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.

As to gay rights, again, it is not a simple issue….one that needs honest, open-hearted conversation and collective reflection. Do please at the very least check your facts about “encouraging gay relationship to be taught in schools”. This is false. Be careful where you are getting your information from…as these are indeed crucial times with important decisions to make…and we need to make them based on truth, not hyperbole or downright falsehoods. You may be listening to channels built on lies and negativism just to win their case. Did you not see the debate in which Obama said in public that he himself is not for gay marriage? What Obama does stand for is the right of people with different religions (yes, we are not all Christians in this country and world…a good thing because, guess what, “they” are moral people, too, who do care about life and people and the planet) to choose and be protected in their choice.

Choosing McCain based on this real difference of thinking is also avoiding other real issues that are going on. There are other life-crucial issues that also impact how we value life — hard issues like seeing war as the answer to conflict – at the risk and loss of millions MILLIONS of innocent lives of women and children – even if they are based on false data (WHERE are the weapons of mass destruction?!!), greed, arrogance in their superiority, lies to prove their cause, false negativism, not wanting to talk, only looking out for individual self-interest and not concerned about the other countries in the world. These are life-destructive, too….and it is widespread and going unchecked.

The biggest threat to all our lives is the close-mindedness, the hate and the fear that McCain and Palin are building their campaign and politics upon. The unwillingness to have conversations and truly partner across the differences. The intolerance for diverse peoples and opinions. The stirring up of hateful comments such as “Kill Obama!” in their audiences without a word from either McCain or Palin to denounce such behavior. The prejudice against people of a different color. Denying women’s rights for equal pay. These are the real and ongoing life-killing issues.

I might suggest we pray for more open-minded, open-hearted and peaceful listening, dialogue and a greater truth that is good for the whole and pray that the person and collective who can help us journey there wins.

While on this topic, if there is one thing we can do for ourselves and for our country and world is to check ourselves for our prejudices – against non-Catholics and against blacks (as one of my Titas wisely said, “murag sad ta ug puti!”), etc. [Lorna's translation: "As if we're white people, too!"] See if there is room in our hearts to listen again, with compassion, and to have real and open and reflective dialogue in which we are willing to challenge our “certainty about what we know” with more room to be changed and to grow in wisdom and in a greater love. In such a conversation, I will join you there.

Finally, speaking of more forums for open conversations, there is a blog in our website on Women & Politics: A New Conversation. Here we reveal to ourselves how we think — not to prove we are right or to defend — but to offer it up for us to have a chance to learn more, be more enlightened, be more compassionate, more evolved so we reach a more peaceful, compassionate, and a greater collective wisdom. Here we ask the questions of our lives. Join us. www.offeringspublications.com/blogs I am also co-hosting in a blogtalkradio show called The Conversation Campaign to explore and have conversations as if our lives depended on them. If you’re interested in listening in and in sharing your thoughts and questions – with a willingness for new insight, learning and greater compassion – we can find together the new collective wisdom that serves the greater good. Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/The-Light-Show. You can listen to what’s going on “anonymously”, but if you want to say something or ask a question, you’ll need to sign up (for free and you can use a different “display name” if you feel uncomfortable using your real name) to get into the Chat Room and share your thoughts. We welcome all points of view, if offered with openness of mind and heart, and a willingness to be touched, moved, thinking anew….and unlike the TV stations, you will not be attacked or made to feel small or wrong….and you will be challenged and stretched. We are on every Tuesday and Thursday from 5-6pm PST.

With love and respect,
Teresa (Dosdos) Ruelas

REPLY FROM LORNA DIETZ

From: Lorna Lardizabal-Dietz
Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: election in the US
To: Teresa Ruelas

Dearest Teresa:

I commend you on opening up a sensitive topic re: the elections next week. You have respectfully and truthfully opened a space for people to look into this matter more closely, more inquisitively, and to keep questioning…

Two weeks ago, I was visiting my sister in a city in the East Bay — where I attended a mass in the next city. Inside the church’s newsletter, I noticed that the Knights of Columbus had aggressively campaigned for “YES on Proposition 8″ (in common language, disallowing gay marriage) in California. I asked one of the proponents after the mass how the Catholic Church could get away with campaigning within church walls when there is supposed to be a separation of church and state when it comes to political matters — and as far as I’m aware of, politicians and community advocates for all issues cannot use the Catholic Church as a promotional venue. The priest, during his sermon, didn’t say “Vote YES on Prop 8!” but had counselled the churchgoers to vote wisely. Anyway, the proponent explained to me that as long as it was a community group that propagated its truth, not the church, they were ok. I was chagrined because I am an advocate of “NO to Prop 8!” — understanding that this issue wasn’t taken lightly in the legislative process.

Marriage, if we look back into the Roman Empire’s history, was most likely instituted to bring about order in a chaotic melange of polygamous liaisons, with the men not knowing which children they sired. Whether bringing a man and a woman together was a spiritual union or not, this really wasn’t what marriage was all about. It all had to do with estate planning. Of course, this is one perspective that I’ve learned through the years.

Never in the my lifetime has the election fever hit many of the American citizens with passion and determination. It is a good thing. Civic engagement, not apathy, is the “high” many people in my sphere of influence experience. In my own capacity as a regional officer for a political empowerment organization for Filipinos in America (non-partisan), I have participated in and contributed to a “consciousness building” process among our Fil-Am Communities (and now, Europe). Perhaps I would never have opened my eyes to all perspectives and possibilities if it weren’t for my meditation guide’s life-changing interactions with me (yes, a Filipino American who studied with His Holiness The Dalai Lama’s spiritual teachers in Dharamsala, India, for over five years) many years ago. In other words, as Krishnamurti (the great Indian thought leader), would say:

“We choose our leaders, political or spiritual, out of our own confusion, and so they also are confused. We demand to be coaxed and comforted, to be encouraged and gratified, so we choose a teacher who will give us what we crave for. We do not search out reality, but go after gratification and sensation.”

I realize that this is a very provocative quote that I chose — but I ask you to keep questioning and questioning whatever goes on around you — and not take everything people say as THE WORD.

Teresa’s invitation for all of us to be more inclusive — when we talk about people — needs to be taken seriously. Racism and gender inequality suck! While many of our brothers and sisters in the Philippines believe in the Judeo-Christian teachings, I perceive that many of them think that THEY are the only ones who are entitled to happiness on this earth. The example of the “split” between Couples for Christ and the social movement, Gawad Kalinga, is something one needs to examine. GK seems more inclusive — that is — it is action-oriented in terms of bringing a sense of belonging and happiness to people through “building homes” — and it’s about propagating the faith in a more inclusive level.

I have carefully listened to all the pros and cons about who will make the better president in the US. Whoever I feel will bring about peace and positive change without excluding anyone who is NON-Christian is going to be someone I will vote for.

And my community service work continues — and really, it is work wherein I don’t get to be the superstar or celebrity but rather, a facilitator of conversations just like Teresa. I am very busy trying to get my friends get elected. So, if by chance, you feel the same way as I do, help these friends of mine get elected. They have worked so hard in building and rebuilding their communities that they deserve to be on that decision-making table. It’s not only about who becomes the next president of the US. It’s also about making sure that the leadership funnel is continually being filled up so that leadership succession is ensured.

Just my two cents! I can’t wait to listen in to Teresa’s blog in her website, OfferingsPublications.com/blogs, about Women and Politics: A New Conversation.

One day, I shared with my sister (who is a politician) my definition of POLITICS: “It’s about people seeking to improve human relations.”

And so it is.

May you have your best week ever in light and love,

Lorna
www.RadiantView.com

Tags: Offerings Publications, Teresa Dosdos Ruelas, US Elections

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