The Awakening
Who I am is not too important, as leaders and personalities come and go in the blink of an eye. What is important is the message I have to deliver.
However, in the “tradition” of one of our weaknesses (Regionalism), I must give some information regarding my background. After all, as a Filipino…It is custom to be asked, “Where are you from?” right?
My background is unique (though not special) – an indirect result of the Mass Exodus from our motherland.
I was born in Salt Lake City Utah, raised in Sacramento California. I am currently active duty U.S. Military (Navy Chief). I have visited many countries and sailed almost every sea, and my time in the Navy is coming to an end as I will be retiring this October 28th, 2010.
I am a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom Philippines and have spent many months in places like Mindanao, Jolo, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Sitankai, Sibutu, Turtle Island, and Cebu. I spent months hearing every Filipino dialect except Tagalog.These are the places where my “re-connection” with the Philippines was established.
I am not sure if any of you have heard of my website (as it is fairly new), but the response has been so overwhelming that within just 3 days of going online, I have had to switch from shared servers to dedicated servers. My time spent online has increased from a couple hours a day up to as much as 18 hours a day. I have taken this technological growing pain as a blessing in disguise. It means that Filipinos worldwide are looking for a productive way to direct their love, anger, concerns, and more importantly – Their Actions.
The Universal Filipino dream of being heard as One Voice and as One People is clear. The message and dream is not only mine. The message appears everywhere… from literature to art. The dream lies in our history as well. Go ahead and search Google for keywords “One Filipino” and see for yourself.
As I end my military service, I give myself to service again – except this time in a different arena. I do not wish to hold on to this “bowl of rice” forever. This movement is much too big for me to handle alone. (Besides, the average person only lives 20,000 days.) My interest in maintaining contact with you, the Filipino, is simple:
There is STRENGTH in NUMBERS.
I am but a small part of an even bigger interconnected online community numbering in the upwards of 4 million Filipinos (and growing).
Don’t just Join the We Are One Filipino Facebook Fan Page…Enroll your hearts! You can “like” us on Facebook all day long, but the real measure of our success will only come with organization, well thought out plans, followed by action!
The first step is to be informed.
Visit the “enroll” page of www.WeAreOneFilipino.com and join the movement.
It is time to regroup and organize on a massive scale. The WAOF concept is based on the premise that Filipino networks already exist. WAOF merely provides the means to connect the networks under One Filipino.
The pooling of ALL our resources can (and will) accomplish anything.
The “awakening” is here.
United We Stand. Divided We Fall.
Frederick Aguinaldo “El Jefe”
www.WeAreOneFilipino.com
WebMaster@WeAreOneFilipino.com
