‘Perhaps We, the People, could initiate spreading love, compassion, and understanding to all our fellow men the world over, of any race, color, creed, religion, status in life, and gender…’
THE unprovoked bombing atrocities perpetrated by the Hamas in Gaza against the Israelis on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,400, shooting parents in front of their children, killing children in front of their parents, burning people alive, raping women, and beheading babies, are nauseating, savage, and monstrous acts even some barbarians may consider below their dignity.
As expected, the Israelis started to retaliate to defend themselves from being exterminated from the face of the earth, as Hitler and his goons had tried during the “Final Solution,” the Holocaust, which started and expanded from 1933 to 1945, mercilessly killing 11 million helpless children, adults, and old people (6 million Jews, and 5 million others).
The indestructible Jews managed to survive and even flourished, countless Nazi-banished loyal patriots proudly returned home, and the nation of Israel was born on May 14, 1948. It has since become one of the greatest democracies, with almost 9.2 million in population, in the Middle East, in the Asian continent, and a close ally of the United States.
Fast forward to the holocaust
I was driving to St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Hobart, Indiana, to do open-heart surgery one early morning in the mid-70s, when I noticed a flock of Canada geese flying against a beautiful backdrop of a golden orange rising sun that was eagerly peering over the clear horizon. The picturesque scene became even more poignant when I observed that the geese were flying in a perfectly reversed V-formation. One seemed to be the leader of the pack, at the very apex, and the rest, in an orderly fashion followed in a reversed V-formation.
At one point, another goose flew ahead and assumed the “leadership” at the apex of the V.
When the “leader” got tired, another flew to the apex, and the former “leader” went behind the flank. They seemed to take their turn. Everything was smooth and easy flying, and quite orderly.
The reason came back to me as I recalled a book I once read. Birds, in general, have the instinct to know that the wind they fly against offers the most aerodynamic resistance if they fly alone or on a straight frontal line. Flying in a reversed V-formation, with the apex cutting through the headwind, makes it a lot easier for the others behind to fly.
The “leader” at the apex gets the most wind resistance, and less and less for those birds behind, who are shielded by the birds in front of them. The leader, as in our daily life, takes the greatest burden, the grave responsibility, to serve and protect his “constituents.”
All of this appears to take place in an organized fashion, with no hesitation, no delays, no bickering, no pushing, no wrangling, as if each bird knows precisely its individual role and is graciously compliant.
How I wish we, humans, self-proclaimed the most civilized and most intelligent of all creatures on planet Earth, would be as “civilized, compassionate, considerate, and orderly” as these birds. Imagine how wonderful it would be if we, brothers and sisters of the world, would stop fighting, hurting, destroying, and killing each other, and instead, understand, accept, and help to protect each other like these flying creatures of God.
It is not too late. Perhaps We, the People, could initiate spreading love, compassion, and understanding to all our fellow men the world over, of any race, color, creed, religion, status in life, and gender, while we have time, sanity, and wisdom.
Obviously, the transformation will not be easy, as the history of man has so far shown us.
But human beings better start soon, even a little bit each year or each decade, before we unwittingly blow each other up, together with Mother Earth, into shameful particles, miserable garbage of historical ashes in the galaxy. The only legacy our species would leave behind then would be our Homo Sapiens stupidity.
Where is America?
In 1936 in Manila, when I was born, my parents knew I was a boy and that I was a he, for people then had common sense and respected natural order.
Today, in the USA, there is a debate about he and she, him and her, amidst confusion and fear on when and what to say, where even a Supreme Court Justice is ignorant of her gender.
Indeed, the vulture of wokeism has infected the radicals, spreading mental aberration, havoc, and chaos to society.
And there are revisionist calls for historical monuments to fall, a movement to defund the Police and abolish ICE, an insanity of cancel culture and Asian hate.
Infanticide abounds as barren couples wait in despair and mutilation of children behind their parents’ back.
Racism, sexism, inequality, and injustice in our midst abridging people’s amendment rights, creating a dangerous and tilted world for all, hampering progress and making peace impossible.
The thunderous chants of misguided, history-anemic Ivy-league students and other ignorant bigots “Death to America, death to Israel!” the provocative cry to annihilate all the Jews and erase Israel, and singing praises no less to those barbaric monsters who behead babies, rape women, burn people alive, and shoot innocent seniors and children, are deafening to the soul, gruesome, nauseating.
Can anyone think of any justification for these diabolical acts?
Chaos and stupidity grip the land of power, and its people confused, scared, and on their knees.
This is insanity at its height that threatens the nation’s survival.
This madness must stop!
Where is the America of yesteryears, where Godliness, compassion, respect for the elders, love of fellowmen, tolerance, kindness, and common-sense values prevailed, and where integrity, dignity, and honor were held sacred?
In supplication, I pray: May God save my beloved Philippines from this lunacy!
***
Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus, is an Adviser to PAAN president, Danny C. Fabito, MD, FACS, FPCS. Philip is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He was a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, conferred by then Indiana Governor, later Senator, and then-presidential candidate, Evan Bayh. Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry Truman, President George HW Bush, Muhammad Ali, and Astronaut Gus Grissom (Wikipedia). Related websites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com
