Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal

Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal As the Knights of Rizal, you people should have already settled the issue of the Rizal retraction scandal. The shameful damaging controversy has been going on for more than 111 years now. Rizal was condemned to death as an infidel. He was framed with the crime of rebellion to kill him for brilliantly attacking the Catholic establishment as even the 2005 published Opus Dei book admits. Down Through the years, you Knights of Rizal, historians, biographers, and even a famous lady columnist wrote that it does not matter whether Rizal retracted or not because it is a non-issue. I ask: are you people really that frightened of the truth? And to think that some of you are lawyers by profession. You were trained in the art of cross-examination precisely to ferret out the truth. When has the truth ever been a non-issue in human tragedy? We Filipinos have yet to acknowledge that our hero, Rizal, died truthful to his principles and humanitarian ideals. Indeed, he met his death intellectually sober and not drunk with religious lies. Clearly, the Catholic church in authority found it necessary to put Rizal to death. After all, it is easier to destroy the reputation of a dead man than it is to destroy his truthful writings, especially if he remains alive doing more truthful writings. Rizal advocated the rational way of life and he therefore got to be the notorious enemy of Catholicism. Rizal wanted us to grow up and to stop living in fear and in guilt. Moreover, to stop wasting our time falling on our knees praying daily to a Supreme Being out there to give us this day our daily bread and to lead us not into temptation down here. The Catholic could never allow Rizal’s teachings to revolutionize the Filipino way of thinking: it is always better to think than it is to believe. Unfortunately, faith condemns people not to think. And sadly, with faith, millions believe that Rizal died as a penitent Catholic totally rejecting Rizal‘s message: “Be careful, choose well, for this world is full of deceits and deceivers.” And to think that after he was executed Rizal was not even granted a Catholic burial. It only proves that the Rizal retraction story was pure gimcrackery. It was concocted by the priesthood industry to protect the Catholic church with its vested interest in human misery. In this 21st century, we poor Filipinos are still searching for our identity and prosperity and social sanity which Rizal struggled and gave his precious life for. Oh, you Knights of Rizal, wake up! Rizal is still a vague hero to millions of Filipinos! Only the few know Rizal as a brilliant thinker who was executed for being too brilliant a thinker who catered not to the authority of the church, but served instead his people and the future welfare of his own country! Indeed, thanks to the courage of great thinkers in the stature of a Rizal, the Catholic church today is tearing itself apart externally as it is collapsing internally. I accuse you Knights of Rizal of both errancy and complicity in the second assassination of Rizal’s character and reputation. It is worthless to ignore those who maliciously invented Rizal’s retraction document hours before he was executed. It is more crucial to defend Rizal’s loyalty to veracity, profound sense of common human decency, and unquestionable level of scientific honesty. If we, the Filipino people, continue to suffer under the failure of our social values and religious beliefs, it is simply due to the historical success of Catholicism in the Philippines. Indeed, as products of our Catholic schools, colleges, and universities we have yet to be taught how to emulate our great hero - the rare and brave thinking Filipino that he was - who struggled against those made wealth, power, and glory selling nothing but the gospel of sacred lies and biblical falsehoods in this country since the 16th century. Gentlemen, our chief hero was put to death for being humanistic, scientific, and a heretic. Indeed, the same Rizal, the sane and rational man that he was, with dignity and self-respect - refused to fall on his knees in blind obedience to anything fantastic be it ecclesiastic, apostolic, pontific, or even theologic. Yours in Rizal, Poch Suzara

The Truth Hurts

The Truth hurts. The most stupid thing, however, is when one prefers getting hurt like a coward than facing the truth with courage. Poch Suzara

Senate Minority Leader

Aquilino Pimentel Jr. cautioned the executive branch of government against pressuring the Court of Appeals on the US Marine rapist custody issue.
Pimentel said the Philippine government was “well within its right” to voice its position on the case in view of the cancellation of the Balikatan 2007. But he said the issue “should be taken within the ambit of the case,” now pending before the court.
To allow the executive branch to bamboozle the court, that is something else,” the Senator told the Daily Inquirer.
Pimentel also advised the appellate court not to yield to “external pressure” and “to decide on the case on its legal merits.” “Only in that way will the issue be laid to rest,” he said, adding:
“Like extrajudicial killings, extrajudicial pressure is divisive.” Pimental also said the Philippine government had no reason to complain if the US government cancelled the war games and, eventually, stopped giving aid to the country.
“If the United States, the only superpower in the world, believes that the Balikatan exercises are not that vital for its security and ours, who are we to complain?” he said.
For my part, I admire Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. He is a rare Filipino politician in the Philippine government. He has not only the intellect but also the courage to assert self-respect and dignity for his people where a US Marine rapist and his spiritual adviser – Fr. James Reuter have only made a mockery of the status of the women citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.
In the meantime, we have yet to hear from the Visiting Forces Agreement Commanders on the US military proceedings to discharge dishonorably that criminal who raped Nicole in her own land. And to think that the job of the US Marines is to protect and defend those who are unable to defend and protect themselves. Poch Suzara

The Iraqi War

The Iraqi war has done much damage to the capability of the US military. The US government has been spending $9 billion a month and have spent over $300 billion total on this war thus far. The potential antagonists of the USA, including Iran, North Korea, Russia and China, “want and need America in Iraq” because the war is “depleting American financial and human resources.” Imagine $300 Billion dollars. Imagine what that money can do to rebuild communities that have been falling apart in American cities since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.
Imagine $300 Billion dollars wasted on war and not for peace and global stability. That kind of money can tremendously help America catch up with other advanced European nations, not to mention Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, Australia, and Canada ahead in: adult literacy, health care quality, student reading ability, student mathematics ability, student science ability, women’s rights, infant mortality rate, life expectancy, qualify of life survey, overall currency strength, human development index. In brief, ahead in social and political and economic sanity.
For my part, as an American citizen, I no longer feel free or even proud singing: God Bless America! Poch Suzara

If Atheism were a Religion

If atheism were a religion, then it is the oldest of all religions. Consider the angels who rebelled against God in heaven eons ago even before the days of Adam and Eve on earth. Those angels did not follow God. They did not believe in God. They were atheists, weren’t they? If God, however, was really all that great, all that fair and wonderful, and all that lovable – why would any of his angels in heaven and men on earth disobey or rebel against him? It makes no supernatural sense at all! Poch Suzara

Poor Philippines

We are such a poor country. We neither have a history nor a culture or values to live by. We do not even have national heroes to emulate. Our national heroes have turned out to be not heroes but faithful believers. Before they died or were executed, according to our priests and nuns, they retracted while embracing the teachings of the Catholic Church. One such great Filipino was Jose Rizal. He is now more of a saint of God than he is a hero of the Filipino people. Thus, in this only Christian country in Asia, we continue to experience poverty of the worse kind – the poverty of the mind and heart. We have no great leaders, and no great heroes. We have more bishops down here and more saints up there to love, worship, and adore. In fact, we Filipinos love only Mary, the Virgin Mother of God more than we love our own mother because our mothers have lost their virginity to our fathers. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

According to Science

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies all were made in the interior of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.
God did not create the universe. To begin with, the creation of the universe is beyond the scope of human understanding. We created God to justify our ignorance and fear. We even made such jusification appear like it is something unquestionably sacred, if not biblically holy. Poch Suzara

Bishop Oscar Cruz

The famous Nicole Rape case got her US Marine rapist sentenced to 40 years in jail. (PDI December 8,2006). Bishop Oscar Cruz stated: “Women, most especially, should be taught that womanhood is precious and noble, so it is not right for them to be flaunting it around . . . they should not make themselves appear cheap and practically inviting to be violated by men.” Wow! One can imagine during her days just how sexually attractive must have been the Virgin Mary flaunting her carnal desires all over the place. God almighty existing here, existing there, and existing everywhere, could not control himself. He was seduced and aroused. He got Mary deflowered and impregnated her with a baby. We do, however, have to give God some credit. He wasn’t really all that sexually reckless. He was responsible enough to practiced family planning and birth control. He had begotten only one Son, didn’t He? Poch Suzara

You are an Atheist too

You say I am an atheist because I do not believe in the existence of your God. Well, you are an atheist too because you do not believe in the existence of my God. Now, who gave you the right to define for me which God I should believe in? In the meantime, if your God were always omni-absent as a nothing, never omni-present as a something, what does it really matter whether I believe or do not believe in the existence of such a supernatural nothing? Poch Suzara

Fr. James Reuter and Our Women

Fr. James Reuter, the spiritual adviser of the American Marines in the Philippines, keeps insisting that Nicole’s US Marine rapist had been innocent all along. It was a matter of consensual sex. Our women, he says, are always flaunting carnal desires each time men are around, especially wearing military uniform.
May I suggest to Fr. Reuter that he attend to more serious troubles of the Catholic Church? More than 75 per cent of all Catholic priests worldwide are gays. These spiritually starved men of the Lord are not only sexually active, they also victimize young boys and girls who have no knowledge of what consensual sex means. Fr. James Reuter, isn’t time for you to enrich the spiritual life of the US marines visiting the Philippines? Golly, if they are here to train the Filipino to kill fellow-Filipinos more efficiently with weapons MADE IN AMERICA, they are here to insult our women! Poch Suzara

How the Gods Bless America

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. In the sick and destructive American society, however, even the gods envy the sick politicians in charge of the US government. They are very efficient at being mad at each other. Even the gods envy the way these filthy-rich morons otherwise more known as Republicans or Democrats have been destroying America - a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. Poch Suzara

Ignorance

We wonder at the ignorance of our grandparents and great-grandparents of things so plain and simple. Well, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will wonder too at our own ignorance of things so plain and simple. This, in brief, is the evolution of knowledge via the results of the never-ending search of the truth.
To think that in this generation, we, the religiously dumbstruck, do not wonder also what those ignorant and superstitious primitives recorded in the silly bible more than 2,000 years or 80 generations ago. Golly, a great many believers do not even bother to read the bible. We atheists do read the bible and have already submitted reports to the theists about incredible bible contents. Poch Suzara

Tree of Genesis

There is written in Genesis about the existence of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Notice the billions of trees existing everywhere on this earth. Except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. No one knows where that fantastic Tree is located today. Oh well, according to the same bible, God himself was once a Burning Bush. That Burning Bush, however, has not totally vanished. It evolved and got to be elected president of the United States of America. Poch Suzara

Silly Theologians

The theologians are getting sillier. They are now declaring that atheists too can go to heaven. Excuse me! We atheists don’t care to go to heaven. We do not care to go anywhere after we are dead. We atheists are quite familiar with the silly concept of immortality: it is the condition of a dead man who refuses to believe that he is already dead! Golly, with theologians around, isn’t enough to be fools in this life? Must we also be fools in the next life? And to think there isn’t even any! Poch Suzara

Worthless La Salle Education

In this 21st century, I am not surprised to receive childish, if not infantile email messages from grown-up men and women. Especially from those who have had the benefit of college education in the Philippines or even in the United States. Each time, however, I receive meaningless messages from such college educated individuals, I can’t help but be proud of the fact that some 65 years ago, I managed, somehow, to get myself expelled out of La Salle high school. As a high-school expelled student, I think then as I still do think today that a college education in this country or in the USA represent something like that of a Cathedral: it is a monument to human stupidity. Look at the stupid mess of our world getting messier with each passing year. Look at the world leaders who are all proud of their college education. To think as faithful believers in God and His son Jesus these are the leaders of our rotten and corrupt and insane world. Poch Suzara Twitter# facebook# Google#

Weekdays and Sundays

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – I am an agnostic. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – I am an atheist. Now what about Sundays? Well, on Sundays, I am a heretic in the morning; an infidel in the afternoon; and, an unbeliever of the faith in the evening. During the 365 days or twelve months of the year, however, I am a devout humanist. I am always on the side of the human race. I have made it into a habit to struggle daily against the evils of divine disgrace. Poch Suzara

Painful

It is, indeed, painful for me to see the lives of many individuals largely determined not by what is in between their ears, but by what is in between their legs. Devoid of intellect, they fail to see the values of developing the human mind with knowledge and cultivating the human heart with wisdom. Most of these individuals, many of whom are college-educated friends and relatives, would rather enjoy first sexual orgasm. They belittle knowledge, as if it were a sin or a crime to experience intellectual protoplasm. They do not want to know. They only want to believe. In the meantime, there is far more beauty in thinking before believing than there is value in believing without thinking. Poch Suzara

Domestics

“More than 70,000 Filipinos live and work in oil-rich Kuwait, many of them domestics.” Manila Standard Today, Dec. 25, 2006.
Kuwait is not a Christian country. The Kuwaitis are Muslims. They do not believe in the holy bible. They have their own holy Quran – the Word of Allah. And to think the teachers and professors of our schools, colleges, and universities are so proud of each other. Most of the domestic helpers in Kuwait are college-educated men and women from the Philippines.
In the meantime, more than 15 million Filipinos today are living and working in some 150 countries around the world. The officials of our government are so proud of each other as these Overseas Contract Workers remit more than $10 Billion dollars back home yearly to help keep afloat the sinking economy of the Philippines. Indeed, the failure of our values under the Success of Christianity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

People Who love People

‘People who love people are the luckiest people in the world.’ Unfortunately, people cannot love people unless they love first and foremost - themselves. In America, we do not love each other as a people. We love only the almighty dollar and our government sees to it that we also love our guns, bullets, and bombs. Why not? More people throughout the world hate us more than they love us. It is called terrorism and we have to defend ourselves. Poch Suzara

More Hate in America

Here is a great example of more hate in America. In the History of Jim Crow, author Jerold M. Packard wrote: “Though for decades white supremacists would defend lynching as a safeguard against unpunished rape of white women by black men, rape was not in reality the usual motivation for the lynching. Of the 3,811 African-American men lynched between 1889 and 1941, no more than 641 – 17 per cent – had actually been accused of rape, either attempted or committed. Numerically, other offenses vastly outranked rape. Some of the imagined or real transgressions by African-Americans ending in lynching included attempts to sue a white employer, demanding to be allowed to vote, participating in union activities, exhibiting disrespect to a white or disputing a white, or simply for no reason that ever came to light – the latter perhaps a case of “sassing” or giving a white a “fresh” look (what was in the South sometimes called “reckless eyeballing”) or, most shocking of all, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when an “example” was thought by murderous whites to be needed to keep a black community in its “place.” Furthermore, it wasn’t only black males who were lynched. Most black women were murdered, too, including Mary Turner, who was killed by a mob in Chicago while nearly at the point of giving birth to her child, her killers hanging her and setting her body ablaze because she had threatened to disclose the names of the men who had earlier lynched her husband.”
Such is hate in America – the land of the free and the home of the brave. Poch Suzara