Let us reappraise ourselves by Felix B Bautista?

"LET US REAPPRAISE OURSELVES!"

By Felix B. Bautista

Let us face it. We are rapidly developing into a nation of Brown American. We are frantically, hysterically, trying to act and look, to think and dress like Americans. We believe in the American dream, we long for the American way of life. And we are turning our backs on the Filipino vision. We are rejecting our Filipino heritage.

We have become so obsessed with Americanism. We have grown deeply infatuated with things state sides, that we have forgotten that we are Filipinos. We pay several pesos for a pair of American shoes and we sniff contemptuously at the suggestion that, for a third of this amount we can buy a pair as stylish, just as durable from Marikina.

It isn't just the men who are guilty of this alone. The girls are just as bad. They have become so ashamed of their brown complexion that they go to a beauty parlor so their skin maybe bleached several shades whiter. They mangle their hair, twist it this way and that, all because a hairdresser in New York decrees it is the thing to do.

But don't get me wrong, I have nothing against America. I think it is wonderful, a great country. I think we can profit enormously from many things American. We can use American hustle, American ingenuity, and American efficiency. We can benefit a lot from American know-how and American production methods. We have a lot to learn from America, and we are learning fast. Unfortunately, we seem to be learning the wrong things, the undesirable things. We have absorbed the American's love for luxuries, for comports. We have adopted American materialism. We have been contaminated by the American pre-occupation of pursuing the almighty dollar.

I repeat, I have nothing against America and I do not advocate, like so many super-patriots, the complete severance of our ties with America. But I advocate reappraisal, a general overhauling of our attitudes, our perspectives. I do advocate a near selectiveness, a more discriminating choice in the things we wish to borrow from Americans. I am all for borrowing the Americans' independence of spirit, but not if it means the breaking up of the traditional closeness of the Filipino family life. I am all for achieving the American's high standard of living, but not if it means the surrendering of our spirituality, our simplicity and our decency.

This is the complete speech!!

By: steelman_54@Yahoo.com

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