I wrote President Bush and the Management of ABC and vehemently complained about the vitriolic, callous and racially divisive remarks on US national TV by Terri Hatcher (actress in Desperate Housewives show) against Filipino medical professionals. I may be a speck in the sky and a drop of water in the ocean, but collectively we can let the public hear about our outrage. If we let this issue die a natural death, then the next insults will be against Filipino engineers, lawyers, politicians, and other nationalities, etc......
The offending remark is as follows: "Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines." If you go to abc.com, select "Desperate Housewives", you can watch the full episode and witness the scene at about 18:50 minutes into the episode.
Racism still exists in America no matter how many laws are passed to curb this behavior. Twenty-five years ago, I was asked during my military training, "How come you can speak English?" A few years ago, a co-worker asked me, "Do they teach English in the Philippines and can you pass the CA bar examinations if the questions are in English?" And I scored 99% on part 2 of that examination. It is our duty to defend our rights and national honor. How come this is a headline when the victims are African-Americans and/or American-Jews?
My parents didn't rear me to be ridiculed by anybody!!! The Filipino people are some of the smartest people I have ever known. Some of my relatives are Summa Cum Laudes and Magna Cum Laudes and yet they never broadcast that to the public. My parents and a few of my brothers and sisters are US scholars and graduated from the University of the Philippines which is noted for weeding out even scholars who are good enough to be Valedictorians in the United States? Can most Americans pass the trechearous Philippine and California Bar Examinations for lawyers? I can go and on and describe instances of the inner beauty and intelligence of the Filipino people, however time constraints won't allow me to do so. To Miss Terri Hatcher, as it is said, "An open mouth catches more flies."
President Bush Chief Chef is a Filipino; President Clinton's former head doctor is a Filipino; the Lunar Rover was designed by a Filipino; the first Asian Chess Grandmaster (Eugene Torre) is a Filipino; Philippines placed 3rd in 1950 World Basketball Olympiad; Philippines was ranked 3rd in highest literary rate these past several years; Philippines was a showcase to our Asian neighbors in the early 50's until late 70s; etc...... Times may have changed and corrupt politicians back home may have wrecked havoc upon our political and economic systems, but that hasn't diminished our national pride as Filipinos..... We are proud of our heritage!!!
In summation, God made all men equal, but were not born equal.
Aris Delara
UST College of Law 1981 and Phil Bar Batch 1981
US Army JAG Corps
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