If I sit down and really think about life, taking everything into consideration, and comparing mine to those of others, I am pretty proud of myself. I am proud of just surviving and achieving to the extent that I have. Really, I have had a lot of strikes against me, reasons and circumstances that impeded my progress in life. Some of them include being born premature, having a single parent, being an only child, having an incredible small family, near-death experiences, having an older parent, growing up in a low-income community, taking care of a dying mother, taking are of a dying grandmother, being financially responsible for an uncle and a cousin, being short, fat, and some could argue ugly, being too giving to a fault, among others that will probably come to mind later on.

I still have goals that I haven't met and dreams that I haven't even started on. Some seem impossible for me to meet. Still I strive. So when times get tough, and they will, we just have to keep going. After all, we have a mission to accomplish while we are here.

An article in the Los Angeles Times that came out on June 3, 2006 was entitled "Startling Statistic at UCLA." Basically, it reports that of 4,852 students accepted as freshmen into UCLA this year, only 96 of them are African American. Is this the feared result of Proposition 209, which made Affirmative Action illegal in California? Oh, and if we want to cite institutional discrimination, we only need to look closer at the number of African American students that are athletes. That number would be 20.

Of course, once again, the Filipino statistics were lumped together with the Asian statistics. That's not my main concern though. My main concern is that this is still all being framed by race. Frame it by income and class, and I'm sure that the same trends will appear. Then maybe we can head in the right direction as far as issues of race.

Dear Will,

You do not know me, and I do not know how to get this letter to you except in this way.  On June 28th a new Superman movie will open. I await this new film with mixed emotions. I am glad to see my favorite superhero come to the screen again, but I will miss seeing your father, Christopher Reeve, who was the greatest movie Superman I ever saw. I do not know if June 28th will be a harder day for you than any of the others since you were 13 and your father died in 2004 at the age of 52, or since your mother died last March at the age of 44. If it is a harder day, I ask you to please take some comfort in the condolences of a grateful public for the courageous example your parents set and for your terrible loss. May God comfort you and receive their souls into the place where their souls are together and where illness and injury have no power and cause no fear. I am also thinking about how your father did not merely play Superman. Your father was Superman.

The fundamental spiritual engine of the Superman stories is the fact that even superpowers exist in a world with insurmountable natural and moral evil. Disease and greed, injury and tyranny, are so widespread that even a superhero with unlimited powers cannot overcome them. If it were possible for Superman to vanquish all evil, he would be God, or God's chosen Messiah, and that cannot be true. So the great question arises about Superman, and about your dad, “From whence the effort?” Why try to overcome evil when evil cannot be finally defeated by anyone except God? Your father's fight against his spinal-cord injury and your mother's battle against cancer tell us the reason. The poet T. S. Eliot put it this way: “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” In a world that only names champions when they win, Superman and your parents give us another model of what it is to prevail in the battle against evil and death. It is the courage to always try—to try your best, with every fiber of your being, with all the powers God has given you and never give up. It is the courage to continue the struggle that is the power of Superman and the inspiration of your parents to us.

Superman is a great superhero with a spiritually acceptable mission.  The mutant X-Men are fun, but they seek merely to exist. They are not dedicated to “Truth, Justice and the American Way.” Batman is motivated by vengeance, not virtue. Spider-Man is transformed by an accidental spider's bite and not by the loving gift of parents sending their child from a dying planet to a planet “capable of great goodness.” Jor-El's gift to Kal-El is your parent's gift to you. You, too, have been given a great legacy that is also built on a great tragedy.

Superman began in 1938 fighting slumlords, and then Nazis, and then all who sought to limit freedom and impose tyranny. This sense of mission is what enabled your father to set his goal as not merely enduring and coping with his injury but in mobilizing the public to support all the efforts to find ways to reverse the effects of paralysis. I will contribute to his foundation in your name and his memory.

The Nazis believed in an übermensch, a Nietzschean superman who would assure Aryan domination of the world and the brutal extermination of all others. Superman is the American mirror opposite of that arrogant and genocidal dream. Through our Superman we express our hope that the freedoms we have here in America ought to be the legacy of all people on planet earth.

The Superman comics and movies are not mere stories, they are popular legends, and your father and your mother were noble translators of that democratic and virtuous American legend to a grateful nation. May God comfort you in the months and years ahead. In every way that truly matters, your parents have taught you to fly.

In grateful blessing.

"To technology, and to those of science, let me say this. You have won the war. The wheels have been in motion for a long time. Your victory has been inevitable. Never before has it been as obvious as it is at this moment. Science is the new God.

            Medicine, electronic communications, space travel, genetic manipulation…these are the miracles about which we now tell our children. These are the miracles we herald as proof that science will bring us the answers. The ancient stories of immaculate conceptions, burning bushes, and parting seas are no longer relevant. God has become obsolete. Science has won the battle. We concede.

            But science’s victory has cost every one of us. And it has cost us deeply.

            Science may have alleviated the miseries of disease and drudgery and provided an array of gadgetry for our entertainment and convenience, but it has left us in a world without wonder. Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathematical equations. Even our self-worth as human beings has been destroyed. Science proclaims that Planet Earth and its inhabitants are a meaningless speck in the grand scheme. A cosmic accident. Even the technology that promises to unite us, divides us. Each of us is now electronically connected to the globe, and yet we feel utterly alone. We are bombarded with violence, division, fracture, and betrayal. Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof has become enlightened thought. Is it any wonder that humans feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in human history? Does science hold anything sacred? Science looks for answers by probing our unborn fetuses. Science even presumes to rearrange our own DNA. It shatters God’s world into smaller and smaller pieces in quest of meaning…and all it finds is more questions.

            The ancient war between science and religion is over. You have won. But you have not won fairly. You have not won by providing answers. You have won by so radically reorienting our society that the truths we once saw as signposts now seem inapplicable. Religion cannot keep up. Scientific growth is exponential. It feeds on itself like a virus. Every new breakthrough opens doors for new breakthroughs. Mankind took thousands of years to progress from the wheel to the car. Yet only decades from the car into space. Now we measure scientific progress in weeks. We are spinning out of control. The rift between us grows deeper and deeper, and as religion is left behind, people find themselves in a spiritual void. We cry out for meaning. And believe me, we do cry out. We see UFOs, engage in channeling, spirit contact, out-of-body experiences, mindquests – all these eccentric ideas have a scientific veneer, but they are unashamedly irrational. They are the desperate cry of the modern soul, lonely and tormented, crippled by its own enlightenment and its inability to accept meaning in anything removed from technology.

            Science, you way, will save us. Science, I say, has destroyed us. Since the days of Galileo, the church has tried to slow the relentless march of science, sometimes with misguided means, but always with benevolent intention. Even so, the temptations are too great for man to resist. I warn you, look around yourselves. The promises of science have not been kept. Promises of efficiency and simplicity have bred nothing but pollution and chaos. We are a fractured and frantic species…moving down a path of destruction.

            Who is this God science? Who is the God who offers his people power but no moral framework to tell you how to use that power? What kind of God gives a child fire but does not warn the child of its dangers? The language of science comes with no signposts about good and bad. Science textbooks tell us how to create a nuclear reaction, and yet they contain no chapters asking us if it is a good or a bad idea.

            To science, I say this. The church is tired. We are exhausted from trying to be your signposts. Our resources are drying up form our campaign to be the voice of balance as you plow blindly on in your quest for smaller chips and larger profits. We ask not why you will not govern yourselves, but how can you? Your world moves so fast that if you stop even for an instant to consider the implications of your actions, someone more efficient will whip past you in a blur. So you move on. You proliferate weapons of mass destruction, but it is the Pope who travels the world beseeching leaders to use restraint. You clone living creatures, but it is the church reminding us to consider the moral implications of our actions. You encourage people to interact on phones, video screens, and computers, but it is the church who opens its doors and reminds us to commune in person as we were meant to do. You even murder unborn babies in the name of research that will save lives. Again, it is the church who points out the fallacy of this reasoning.

            And all the while, you proclaim the church is ignorant. But who is more ignorant? The man who cannot define lightning, or the man who does not respect its awesome power? This church is reaching out to you. Reaching out to everyone. And yet the more we reach, the more you push us away. Show me proof there is a God, you say. I say use your telescopes to look to the heavens, and tell me how there could not be a God! You ask what does God look like. I say where did that question come from? The answers are one and the same. Do you not see God in your science? How can you miss God! You proclaim that even the slightest change would have rendered our universe a lifeless mist rather than our magnificent sea of heavenly bodies, and yet you fail to see God’s hand in this? Is it really so much easier to believe that we simply chose the right card from a deck of billions? Have we become so spiritually bankrupt that we would rather believe in mathematical impossibility than in a power greater than us?

            Whether or not you believe in God, you must believe this. When we as a species abandon our trust in the power greater than us, we abandon our sense of accountability. Faith…all faiths…are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable…With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. If the outside world could see this church as I do…looking beyond the ritual of these walls…they would see a modern miracle…a brotherhood of imperfect, simple souls wanting only to be a voice of compassion in a world spinning out of control.

            Are we obsolete? The devout. Does the world really need a voice for the poor, the weak, the oppressed, the unborn child? Do we really need souls like these who, though imperfect, spend their lives imploring each of us to read the signposts of morality and not lose our way?

            We are perched on a precipice. None of us can afford to be apathetic. Whether you see this evil as Satan, corruption, or immorality…the dark force is alive and growing every day. Do not ignore it. The force, though mighty, is not invincible. Goodness can prevail. Listen to your hearts. Listen to God. Together we can step back from this abyss."

Do I look for trouble, or does it look for me? Superman's work is never done.

When I got home from work yesterday, around 5:45 PM, a white Ford Explorer was parked in front of my house. Across the tail gate were the words "CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION." As I approached my home, I thought, I wonder what my neighbors did this time.

As soon as I parked and got out of my car, I noticed movement within the vehicle. Two officers got out and the driver proceeded to tell me that she and her partner were looking for Jennifer, my 17-year-old cousin. I didn't think she was at the house, because my uncle knows that I prefer if they are over only on weekends. They have their own place, and it's proper that they stay there.

So I called Jennifer's mom's cell phone. No answer, An incoming call from that same number came through, but when I went to answer it, nobody was responding to me. I decided to go inside the home and check. Upon walking in, I noticed that the television downstairs was on, so I knew someone was there. I told Jennifer that there were police there to see her.

She was laying down with the baby and when she got up I noticed her face. Her left eye was swollen, sure to bruise, and there was a bruise on her right cheek. I was shocked. Before she could go outside, I went straight into questioning.

"What happened?"

"I got hit in the eye."

"Who did it?"

"Ron."

"Did he hurt the baby?"

"No."

"Okay. I'll hold the baby. Go take care of what you need to take care of with the police."

In case you didn't know, Ron is the baby's father, and Jennifer's boyfriend. I never thought that I'd be this close to someone that was a domestic violence victim. Jennifer's opportunity to be a survivor will depend on whether or not she leaves Ronald. When she came back in, we had a long talk, and I reiterated how she has to be careful and get away from negative energy like that. I hope it sinks in.

I've been looking for resources for her. One that I know about is My Sister's House - A safe haven for battered Asian & Pacific Islander women & children (http://www.my-sisters-house.org). I'm going to refer Jennifer there. If I can't get through to her, maybe they can.

In the mean time, I may have to take them in again. It's ironic, because the home that they are staying at, where this incident took place, is on Harms Way. What a strange street name. It makes me wary to send Jennifer back there. I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to her. Superman is always out saving someone.

In the United States, four women die every day from domestic violence, according to statistics from the FBI. There are about 572,000 reports of assualt by intimate couples, but estimates point more towards two to four million women being battered each year. A reported 132,000 women have been victims of sexual assault. Anywhere from two to six times that many women don't report it. Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victimized, five times higher among families below poverty levels, and twice as likely to be committed by unemployed men as opposed to men who work full-time. Attacks on lesbians and gay men havae become two to three times more common than they were in 1988. Violent juveniles are four times more likely to have grown up in homes where they saw violence. These are all some staggering numbers.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are in an abusive relationship, get out. There's no need to be around negative energy, and when it affects you physically, mentally, and spiritually, you are doing yourself so much more harm than you deserve. You deserve better. Find places like My Sister's House or the National Organization for Women (http://www.now.org) for assistance.

"Today...is our independence day." I quote the President Thomas J. Whitmore of the United States, as played by Bill Pullman in the movie Independence Day, because today, June 12, in the year 1898, the Philippines declared its independence from Spain. I can only imagine what that day meant for those involved in the struggle, the hope that they must've felt, the dreams they must've had. I wonder if they were still alive today, how they would analyze the country. Fortunately, we are in a position to do just that, and right the wrongs of the past, just as they had done for their country.

When we talk about our country now, that could really mean the world. Countries are so interdependent in our global economy. One nation state does not function in a vacuum. It's amazing how one choice that we make, as a consumer for example, can affect people in a country thousands of miles away, where they worked to assemble or create the item. Typically, these people live in squalor, according to United States standards. For example, the average citizen in China earns the equivalent of $150 US a month. Imagine someone in America trying to live off of that.

What would it take to bring more equity into the world. Even within the United States, where equity is an ideal, it's still not real and actual.

Welcome back to America. It hasn't yet dawned on me that I just flew to the Philippines and back in 48 hours. I still feel pretty super. What can I say? Superman was born to fly.

Lola is here now, and I hope I can help make her as comfortable as possible. Ever since my first failure to keep her happy in America, this is a second chance. We often don't get second chances. I plan to make the most of it.

The trip, however, wasn't easy. Once I arrived in Manila, I just hung out in the area, doing some shopping and taking in the sites. It was weird being all alone. I didn't say a word, due to my poor Tagalog skills. Once my lola arrived in Manila, and we went to check in, I found out that she wasn't booked on the plane. The travel agent here in Sacramento said that she was booked on the plane and that I would just have to pay the $25.00 penalty. My stress levels shot up at that point. I was thinking that we were stranded in Manila. Fortunately, there were seats on the plane and we could get her on. However, I had to run over to another building at the ticketing office to get it all done and pay the penalty. Then I returned to the line to get checked in.

Then, when we were going through the last of the three sets of x-ray machines, which are overkill, in my opinion, lola's cane ended up hitting the glass in the machine and breaking it. So we went around and around with people taking reports and trying to point the blame at the guy that was pushing my lola's wheelchair. I wrote a statement saying I think one of the individuals monitoring the machine should've seen the placement of the cane. The guy was helping lola. That's his primary goal. In any case, we finally got that all taken care of and I finally boarded the plane.

Of course, I was scared for my lola on the plane as well. People die from blood clots developing on planes, so I stayed up the whole flight to make sure that she was responsive.

All in all, it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle.

This evening I leave for the Philippines again - for the weekend. My friend kindly pointed out how posh that sounded to be going out of the country for a weekend. When I add the reason that I'm going, it sounds less posh. This will be my second trip since the beginning of April. My primary purpose is fulfill the wishes of my lola, who has changed her mind and wants to return to the United States. I can feel myself approaching that position again where my whole life revolves around her needs. It's an inconvenience, but life is short and I don't know how much more time we will be able to share with each other. So I have to take advantage of that. I've been scanning old photos that she had hidden away and going over the notes that I've taken while hearing her stories. She's quite an amazing person. My hope is that she enjoys the rest of her life, and that it is of a quality that she deserves.

The expenses of this trip ultimately make my trip to Hawaii unfeasible. In addition to the added responsibility of taking care of lola, it's just an inopportune time. I may just have to cancel.

It's sort of hard not being in control of your future. Potentially, if Superintendent O'Connell, my boss, was not reelected, it could mean that I lost my job, simply because the new Superintendent would more than likely want to bring in their own cabinet of people. Fortunately though, Superintendent O'Connell did win, and is the first Superintendent in one hundred years to not have to compete in a runoff election after the primary. It's pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

Sometimes you have to do things to make yourself happy. Today I tried, for the first time, Superman Crunch cereal. It's really neat because what were the "Crunch Berries" in Cap'n Crunch are now shaped like the border of the Superman shield. Another thing totally neat about the cereal is that when you pour in milk, the milk turns blue! It's not a light blue like the blue tint of non-fat milk. The blue is a deeper blue, almost like blueberry juice blue. I feel more super with each bowl. That made me smile. It's the little things that can make you happy that matter.