Excerpt of The October 24th Movement, speech delivered by Jose Maria Sison at the Kostka Hall of Ateneo de Manila University on December 6, 1966; Sponsored by the Ateneo Political Society)

At the age of 26, Dr. Jose Rizal had already written the Noli Me Tangere, the spark that spread into a prairie fire. At the age of 29, Andres Bonifacio established the Katipunan. Aguinaldo was 26 when he enlisted in the Katipunan, 27 when he became the actual leader of the Revolution, 28 when he was formally elected Commander-in-Chief and 29 when he became President of the First Republic of the Philippines.

A more striking example of youth is Emilio Jacinto, who, at the age of 18, joined the Katipunan; at 19 became Fiscal of the revolutionary society; and at 20, became the Secretary of the Katipunan and editor of its organ, the Kalayaan. At the age of 23, he became the Commander-in-Chief of the North Military area, which included Manila. Shortly after he made the sacrifices of his life for the cause of Filipino nationhood.

Consider another young man, the "boy general" Gregorio del Pilar. At the age of 24, when he died at Tirad Pass defending the Philippine Revolutionary Government, he had already achieved at least a million times more than what he would have achieved by merely keeping high his academic grades at the Ateneo and being in the good graces of his Jesuit mentors. He became great precisely because of his underground work during his student days and the open battles he fought against foreign tyranny.

If the brilliant students - Dr. Jose Rizal, Emilio Jacinto, and Gregorio del Pilar - had merely concentrated on stale academic studies, pursued successful professional careers and married well - in the accomplished style of Se¤or Paasta in El Filibusterismo - they would be worthless now to this nation, as worthless and unremembered as the Captain-General and the Archbishops who dominated the pages of the colonial press and the salons of the social elite. Out elders who take pride in their sheer age and their sense of caution should learn from the youth, from the revolutionary and nationalist youth of 1896 and of today. The elders in the reactionary government should not now assume the function of the censors and the black judges who condemned Rizal, del Pilar, Bonifacio and all other patriots of the old democratic revolution as subversives and heretics.

Gusto ko sana ireport yung naging karanasan ko last Monday nang magvolunteer ako as poll watcher for Task Force Poll Watch. Medyo nakakatamad magsulat so kung interesado kayo ay tanungin nyo na lang ako personally. Pwede nyo ako ilibre ng kape basta HUWAG LANG Nescafe. Boycott all Nestle products!

Meanwhile, natagpuan na daw ng mga NASA scientists ang proof ng existence ng dark matter. Click the picture for the news na nakapost sa Agham News blog.