| modern poets don't sing--we scream, and rant, and rave that freedom tastes sweeter than rhyme (better for you too). supersized america--the more you buy the more you save like a chinese waiter with menu, pages one hundred and two. how to decide between the duck eggrolls that you crave or the fiery, if not quite szechuan, fried platter of pu-pu... why can't mr and mrs u.s. have it all brought on the back of a truck? and if hunter gatherer can't fit in cave--there's always tummy-tuck. |
 |
| The Ficklepines Admiral Dewey Famous Laxatives Fire When Ready, Gridley |
| Kidapawan, Philippines Gridley died. That took some doing in the Battle of Manila, the 1898 version of the Harlem Globetrotters against the New York Nationals. The Spanish fleet was completely destroyed while the Americans celebrated almost unscathed. Except for poor Gridley and seven other U.S. sailors unable to dance or sing again. Dewey was greeted on his return to New York by millions as the first hero of our new colonial era. He ran for President under the slogan, "Since I have studied this I am convinced that the office of President is not such a difficult one to fill." Kids bought "Dewey's Chewies" bubblegum and "Salt of the Old Salt" laxatives. The U.S. did not relinquish the Islands to the natives that lived there after defeating the Spanish, who had ruled over them for over three centuries. Lafayette helped the American Revolution finally overcome the British, but he sailed back to France when the deed was done. The U.S. betrayed the Filipino independence forces in a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. It took the Japanese to give the Americans the boot forty-one years after Dewey arrived. Are the Filipinos angry with that history, burning for revenge against their Yankee oppressors? Are they throwing bombs at American embassies, burning the Stars 'n Stripes, kidnapping every white tourist or businessman they can find? It is exactly the opposite. This is a country whose love affair has grown so hot since the last world war that fathers, cousins, uncles, sisters are volunteering their young female relatives to get married to even the most hapless American--that screams "hey joe" to palefaces walking the streets--a land flying the american flag from the sides of jeeneys, blasting rock 'n roll from karaoke bars, surrounding me with the most all-embracing smiles, young girls giggling and calling me "guwapo" (handsome) on the streets, strangers taking me constantly into their nipa huts for bangus fish and the most intimate conversations ("are you married, how old are you, why aren't you married"). It is incredible. Sometimes I want to grab them and yell, "haven't you heard? I come from a very, very bad people who has not only sinned against your most hospitable nation but against half the world, for money and greed! I can't help being tainted too. Wake up!" Even if I did, and I did (once), they still keep on smiling, a big brown and white grin. And this is the land that about which the State Department say, "U.S. citizens are urged to defer non-emergency travel to the island of Mindanao " The Filipinos love for us is unrecquited. |
 |
 |
 |