM a patriot, if for no other reason than this: he sang songs that inspired me to love my country more. One of the first songs that truly moved me — and it’s all the more significant because he was rapping, and I don’t do hiphop — was his Three Stars and a Sun, off, I think, his Freeman record, and the first few lines went something like this:

Three stars and a sun, in one sky, so high,
I live and die and die will I for my
Motherland [...]

I think he did. Rest, free man. And God speed.

Corazon C. Aquino, February 25, 1986:

At last, we are home. Let us remember the day, February 25, 1986; the time, nine in the evening; he occasion, the coming of freedom.

Freedom from twenty years of dictatorship, twenty years of oppression, hardship, repression, injustice, corruption, greed, waste and near despair — ended. Ended by a revolution of peace, prayers, Rosaries, radios, and above all, raw human courage.

It is true: the Filipino is brave, the Filipino is honourable, the Filipino is great.

I have never felt prouder to be a Filipino. I am sure I share this feeling with millions of Filipinos. I am told that in other cities, when they learn that you are a Filipino, they shake your hand and praise the nobility of your race. In the streets of New York, I am told that Filipinos are being stopped and congratulated for moral courage as a people. The Filipino stands proud before the whole world.

What a difference a couple of decades make.