US celebrates its 229th anniversary
It was in 1763, according to official accounts of the independence struggle of the United States, that American colonists who were erstwhile loyal British subjects invoked the principles enunciated in the 13th century English document, the Magna Carta, that no one is above the law. In that year, when the English King began to assert his authority over the colonies to make them share the cost of the Seven Years’ War, England had just fought and won, the American colonists protested by invoking their rights as free men and loyal subjects. It was only after a decade of repeated efforts on the part of the colonists to defend their rights that they resorted to armed conflict and, eventually, separation from the motherland. From 1774 to 1789, the sole governing authority presiding over the tumultuous events of the American Revolution was a body known as Congress. Representing the thirteen colonies, Congress declared independence in 1776, conducted a war that defeated one of the greatest military powers of its day, and invented a new political entity – an incremental progressive democracy that subsequently became a sovereign independent nation. Today, this nation, the United States of America, serves not only as an exemplar of the continuous struggle for liberty and equality, as well as democracy; it has also become the chief purveyor and protector of such ideals. As the American nation celebrates its Independence Day today with traditional parades and other commemorative activities, we look back to that day in 1776 when the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence and triggered a movement for human emancipation that continues today. There was a time when July 4 used to be celebrated as Philippine Independence Day. The baby boomer generation clearly remembers this because they used to take part in the inevitable Independence Day parades when parades were still possible in urban areas. Independence Day was later moved, correctly, to June 12. But because the Philippines was not quite ready to divorce itself from " Mother " America, the date July 4 was retained as a holiday but renamed Fil-Am Friendship Day. As the years went on, and as with all relationships, the American connection cooled and thinned out, though it would be incorrect to say soured. Eventually, July 4 was no longer even considered a holiday. Today, Fil-Am Friendship has taken on new meanings, definitions and understandings that vary from person to person regardless of which side of the Pacific he or she may have first seen the light of a new life. Some may see it with derision, as in the beholding of a mail ordered bride and her stateside catch, pulling in tow the longest retinue of relations one can see on a given day at any American-inspired mall. Others may see it with inspiration, as in the blossoming of the biggest array of schools offering nursing courses full of Filipinos eager to join the 2,500 or so other Filipinos bolting the country for America and other destinations. Still others may see it with something tantalisingly close to the original relation born of a brotherhood of shared aspiration, as when American GIs teach our soldiers the modern art of warfare, and yet come away unknowingly from the experience without getting the feeling right. Congratulations to the government and people of the United States of America and their Embassy in the Philippines headed by Charg? d’Affaires, Joseph A. Mussomeli, on the occasion of their 229th anniversary.
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"US celebrates its 229th anniversary"