In the eyes of the older generation of Filipinos "He" was an American Idol!
by Jose Sison Luzadas
Delray Beach, FL
Let us have a moment in history to review what the Filipinos during the Commonwealth period dominated by Quezon and Osmena have to say when this “one rare breed” of American who like Ferdinand Blumentritt has a great deal of respect and admiration to our national hero and his countrymen.
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No American soldier-politician assigned as governor-general in the Philippines who struck the chord of true friendship, respect and understanding deep in the heart of Filipinos than this New York native.
Looking back three centuries earlier under Spain and fifty years with America, no appointed Spanish or American official after tour of duty has ever opted to remain in the islands for personal and sentimental reasons.
Name any Spanish or American official who has ever bequeathed a personal WISH to have his mortal remains buried in the Philippine soil?
Was it just a political ploy or publicity stunt for this American father who while attending the christening of his newborn son chose and advised to use “Francisco Jr.” as the given name instead of Francis so that it sounds more of a “Filipino”?
Well, there is no point questioning his sincerity for he considered himself a “Filipino” long before Congress of the Philippines passed an Act making him a Filipino citizen!
To students in Philippine history and political science, US Governor –General Francis Burton Harrison is well remembered for having inaugurated a policy, "PHILIPPINES FOR FILIPINOS" that brought the exhilarated inhabitants recognition of their native pride and sense of belonging!
He died in Flemington, New Jersey in 1957 but in compliance with his will, Burton was buried at the Manila Cemetery, a driving distance to the Paco cemetery where Dr. Rizal was originally buried.
Reprinted below is the speech of Francis Burton Harrison delivered at the University of the Philippines when he dedicated the building honoring Dr. Jose Rizal.
“I think no man can read Rizal's novels without feeling his powerful impulse of sympathy for and understanding of the people of this country. We can be moved not only by his profound reading of human nature, but we can also be inspired to emulate, if we may, the high level of talent for which his name will ever be famous in the history of literature. Here in the Philippines I would, if I could, arouse you to more earnest devotion to a literary career. You have natural advantages second to no country in the world. Your history is replete with incidents and romance and your present latter-day development is a true inspiration to the youth of the world in all countries.
To this land of lofty mountains, of clear water running to the sea, the sunsets across Mariveles Mountain, the dawn over Mount Arayat, the blue haze upon the rice-fields in the evening-all the familiar scenes and sounds of a life animate by the sun and made happy by the richness of nature. As I remembered the deep tender lights of the coconut groves and the busy industry of our daily life, I said to myself, 'There is a country which could inspire any man to literary efforts with all its wealth of romance.'
When I recall the history of the Philippine Islands, the coming of the Christians with the sword and flaming cross, the coming of the Mohammedans, with the crescent and the crooked creese (kris?) and their cry in many a hard fought battle, the enterprise of the Spaniard in spiritual teachings as well as in material investments, the shouts of Legaspi's sailors across Manila Bay, the guns of Dewey so many generations later, the efforts of our country to establish here our principles of democracy, it seems to me that any young man or woman born upon this soil and inspired by ideas has an opportunity to take a place in the very foremost ranks of literature and history and show to the world not only what has been done here in education but what the world may expect of the Filipino people when they take their rank as an independent member of the brotherhood of nations.
In my opinion Rizal's greatest services to the cause of the human race were those scientific impulses which he gave to the world of his duty, and the martyrdom which he suffered was but another example of the determination of organized society in every age to eliminate those that by the pure processes of reason have arrived at new theories for the conduct and welfare of mankind. From the day of Socrates, who was put to death by the citizens of Athens for teaching the young men to think for themselves, down to that morning in December, 1896, when Rizal was done to death by the firing-squad at Bagumbayan, the pages of history have run red with the murder of men of science. In Europe of the Middle Ages the names of Roger Bacon, Giordano Bruno, Galileo, Agrippa, Campanella, Kepler, Lavoisier, of Priestly, and many others of less distinction in the annals of history have shown what struggles the human mind has been called upon to endure and to what stress the human body has been put in the efforts of science to liberate the human mind....
Bearing all these things in mind, it seems to me that we can justly appreciate Rizal's love of science and his final martyrdom as the greatest contribution to the freedom of thought ever given by any one man to the Filipino people. This hall which we are about to dedicate, reserved as it is to be for the study of science, is the most fitting monument to the name of Rizal that could be devised. Here has he live to-day I have no doubt he would feel an infinitely greater inspiration in the thought that his name was to be attached to this great edifice and that his memory was to be preserved by the study of young Filipinos, men and women, in the natural sciences than he would be in that splendid statue erected down there on the Bagumbayan to perpetuate the memory of his patriotic death.
Now, my friends, in dedicating this edifice to progress, I believe that it will stand for progress as long as the Filipino people themselves remain progressive and as long as you will fight the battle for liberty of thought and of reason, and, I believe, also, that Dr. Rizal, if he has any conscious knowledge in those ethereal spaces to which his soul has been summoned, will summon the youth of his beloved country to dare all, to endure all, and, if needs be, to suffered all that he himself had dared, endured, or suffered in order that science may not perish from the face of the earth.”
(signed) Francis Burton Harrison
by Jose Sison Luzadas
Delray Beach, FL
Let us have a moment in history to review what the Filipinos during the Commonwealth period dominated by Quezon and Osmena have to say when this “one rare breed” of American who like Ferdinand Blumentritt has a great deal of respect and admiration to our national hero and his countrymen.
Your browser may not support display of this image.
No American soldier-politician assigned as governor-general in the Philippines who struck the chord of true friendship, respect and understanding deep in the heart of Filipinos than this New York native.
Looking back three centuries earlier under Spain and fifty years with America, no appointed Spanish or American official after tour of duty has ever opted to remain in the islands for personal and sentimental reasons.
Name any Spanish or American official who has ever bequeathed a personal WISH to have his mortal remains buried in the Philippine soil?
Was it just a political ploy or publicity stunt for this American father who while attending the christening of his newborn son chose and advised to use “Francisco Jr.” as the given name instead of Francis so that it sounds more of a “Filipino”?
Well, there is no point questioning his sincerity for he considered himself a “Filipino” long before Congress of the Philippines passed an Act making him a Filipino citizen!
To students in Philippine history and political science, US Governor –General Francis Burton Harrison is well remembered for having inaugurated a policy, "PHILIPPINES FOR FILIPINOS" that brought the exhilarated inhabitants recognition of their native pride and sense of belonging!
He died in Flemington, New Jersey in 1957 but in compliance with his will, Burton was buried at the Manila Cemetery, a driving distance to the Paco cemetery where Dr. Rizal was originally buried.
Reprinted below is the speech of Francis Burton Harrison delivered at the University of the Philippines when he dedicated the building honoring Dr. Jose Rizal.
“I think no man can read Rizal's novels without feeling his powerful impulse of sympathy for and understanding of the people of this country. We can be moved not only by his profound reading of human nature, but we can also be inspired to emulate, if we may, the high level of talent for which his name will ever be famous in the history of literature. Here in the Philippines I would, if I could, arouse you to more earnest devotion to a literary career. You have natural advantages second to no country in the world. Your history is replete with incidents and romance and your present latter-day development is a true inspiration to the youth of the world in all countries.
To this land of lofty mountains, of clear water running to the sea, the sunsets across Mariveles Mountain, the dawn over Mount Arayat, the blue haze upon the rice-fields in the evening-all the familiar scenes and sounds of a life animate by the sun and made happy by the richness of nature. As I remembered the deep tender lights of the coconut groves and the busy industry of our daily life, I said to myself, 'There is a country which could inspire any man to literary efforts with all its wealth of romance.'
When I recall the history of the Philippine Islands, the coming of the Christians with the sword and flaming cross, the coming of the Mohammedans, with the crescent and the crooked creese (kris?) and their cry in many a hard fought battle, the enterprise of the Spaniard in spiritual teachings as well as in material investments, the shouts of Legaspi's sailors across Manila Bay, the guns of Dewey so many generations later, the efforts of our country to establish here our principles of democracy, it seems to me that any young man or woman born upon this soil and inspired by ideas has an opportunity to take a place in the very foremost ranks of literature and history and show to the world not only what has been done here in education but what the world may expect of the Filipino people when they take their rank as an independent member of the brotherhood of nations.
In my opinion Rizal's greatest services to the cause of the human race were those scientific impulses which he gave to the world of his duty, and the martyrdom which he suffered was but another example of the determination of organized society in every age to eliminate those that by the pure processes of reason have arrived at new theories for the conduct and welfare of mankind. From the day of Socrates, who was put to death by the citizens of Athens for teaching the young men to think for themselves, down to that morning in December, 1896, when Rizal was done to death by the firing-squad at Bagumbayan, the pages of history have run red with the murder of men of science. In Europe of the Middle Ages the names of Roger Bacon, Giordano Bruno, Galileo, Agrippa, Campanella, Kepler, Lavoisier, of Priestly, and many others of less distinction in the annals of history have shown what struggles the human mind has been called upon to endure and to what stress the human body has been put in the efforts of science to liberate the human mind....
Bearing all these things in mind, it seems to me that we can justly appreciate Rizal's love of science and his final martyrdom as the greatest contribution to the freedom of thought ever given by any one man to the Filipino people. This hall which we are about to dedicate, reserved as it is to be for the study of science, is the most fitting monument to the name of Rizal that could be devised. Here has he live to-day I have no doubt he would feel an infinitely greater inspiration in the thought that his name was to be attached to this great edifice and that his memory was to be preserved by the study of young Filipinos, men and women, in the natural sciences than he would be in that splendid statue erected down there on the Bagumbayan to perpetuate the memory of his patriotic death.
Now, my friends, in dedicating this edifice to progress, I believe that it will stand for progress as long as the Filipino people themselves remain progressive and as long as you will fight the battle for liberty of thought and of reason, and, I believe, also, that Dr. Rizal, if he has any conscious knowledge in those ethereal spaces to which his soul has been summoned, will summon the youth of his beloved country to dare all, to endure all, and, if needs be, to suffered all that he himself had dared, endured, or suffered in order that science may not perish from the face of the earth.”
(signed) Francis Burton Harrison
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