My sister, Myrna de Vera, sent an announcement in Facebook that she had won the “Mother of the Year” Award. Curious, I clicked on the link — and was totally enthralled by the present being given to mothers worldwide.

See for yourself how Filipina moms were honored. Click here — and enjoy the positive power of media:

My own Facebook greeting was also tongue-in-cheek:

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers with biological children, adopted children, and would-have-had-children-but-made-the-worlds-children-their-children! Including the men who are “Mr. Mom!” Gotta be inclusive in my greeting!

I also received an email from the organizers of THE MOTHER OF THE YEAR AWARD.

From: Joan Blades, MomsRising for CNNBC
Date: Sat, May 9, 2009 at 9:53 AM
Subject: Making the day of millions of moms
To: Lorna Dietz

Thanks for sending the “Mother of the Year” video to some of your favorite moms. You’ve really been part of something big: already the the award video has been sent to more than 4,500,000 moms! And we still have today and tomorrow to get this video to millions more.

We’re setting a goal of sending this well-deserved award to an incredible ten million moms.

I’ll bet you know more moms who’d love to see themselves in this video. Or more friends who’d like to send it to moms they know. Can you send it on again? Just send on this email or go to:

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com

We’ve been flooded with notes about how much people love getting the award video. A mom wrote us to say, “I don’t know what was funnier, the newscast or my son repeatedly asking, ‘Is that real? Is it real?’ while I’m wiping tears from the corners of my eyes.” Another wrote, “I sent to my best friend. She’d had a breakdown on an L.A. highway and she said it made her horrible day GREAT.” One prominent blogger wrote, “Honestly, this video is beyond a home run. It is the first thing in a long time I’ve wanted to send to each and every person I know!”

And if you’ve run out of great moms to send this award video to, send this link along to friends who might not have heard about this yet, so they can make sure their moms and moms they know are honored on Mother’s Day.

It a win/win—make your friends and family laugh and blush while you help us grow this movement for moms and families.

Thanks so much,

–Joan, Kristin, Mary and the whole MomsRising team

Like what we’re doing? Your donations make the work of MomsRising.org possible—and we deeply appreciate your support. Every little bit counts. Donate today on our secure website:

http://www.momsrising.org/contribute/

I’m a guest of Rodel and Edna Rodis this week at their San Francisco home and at Rodel’s law offices. We’re busy preparing for the biennial gathering of Overseas Filipinos on October 9 to 11, 2009 in Cebu: the 6th Global Filipino Networking Convention. And yes, there will be a Filipina Women’s forum. All very exciting! Rodel is the founder of the Global Filipino Networking Convention (starting 2002). For the 6th Global, he is also the Organizing Committee’s chair.

Rodel Rodis was so disturbed by this CBS coverage that he decided to write about it for his “Telltale Signs” column, which appears at the Philippine News and is syndicated in several Filipino American publications.

Here is Rodel’s Telltale Signs column for this week.

When ABC presented a demeaning image of Philippine-trained doctors in a “Desperate Housewives” episode (September 30, 2007), the Filipino community erupted in outrage and demanded an apology. Because Filipinos rarely appear on national TV, it was feared that the offending episode would cause Americans to view their Philippine-educated physicians in a negative light. That ABC episode is peanuts in terms of image and consequence compared to the depiction of Filipinos that CBS presented on January 31, 2009 in its CBS 48 Hours Mystery episode of “Conspiracy to Kill”.

Continue reading at Telltale Signs.

Happy New Year! For my first posting of the year, I am featuring some of my beloved
Filipina friends from the Filipina Women’s Network’s 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the US. The honor of being selected as an influential Filipina also connotes a lot of responsibility, including mentoring another Filipina woman. A large-scale reunion, PINAY POWER 2012, is scheduled for October 2012.

Since this is a year-long project that involves a lot of logistics, we hope to finish the videos by October 2009, just in time for the next FWN Summit.

Let’s start with this video.

THELMA BOAC
Principal
Silver Creek High School, San Jose, California

When Thelma Boac started her new job as Principal of Silver Creek’s High School, I had the privilege of writing her profile for Manila Bulletin-USA. Click here to read the article.

Continue reading at my RadiantView.com.

This morning, barely a week before American citizens exercise their right to vote, I read the freshly-crafted e-mails that came from Pro-Obama and Pro-McCain supporters — especially the ones written by my Filipina friends, such as Teresa Dosdos Ruelas, a Founder and Visionary Editor of Offerings Publications, Inc., based in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. Teresa and I have been trying to reconnect face-to-face since we rediscovered each other’s presence a few years ago but it seems it is our online communications that keep allowing us to strengthen our relationship.

Today, with our permission, Teresa and I are reprinting our e-mail responses to each other at the Filipina Images advocacy blog and news portal and her Offerings Publications website to introduce our readers to each other, especially the worldwide Filipina women networks within our midst.

Welcome to Filipina Images, Teresa! We look forward to your contributions in helping us live our lives with purpose and passion.

THE E-MAIL THAT STARTED IT ALL

On 10/27/08 7:40 PM, Teresa Dosdos Ruelas’s friend wrote:

Dear friends,

Election in the USA is very crucial let us pray that McCain will win who is a pro-life advocator. My husband (name deleted), yesterday attended an archdiocesan meeting at the archbishop (residence) requesting for us all who have friends and relatives in the states not to vote for Obama who approves abortion and encourages gay relationship to be taught in schools. A bishop from the States have asked Cardinal (name deleted) to inform us all of the threat to our Catholic faith after the US election wherein our own families may be future victims of the downgrade of moral values. Take care and God bless!

(name of Teresa Dosdos Ruelas’s friend deleted)

REPLY FROM TERESA DOSDOS RUELAS

From: Teresa Ruelas
Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 7:50 AM
Subject: Re: election in the US

Dear (names deleted),

I have been wondering about the sentiments of the Filipinos in the US and at home during these elections. So, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. I can see how you would ‘vote’ and pray the way you would. And I hope you have it in your hearts to listen to a different point of view; that this is a forum for diversity of perspective and for stretching what we know and believe to be true.

I want to say here – with heartfelt respect to you and to the Catholic Church in the Philippines (I say “in the Philippines” as this is not necessarily the exact stand in other countries including the US) – that, whether you believe in pro-choice or pro-life, electing McCain is not your answer. There are people who hold both beliefs in both parties. It is more complex than that…and throwing “moral values” as the difference to vote for McCain is false….pro-choicers are not against the value of life no matter how others like to think it…. I know it makes the argument clean and easy to look to others who do not think like us and assume we know their values. The difference in this longtime and very touchy argument is in the understanding and belief of when life starts, and what we believe about death, and whether the quality of life of a being is put into consideration. It is not a difference of values.

(more…)