Stranger Dreams

By: Gus Victoria

The ideal in sacred parchment

Of philosopher nobles

Served as fertile soil

Free of corruptible elements

To the child of centuries

Whose own ideal was stillborn

In an Iberian cradle.

Bellicose and proud was the glory

Of ancient histories

Unknown and unforgotten,

Bent to the future,

Malleable as heated gold,

Worth far more,

Heavier than the leaden skies

That draped the day,

An unknown stranger in his own land,

He walked with vision,

He hoped

And he loved,

Each step on the path he chose

Closer to discovering

That which was hidden at birth,

Felt near

And left untouched,

A force pulling him forward,

Confusing him to action,

Filling a head with dreams,

A mystic chord unbreakable

Binds him to his land,

A future unwritten

Makes him lift his pen,

To write not alone,

But with the voice of his people,

The cry of millions,

He writes words they speak,

He believes works they do,

He sees a future

To share with the world.

In Mexico is the future born.

In Mexico is the world welcome,

In Mexico the stranger is no more,

There he is finally home.

Viva Mexico, Nuestra Madre

By: Gus Victoria

We dance today

For you,

We celebrate today

For you,

We are together today,

For you,

Five centuries you’ve been mother,

To lost children,

Five centuries you’ve been slave,

To lustful masters,

Five centuries you’ve cried tears of blood.

We rape your land,

We deny your past,

We destroy your future,

You are mother to us;

We praise you

As we deny you,

We idolize you,

As we forget,

We proclaim your beauty,

As we court foreign appeal,

Calmly you wait,

Quiet your strength,

Deep your resolve,

That someday

We, your children

Will take our inheritance,

And proudly proclaim your virtue,

As together in voice we call to you our mother,

Mexico! Mexico! Mexico!

Viva!

Love Is Its Own Law - Marriage Equality

By: Gus Victoria

Here we stand and wait at the threshold of history. Waiting for a verdict from the highest court in the land. Nine men and women soon make a decision that will impact millions. History will judge them based on that decision. We will celebrate or we will scorn. As a nation we will debate long after the decision has been handed down. Tears of joy and tears of despair will flow and mingle together.

Thousands march on either side. Millions more use their voices, words, and actions to advertise their belief. To change minds and hearts if possible. To rant if not. And what does it all mean? Nothing and everything.

At question is marriage and who among this nation’s citizens has a right to marry and whom. Seems a simple answer. The heart follows its own path, infinitely capable of that one force that is greater than all others; love. Can a couple of the same sex be allowed to marry and enjoy the same rights and benefits that heterosexual couples already do? To most of us the answer is clear and undebatable. The problem is that answer is not the same. Debate must, in such a State as our own, commence. Unfortunately we aren’t very civil when we feel ourselves, or those we care for, threatened and we begin to pepper this discussion of love with hate and prejudice. Violence can never create and hate can never persuade. Fear may induce some to act and think in a certain way for a while, but understanding brought about by love can banish fear easily. Hate has a firm hold only because we grasp it so tightly. Let go of it and let the heart speak. You’ll be surprised what it says.

More to the issue at hand though. Vague studies have been known to show...everything. I hate to discard a whole category of argumentation, but here when people are discussing passionate matters then the debate cannot be stripped down, quantified, and presented in a neat little study. Better to dispense with it altogether. Why cannot a man marry a man or a woman a woman? That is the question. At its center being the question; what is marriage?

How does one define it? That answer dictates on what side of this debate a person stands.

Scriptures and fear drive much of the conversation on one side. Fear and loathing on the other. Fear being common to both. The great divide is who can marry whom. For many that is what defines marriage and what, in maintaining the status quo, will keep its sanctity. A man marries a woman and they raise a family. That is marriage and its purpose. There is no other.

Wrong.

In this argument there is, and there must be a definite wrong answer and it is what makes it so refreshing for a philosopher used to dealing with deep, yet vague, questions about existence and the meaning of life. Outdated notions of the family unit are regressive in a world ready to move beyond the ancient mold of superstition and spiritual oppression. This does not mean religion does not have a place in this world, it still does. However it must understand it cannot captivate the minds and hearts of people as it once did to affect wholesale change on a society. Those bonds have rusted over the years and are clearly snapping.

That struggle is a death struggle. Rationalism and humanism in this century have and will continue to usher in a new Enlightenment. A second one that the church will not survive without serious reflection and change. Ignorance right now is an ally they need to abandon. Love was once its foundation, there will they find salvation.

That explains the ferocity of the opposition. The undermining of scriptural authority.

It is a moot point. Marriage may be defined in the eyes of the law however the lawmakers decide and the law of the heart that is love will always supercede it. A man may love whomever he chooses and a women may as well. The vow they make to each other no law of the land may ever break. To attempt to only condemns the lawmaker. Yes, hardships may have to be endured in a place where love outside the established norms exists. Some of these hardships may be fatal. This is a tragedy that those standing against marriage equality should take note of. Though the heart may be bruised and the body broken love, if it is true, will always endure. There is the sanctity of marriage. Not in the sex. Always in the heart.

The slippery slope argument that warns man may marry all sorts of animals and such after marriage is made legal is silly on two counts. The first one should be self-evident. The legalization of marriage will not create a wave of barnyard lovers. The second point is that marriage can even be legalized. Law ought to have no say in a covenant where they are not partners. It can grant benefits or take them away, but is cannot dissolve the union between two people if they have promised themselves to each other. You can says its invalid in all the law books of the country, but that does not make it so for them. Love is never invalid.

I rejoice as I stand at this threshold with many of my friends. I have no doubt that change in our nation will soon be upon us. I have no doubt that even that doesn’t matter. The debate won’t end. Love will outlive it though. Stand firm, be hopeful and NEVER be afraid to love!!

Indivisible, Indestructible

Mortar cannot hold this house together

As ideas seek to tear her asunder,

Words cannot assuage the anger

That we foment,

Ignorance is the darkness

And truth a luxury.

Yet she holds.

The winds of change batter her

And the sands of time erode

What we allow them to touch,

Yet she holds.

Rivers of tears flow

Threatening to flood

And make of her a memory,

Yet she holds.

This house cannot divided stand.

And this house divided shall not endure,

Our fathers and their brothers

Together, with blood paid,

Created a bond

That time cannot fade,

Words cannot degrade,

And we cannot repay.

Blue and grey

Perhaps never knew

What their struggle would do

To a country young as they.

Their sacrifice gave to us more than heroes

More than villains and battles,

More than songs,

They gave us this,

They gave us a home

They gave us brothers

They paid with life and blood

That ours be free,

For that is our destiny,

A destiny unachieved.

They gave us a home

From where our own fight can be waged

Indivisible and indestructible.