A commitment to help children

Zachariah Allen with teacher assistant Mrs. Carmen Garland 

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

DESPITE leaving for another teaching job, Zacharias Allen had made quite the difference at Hopewell High School in Huntersville, North Carolina that he was recognized as the “Titan Teacher of the Month” there.

Specializing in exceptional children (EC), Allen taught Special Curriculum Class (SAC) there for three years. He won “Titan Teacher”, named after Hopewell High School's Titan mascot, as part of a monthly inter-school program meant to recognize work excellence among teachers employed there.

Allen was all smiles when he was given the certificate by the school administrators led by Principal J. Dino Gisiano with assistant principals Chandra Robinson, Patrice McCauley and James Vanosdall.

Allen then placed the certificate in the table of teacher assistant Shelma Murray, as proof of the teamwork and camaraderie among the teachers, students and the teacher assistants whom he worked with.

Allen holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Mental Retardation from the University of South Alabama. When asked what persuaded him to choose a career teaching children with learning difficulties, he said he found it challenging and inspiring.

“I don’t know it brings out the best in (all of us),” Allen said with a smile. He counts more than 20 years of teaching experience years in the elementary, middle school and high school.

Allen is not your standard teacher of the classroom. He pushes his students' wheelchairs, plays with them, laughs with them and helps them go to the cafeteria.

He even goes with the students to the school bus to talk with them while they wait until they receive word that their parents have gone home. To many of us, that goes beyond the call of duty for any teacher.

By giving recognition to Allen, the school recognized his commitment to “assist students to learn” even beyond the classroom.

Allen holds a masters degree in divinity and is a preacher at the Providence A.M.E Zion Church, an African Methodist Episcopal church located at Salisbury, North Carolina.

Allen is the second winner since the program started this school year. He also received a cash reward which he shared with the assistants and the students.
Teacher assistant Rosaline Nwigne was happy about Allen's award. 

“I am happy for the kids, this is really an exciting year for all of us,” said Nwigne, who was in the SAC classroom for more than eight years.

Allen was elated with the recognition given to him by Hopewell High School for his efforts in teaching children with learning difficulties. “It confirmed the school's recognition of the love I had teaching children with disabilities,” he said.

Allen is a towering figure in SAC rooms 512 and 513, two EC classes at Hopewell High. He also coaches tennis in high school. Allen is a picture of calm and respect and his teaching methodology seeks to equip special education children with the functional life skills they need for everyday living.

Allen along with EC teacher Amerifica Terrell incorporates academic lessons with life and social skills. They teach these special children such basic skills as sorting, folding, mailing, timekeeping and learning how to set tables and the rest.

Allen also helps these special children social skills and occupational awareness and exploration, as appropriate as well as Math and Science. Time and again he reminds them to open their minds and hearts and focus on their strengths and interests.

“Whenever parents and administrators compliment the learning goals and approaches that I have implemented for the exceptional children, it gives me fulfillment,” Allen said.

He is still learning in order to understand and help these special children. I join the others in congratulating Allen for his work and commitment to them.

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines and is now employed  in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

On locker room talk

Photo from bleacherreport.com

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

For more a month now, the phrase “locker room talk” is trending across social media no thanks to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who used it as an excuse to justify his boorish remarks and behavior towards the women in an interview long ago.

Back in the day and even now I think locker-room talk is more associated with players who talk with fellow players and reporters after a grueling game.

So it wasn't unusual for players like Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James to react unfavorably on Trump's remarks of “locker room talk” by saying that not all male players look down on women like Trump did.

The men who do engage in locker room talk don't confine themselves to women and sex. More often than not, they do reminisce about the good old days when times were simpler though they also talk about women.

Whatever they share during those locker room talks stay in the locker room and aren't shared with anyone else unlike what Trump and Bush did.

Thanks to Trump, the locker-room talk had been given much attention and may have replaced the “water cooler talk” prevalent in the office which is basically office gossip with less prurient content.

Allow me to address this locker room talk issue not in a political context but in relation to women. I talked with Zachariah Allen, a preacher and life coach and one-time sports coach and this is what he said about it.

“Locker-room talk is true. It happens because people, men particularly, like to express themselves freely,” he said. Allen said locker room talk can range from women, to jobs, race and other hot button related topics.

Allen, who graduated from the University of South Alabama, said locker-room talk should also be explained in light of the speaker's persona or in this case Trump, who had developed a reputation as a ladies man.

Allen referred to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's explanation who said there is private and public persona. If a person is a public personality, anything he or she utters falls within the purview of public scrutiny.

If the remarks were made in private, there's little chance of it coming out in public. If Trump was aware that his remarks were made in an interview that would come out in public, then he couldn't explain it away as locker room talk because it reflected his own mindset, Allen said.

When men do talk about women, usually it involves their wives or their girlfriends or women they found attractive in the office whom they made a pass at or asked on a date and such conversations happen in the locker room, Allen said.

“I know some people would say it does not happen and they're not being truthful because it does. It is normal for anybody who have views on women and it's not just confined among coaches, players, teachers, students and every time there is an opportunity to objectify women, that's when locker-room talk happens,” Allen said.

Allen admitted that in his younger days he joined in locker-room talk “I have been coaching and I have heard things. You can change but your views sometimes don’t change and if you are put on the same position you would do it again,” he said.

As men get older, they see younger women as a challenge and when people see older men marrying or dating younger women, Allen said people presume they do that for sex.

When an old man gives gifts to a younger woman, Allen said it is understood that the man wants sex. When Donald Trump apologized after a video showed him talking about forcibly kissing and groping women in public, he explained that it was just locker-room talk.

But women also engage in locker room talk and that's what I'll try to explain in the next article.

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines and is now employed  in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.

You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

The bus as a public transport vehicle

Taken from wikipedia

by Susan Palmes-Dennis 

Last Monday, August 29, was the first day for school year 2016-17 at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and the school opening reminded me of the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump.” 

Of course I love Tom Hanks and last week's school opening reminded me of that scene in the movie which showed him seated at the bus stop waiting for his son to arrive in the yellow school bus.

The yellow school bus also reminded me of the traffic congestion in my country of birth, the Philippines. The traffic problem that remains unsolved and if it had not been solved by the present administration then the person who can solve it is not yet born.  

In the school where I work there are two ways in which a student can go to school and go back home—either riding in one's car or as a bus passenger. 

A student rides on a bus to and from school and during field trips and school events.  I noticed there are only a few who ride cars since most ride on the bus. 

Imagine a school with more than 2,000 enrollees and less than a hundred ride on cars. The bus passengers are grouped based on where they live and there are bus stops specifically situated in their areas. 

I learned that there are 25 students in each bus. A school conductor or a nurse assigned to students with learning difficulties are also in the bus which is equipped with emergency kits and radios. 

The drivers and other personnel inside the bus deal first with the bus passengers and since they are employed by the school system, they are expected to help deal positively with the students.

Seven years ago I saw a lot of yellow buses like the bus showed in the movie Forrest Gump and learned that it is used by a lot of schools. Federal and state regulations prohibit other buses from using the same color and design used on school buses. 

And I was thinking that school buses may help mitigate the traffic congestion all over the major cities in the Philippines. 

Right now in Cagayan de Oro for example, private cars, motorcycles, motorelas and at times trucks are parked in front of schools to fetch students and teachers to and from the schools. 

The result is chaos in the roads and streets with all sorts of vehicles stuck in traffic along with passenger jeepneys. Both the Departments of Education and Public Works and Highways should acquire buses.

Students will be safer, more manageable and can interact more with their classmates instead of being isolated which can help build character and camaraderie.

Not all students can ride especially those that live nearby or prefer to ride their own cars. Those living nearby can walk to and from the school.  It is a choice but riding buses should be encouraged.

I did some research and I learned that in the US and Canada, riding buses had started since the early 19th century. Once buses are used as a major source of public transportation, fewer cars may be in the roads and traffic would be easier.

Parents can work without fear that their children are waiting for them in school and they would be spared transportation costs since it is paid by the government. Or the transport costs can be incorporated as part of tuition paid to the school.

Here at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools where I teach, the teachers would meet the students at the bus stop in the school premises on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. 

The other days of the week the students can walk and go to the classrooms except for the special needs kids where they would be helped at all times. 

Back in the Philippines, local governments can fund a public school bus program that can be a source of revenue or funded by their congressman/congresswoman in their district. 

…………………………………………………..

Allow me to extend my heartfelt condolences to the family of the late Karen Garrido Cuenca who died last week of breast cancer. Karen was the classmate of my younger sister Aida at Xavier University.

Years ago in the course of my work if there are issues that concern education, teachers and the like, Karen would gladly help me discuss it with simplicity and clarity. I read somewhere that in her last moments she was still smiling. 

Her death which came a month before Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October should remind women to be always on guard about one's health since early detection can save lives. 

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

Farewell to Randy

"Love ya, mean it" Randy Peek

by Susan Palmes-Dennis 

This is an original quote from the “Life Lessons and Funny Sayings of Randy Peek” distributed during his funeral services in one cold  morning in January 2016 at Rockingham, North Carolina. 

The “Life Lessons” is contained in two pages of blue paper and when folded it becomes a four page compilation of advices as heard by his children and those close to him, lessons that he learned as he dealt with life. 

It is an original gathering of sayings divided into four portions: “Him on Living Life, Him on Chasing girls, Him on working, Him on family. 

The Life Lessons was put together by his children Nicole Troxell, Jessica Scott, Isaac Peek, Jacob Peek and cousin Catherine Atkinson. 

I met Randy six years ago when Ronnie and me went to Myrtle Beach and he was doing repairs on the beach house of Dean and Ann Dennis. 

The moment we met was not a “getting to know you”, it was as if we have met in our lifetime already. 

Something about his personality made me feel welcome to the family and beyond that.  

I hung around with Randy while he continued on his work. He talked about Ronnie and of course his escapades with “girls.”  To my mind it could have been escapades as told to him by some friends.

Sincerity can be felt in the conversation of how he “kept Ronnie always on the loop” and that’s how I felt that time. 

Since then during family gatherings in September and December we bumped into each other and the smile was there as he inquired how Ronnie was doing.

Actually Randy's funeral service was a story of his life as told by cousins, children and friends including Reverend Wesley Williams, who is a family friend. 

Randy was diagnosed with colon cancer in September last year a few days after the Guinn get together and the family was devastated after hearing the news. 

My husband Ronnie would be checking on the latest on Randy’s condition from his brothers Bill, Keith and Dean and every talk ends with Ron's sad face and I knew then it was not a good indication. I never asked about it, I observed. 

Talking about his cancer Randy said “Ain’t going to do nobody no good for me to be a sappy pussy about it all.”  And true enough he lived until his last breath as he refused further treatment. 

Randy enjoyed life to the fullest

Randy stayed for about a month at the hospital. 

He was heard telling a nurse who  brought a bucket with toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and soap “well that looks like about four hunned (hundred) dollars’ worth of stuff.” 

When asked about his colonoscopy he said that he “woke up feeling so good.” “I never knew I’d feel so good after having something stuck up my ass. No wonder there are so many queers in this world.”

He used his condition to crack jokes to forget about the pain and what the future had in store for him. Randy is Ronnie's cousin (according to Ronnie but I think otherwise).

Randy is the son of Ronnie’s first cousin Catherine Causey Peek who is the first cousin of Ronnie’s mother -their mothers being sisters (whatever!). Under Philippine Law Randy would be Ronnie’s nephew.  

Randy would lavish me with tales and stories about him and the Dennis boys. He belongs to them and they belong to him that when he breathed his last the Dennis boys at least for Ronnie felt the emptiness. 

While at the hospital he was quoted as saying why his blood pressure was coming down. “It’s coming down because you are moving away from me.”

Or when he was asked;”Dad how ya feeling?” he said “I am a low rotation (talking about the nurses. Looking forward for the hotties to come back.”

When we saw him at Carter Funeral Home Colonial Chapel at Rockingham, North Carolina my first experience alone with the dead happened with Randy. 

Tell you this; Ronnie and I arrived first at his funeral service as we drove for two hours from Cornelius.  The funeral parlor staff asked the name of the dead person we were visiting. 

Upon being told he said ” he is there” pointing to a room. About this time Ronnie, true to his being a bladder leaker, told me “I met you there while I used the rest room.” 

So I went to the room as directed. I got inside a room with chairs, an elevated center with the US Flag with what appears to be a chapel. A casket at the center alone by itself. 

The room was deserted except for Randy Lee inside his casket I assumed. I walked towards it by mustering all the courage and strength of the descendants of the great Jose Rizal (national hero of the Filipnos who was never scared of the Spaniards.). Armed with that lofty thought, I marched towards the casket. 

He was sleeping like a baby with his Western style clothing including a vest. He looked as if he was prepared to go to a party and it sort of was because those who visited were told about how Randy celebrated life. 

I thought he winked at me. I don’t know but I felt all the hairs at my back played with me and the Catholic in me started reciting marathon prayers for the dead.  I was perspiring. 

I don’t know how many minutes I was alone with the dead until I heard Ronnie's voice and what sounded like Keith's voice. What is sure is that I finished my rosary so fast that I probably gave a hard time to the saints to keep pace with the mysteries and the litany. 

Me with Randy at Rockingham, North Carolina

It took some time for Ronnie and his brother Keith to join me at that room. 

Randy served in the US army in Iraq and that made him patriotic. But he was doing carpentry all his life.  

He was very good in carpentry and truth be told that he was sought after carpenter here and there.
His carpentry was a work of art as he gave his all to become the best in his work. I learned that he had been a member of the Church of Christ.

It's been months since he passed away but to his loved ones and to me, Randy Peek will live on, his life lessons to endure beyond the grave.


(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.

Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

Farewell to Randy

"Love ya, mean it" Randy Peek

by Susan Palmes-Dennis 

This is an original quote from the “Life Lessons and Funny Sayings of Randy Peek” distributed during his funeral services in one cold  morning in January 2016 at Rockingham, North Carolina. 

The “Life Lessons” is contained in two pages of blue paper and when folded it becomes a four page compilation of advices as heard by his children and those close to him, lessons that he learned as he dealt with life. 

It is an original gathering of sayings divided into four portions: “Him on Living Life, Him on Chasing girls, Him on working, Him on family. 

The Life Lessons was put together by his children Nicole Troxell, Jessica Scott, Isaac Peek, Jacob Peek and cousin Catherine Atkinson. 

I met Randy six years ago when Ronnie and me went to Myrtle Beach and he was doing repairs on the beach house of Dean and Ann Dennis. 

The moment we met was not a “getting to know you”, it was as if we have met in our lifetime already. 

Something about his personality made me feel welcome to the family and beyond that.  

I hung around with Randy while he continued on his work. He talked about Ronnie and of course his escapades with “girls.”  To my mind it could have been escapades as told to him by some friends.

Sincerity can be felt in the conversation of how he “kept Ronnie always on the loop” and that’s how I felt that time. 

Since then during family gatherings in September and December we bumped into each other and the smile was there as he inquired how Ronnie was doing.

Actually Randy's funeral service was a story of his life as told by cousins, children and friends including Reverend Wesley Williams, who is a family friend. 

Randy was diagnosed with colon cancer in September last year a few days after the Guinn get together and the family was devastated after hearing the news. 

My husband Ronnie would be checking on the latest on Randy’s condition from his brothers Bill, Keith and Dean and every talk ends with Ron's sad face and I knew then it was not a good indication. I never asked about it, I observed. 

Talking about his cancer Randy said “Ain’t going to do nobody no good for me to be a sappy pussy about it all.”  And true enough he lived until his last breath as he refused further treatment. 

Randy enjoyed life to the fullest

Randy stayed for about a month at the hospital. 

He was heard telling a nurse who  brought a bucket with toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and soap “well that looks like about four hunned (hundred) dollars’ worth of stuff.” 

When asked about his colonoscopy he said that he “woke up feeling so good.” “I never knew I’d feel so good after having something stuck up my ass. No wonder there are so many queers in this world.”

He used his condition to crack jokes to forget about the pain and what the future had in store for him. Randy is Ronnie's cousin (according to Ronnie but I think otherwise).

Randy is the son of Ronnie’s first cousin Catherine Causey Peek who is the first cousin of Ronnie’s mother -their mothers being sisters (whatever!). Under Philippine Law Randy would be Ronnie’s nephew.  

Randy would lavish me with tales and stories about him and the Dennis boys. He belongs to them and they belong to him that when he breathed his last the Dennis boys at least for Ronnie felt the emptiness. 

While at the hospital he was quoted as telling Ronnie why his blood pressure was coming down. “It’s coming down because you are moving away from me.”

Or when he was asked;”Dad how ya feeling?” he said “I am a low rotation (talking about the nurses. Looking forward for the hotties to come back.”

When we saw him at Carter Funeral Home Colonial Chapel at Rockingham, North Carolina my first experience alone with the dead happened with Randy. 

Tell you this; Ronnie and I arrived first at his funeral service as we drove for two hours from Cornelius.  The funeral parlor staff asked the name of the dead person we were visiting. 

Upon being told he said ” he is there” pointing to a room. About this time Ronnie, true to his being a bladder leaker, told me “I met you there while I used the rest room.” 

So I went to the room as directed. I got inside a room with chairs, an elevated center with the US Flag with what appears to be a chapel. A casket at the center alone by itself. 

The room was deserted except for Randy Lee inside his casket I assumed. I walked towards it by mustering all the courage and strength of the descendants of the great Jose Rizal (national hero of the Filipnos who was never scared of the Spaniards.). Armed with that lofty thought, I marched towards the casket. 

He was sleeping like a baby with his Western style clothing including a vest. He looked as if he was prepared to go to a party and it sort of was because those who visited were told about how Randy celebrated life. 

I thought he winked at me. I don’t know but I felt all the hairs at my back played with me and the Catholic in me started reciting marathon prayers for the dead.  I was perspiring. 

I don’t know how many minutes I was alone with the dead until I heard Ronnie's voice and what sounded like Keith's voice. What is sure is that I finished my rosary so fast that I probably gave a hard time to the saints to keep pace with the mysteries and the litany. 

Me with Randy at Rockingham, North Carolina

It took some time for Ronnie and his brother Keith to join me at that room. 

Randy served in the US army in Iraq and that made him patriotic. But he was doing carpentry all his life.  

He was very good in carpentry and truth be told that he was sought after carpenter here and there.
His carpentry was a work of art as he gave his all to become the best in his work. I learned that he had been a member of the Church of Christ.

It's been months since he passed away but to his loved ones and to me, Randy Peek will live on, his life lessons to endure beyond the grave.


(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.

Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

An open letter to the FACC

Dear members and officers of the FACC:

Susan is my name not Silence. 

As a former journalist, I've gotten used to the fact that people either like you or hate you for your work. I chose to believe that many have benefited from my work especially the voiceless.

I am an old-timer who experienced all sorts of “hate remarks”, threats and ad boycotts to my program during the course of my career.  I'm no troublemaker, I don't go looking for trouble. 

I settle things, I mediate but I don't back down from any fight I believe is worth pursuing. When I arrived here in the US, I didn't expect that I would also experience vicious attacks to my person since I believed that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, where speaking out is not only allowed but encouraged as well.

We are all human beings who get hurt by whatever is spoken out or written against us. As a former journalist, I've been on the receiving end of attacks or “violent responses” from people who were hurt by what I wrote or spoke about them.

I know they got hurt and as a fellow human being I have feelings too but I won't let sentimentality and friendships get in the way of doing my work.

Right now, I am not happy when people or members of the organization would ramble because of an OPINION I wrote. “There are so many friendships and trusts that had been broken because of your current article. I hope that's nothing to be proud of,” was one such message I received. 

If anything I exercised my freedom of speech. Who was it who said “I would rather have a bad press than no press at all.” “Life would to be boring and boredom is a sin,” was one other saying I've learned about relating to freedom of expression.

To anyone reading this, I apologize if what I am posting today is long winded but I have to lay down my background first to help you understand where I'm coming from in light of the attacks against me. 

Trust me this is not Writing 101. Just read on. When I left the Philippines six years ago, I left both careers in journalism and teaching that touched a lot of colleagues back there.

One fellow practitioner is Maricel Casino-Rivera, a former broadcast journalist who is now City Information Officer of Cagayan de Oro City Hall. 

Her post in my own Facebook page reads thus: Hi ma'am San, so proud of you and of what you have become. We were together in the media years back but before I entered d media community, I have already known madame Susan Naelga P. Dennis as one of the fearless, independent and respected broadcasters in Cagayan de Oro City...she was a mentor to many budding journalists then.” 

“Anyone here who has been trained by Ma'am Susan would still remember how conscious she is of her integrity and credibility as a media person......even politicians, community leaders, high ranking officials in the military and law enforcment agencies regard her with respect that many journalists envy for it is something not easily earned.”

Okay, now let me proceed. Arriving in Charlotte, I looked for churches and libraries and then newspapers, since I used to work for one back home. I found some one page newsletters at the Food Lion and Harris Teeter until I finally found Asian Herald, a monthly publication. 

I finally met Dr. Nini who recommended me  to Asian Herald and I wrote for them for about a year until I stopped since I was maintaining a blog already.  

It was during the term of Florami Lao Cordero-Lee, past president of the Fil-American Community of the Carolinas (FACC) that I started writing about the events being held by the group and I branched out to writing about Fil-Americans in the North Carolina community and about issues and events concerning my home country and the US. 

I maintained a weekly column in Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro Publications and my blogs in Google (Blogger.com) and Bloghernetwork.com. I write for free though I do get a dime or two if anyone bothered to click on the Google Ads.

So my writing about the past activities of FACC and its current state of affairs is not new. I post my writings on the FACC group even if many of my friends are not members of FACC. 

Last night with some IT assistance I checked on the FACC page, a closed group composed of 688 members and seven administrators. They are all friends or acquaintances but I am surprised that there's no administrator from last year's board of directors or the newly installed interim BOD.   

Now on to current FACC issues which have turned me into a target of attacks. The December 5, 2015 election raised some issues which I am convinced should be written about so that FACC members may know about it. 

There were so many questions that came out after that any journalist with hard earned experience in the street would really love to do a follow-up. 

This second piece which is actually an “opinion” and is not, I would like to stress, a news story has sparked a firestorm of controversy of sorts in the FACC circle. 

Many or if not all of them are educated and they know the difference between a news story and an opinion. Writing my opinion doesn't necessarily mean I have to get your side because it is my opinion.  

I posted the second piece that I wrote on the FACC page after a long answer or comment from one of the FACC founding fathers, Wally Penilla. 

I happened to know that my post was deleted/taken out/removed because someone asked me that she could not find the post. I told her that it was there,  just scroll. She later told me that the “attachment is not available.”

I went to the page and true enough, I saw that the “attachment is not available.” I also checked my own Facebook Profile page and my Straight from the Carolinas page to see if the blog was there. The post is still there until now. 

Now I am being accused of having deleted or removed my own post. Excuse me, I didn't remove or delete it. I don't care how they came out with that accusation, I am no IT expert.

That said, I can post my own blog and share it since it doesn't require that much expertise. Again I must stress that I did not remove or delete it. Why should I? I want the FACC members to know what is happening to them so they can form their own opinions too. 

They may not agree with my opinion but at least they can have one or two. Second point is that my piece is still posted in my Blogger.com blog. The link is not broken nor moved to another folder as suggested by an IT expert I knew.

But here is the kicker and it is sad for me to say it but I have to do it. 

Hours before my post was removed from the FACC Facebook page, a former FACC president requested me to just delete it because she is a member of the FACC Advisory Council which I described as “pathetic.”

She said she was hurt by the comment and explained that it was damaging to the FACC. It would drive away other Fil-Americans out of the group and discourage others from joining.

Much as I respect her sentiments, I told her I cannot do it. But I told them that I can follow it up by sitting down with them and letting whoever wants to answer the questions I raised about the FACC election.

I quote her verbatim: “Hi Susan, I know I've been so quiet and have not posted anything but I'm one of the advisory council that you're referring in your blog. We had the meeting and since this organization was founded by just a few and now became the advisory council and that includes me. I would like to ask you for the sake of the community to remove your posting, it will just damaging the integrity of FACC. ..thank you.”

She might have good intentions to resolve the issues but giving in to her request would run against everything I believed in as a journalist which is to expose the truth for the sake of public interest or in this case the interest of the whole FACC membership. 

Dare I say it, the request was tantamount to censorship which is anathema to my sensibilities as a former journalist and as a person. I had no idea what happened to my controversial post at the FACC page when I haven't experienced anything like it since I started blogging.

It is strange indeed. But now I am being schooled, lectured and told about putting the interests of a group of officials above anything else, even the truth. Please don't do that to me, don’t insult my intelligence.

Maria Weezorak's post at the FACC page explains what may have happened to the post and I am quoting it. “Post and link/attachment are totally different. Removing post and reporting a link are totally different. A post can be removed by the user and admin only (and FB of course).”

“Links and attachments are controlled by a user (person who posts it), by FB authority and by the blog/website host. But once it is reported as an offensive material and FB thinks it is a violation of Community Standards, then the "particular" link will be broken. Note: The original blog/or material will still be available at the original location.”

As someone familiar with online social media, I know what a post and a link are. But I don’t know how and why the link to my post was broken. I suspect that it is a diversionary tactic meant to cloud the election issues hounding the FACC leadership.

I want to use the right words in describing whoever made the decision to delete my post. "Good writing is the hardest form of thinking." It involves lucid, crystal clear thinking and conveying these thoughts into language that is both visible and resonant to the reader. 

 I want you, the reader, to feel what I write. My choice of the word “pathetic” means sad, deplorable, wanting. 

I used it to describe the current election troubles at the FACC. There is no malice or bad faith in my choice of words. I was not writing a praise release. Does it hurt because it is true? 

If it did, then too bad. According to Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton there are no band-aids for hurt feelings. My answer to all these accusations and complaints against me for my controversial post and link: Quo Vadis, FACC.

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.

Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.

You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

Election troubles at the FACC

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

The Fil-American Community of the Carolinas (FACC) is growing through a rough patch amid the attempts by its advisory board to resolve the issues surrounding this “Jack N' Poy (the Filipino term for the rock, paper, scissors game to the unfamiliar)” routine done during its recent elections.

The FACC's Advisory Board is composed of its former presidents and was formed 25 years ago by the steering committee. The FACC's incorporation was approved in 1990 and since then had become a “vibrant community of engaged and caring individuals” according to 2003 FACC president Dr. Nini RB Bautista de Garcia.

The FACC Advisory Board recently posted on its Facebook group page which I would like to quote in toto:

“-Request that the new 2016 BOD (under Bobby Escobal) submit to the current Comelec (Steve Mirman) for immediate induction of new officers. Officers that have served in 2015 and are in the same position for 2016 will not be inducted. Only those officers who are new to the group and new to their position need to be inducted.

-Publication of the new resolution with the new set of 2016 BOD to all the Advisory Council and all the membership in the website, Facebook and blast e-mail the membership.

-Request an immediate BOD initial meeting in order to secure on-time reservations to venues.

OTHER PLANS FOR 2016 (can be administered by the Advisory Council , BOD or any volunteers)
- By-laws Amendments (Steve Mirman – Coordinator)
- Membership Records/Procedures Review (Coordinator to be determined)
- Website management/policy (Coordinator to be determined)
- Secretary-General appointment
Comelec Committee (Bert Rodriguez – Coordinator.”

This resolution simply means that there would be no general assembly as well for the 2015 Board of Directors to serve as 2016 officers. A friend told me there is nothing wrong with holdover officers as it happened when there were no persons interested in running the FACC. Not on this case. I respectfully disagree.

In this case it is really wrong since there was already an election that was held and invalidated. The principle of holdover can only be applied  before an election where the body would also decide on their interim officers.

Assuming that the FACC's 2015 Board of Directors agreed to extend their time then their mandate is from the advisory board and not from the assembly. And ideally in a democracy that is a no no because the officers will be beholden to the body that give them power. This is a case of giving power to the few and the elite.    

I’ve been reading the engagement of ideas on the issue since Ed Onia's first post and subsequent reactions  made by Tony Amor and Rogelio Lawsin which, to refresh the memory of those who forgot about or chose not to remember it was espoused on the principles of transparency, check and balance and independence. 

All three called for a general assembly, an act of participatory governance. Are the honorable members of the advisory board aware of this brazen, “animal-like” emasculation done by its members of the election process? 

Or are they aware of this but they refused to acknowledge that fact? It is pathetic indeed. Sad because we are here in our adoptive country that gave birth to democracy.   

Nowhere did the FACC board acknowledge the inputs of those people I’ve mentioned.What happened?Are those who gave inputs  “back seat drivers.” 

Not that these people need to be acknowledged but it is the essence of democracy that we learned from Philippine national heroes Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio that we take heed of the sentiments of those with a genuine sense of concern and commitment to the group. 

While many may argue that the FACC is not a government but I tell you that organizations like the FACC are tantamount to being basic units of governance and governance requires participatory democracy.

Participation is not a new element of governance that gained popularity in recent attempts. It is an attempt to include the ideas of the governed that can be used in case the leadership has failed to do its part in addressing the concerns of its constituents.

In a general membership meeting, there's a meeting of many minds that can produce ideas that can be used to shape future decisions.

The FACC Advisory Board failed to acknowledge the call for a general membership meeting in order to hear the views of all those interested responsible persons so they can decide to vote on the issue of selecting its leaders.

It is crystal clear that the FACC's Commission on Elections (Comelec) abdicated its responsibility to the Advisory Council which, by its own admission, does not have any governing power.

Or is it that the few elite (my apologies) still wants to pull the strings from behind the scenes?  

Cooperatives, government big and small, non-government organizations (NGOs) and civil society groups here and abroad recognize the importance of participation in addition to transparency and check and balance.  

 I believe on the capacity of course of the advisory board otherwise they would not be there if they were not elected or volunteered for the positions because they believe they are capable of doing the tasks required of them.

But what is disturbing here is that among the other plans listed by the FACC's current leadership for this year 2016 is that the tasks of the advisory board “can now be handled by the Advisory Council, board of directors and any volunteer.”

Why give too much power to a group? Why not share it and the responsibilities that accompany it to others who are just, if not more, as committed to the group in the spirit of participatory governance? 

It is when the citizens or members participate that we can truly have an empowered organization. I won't be surprised when there would be members who would just fade away from FACC or join other organizations.  

The election issues in the FACC remains unresolved as far as I am concerned. 

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines and is now employed as teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

What's with the Jack N' Poy in the FACC elections?

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

The Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz once wrote that ”in a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.” 

Milosz, who became a US citizen in the 70s, continued talking about the issues on his native Poland and his vigilance helped awaken social awareness among his people. 

The recent invalidation of the election results of the Fil-American Community of the Carolinas (FACC) last December 5 by the FACC-Commission on Elections (Comelec) here at Charlotte, North Carolina and the events that happened earlier stirred up a hornet's nest that resulted in a fiery exchange between members and non-members at the group's Facebook page.

It all started with one post from Ed Onia. Nowhere did I see an outpouring of ideas and opinions of an event involving the FACC in recent time. It showed the passion of the Fil-American community for the FACC. 

The controversy stemmed from allowing two persons to play a game of Jack N' Poy—the Filipino equivalent of paper, rock and scissors—with the winner taking the presidency.  

The FACC-Comelec is the sole body entrusted with overseeing the elections and has the authority to resolve any election related issues. Anyone else trying to make a declaration that doesn't have its approval is guilty of usurpation of power.

Lest it be forgotten the FACC-Comelec's authority emanates from the supreme will of the members.

The by-laws are clear on this so what made the FACC-Comelec allow the two candidates to play Jack N' Poy when it is only allowed during a tie in election results? 

Why not allow those present in the meeting to agree to vote for the two candidates? The winner needs only seven votes. Or was it because there were members of the FACC-Comelec who doesn't want any secret balloting?

Dr. Tony Amor said that if the results of the December 5, 2015 elections are “still inconclusive to this day” and the parties involved cannot come to any reasonable agreement, then “the FACC Comelec should invalidate the aforementioned election results and call for a general meeting for the purpose of electing a new set of officers.” 

Amor posted his comment before the FACC-Comelec invalidated the result of the Jack N' Poy.

He also said it is “within the FACC-Comelec's authority to resolve any election matters as specified in the by-laws.”

“Duly registered members who are unable to attend the general election meeting should still be able to cast their ballots by mail-in paper proxy, email or on this FACC Facebook page,” he said.

The invalidation is also misleading because if the election of the president was invalidated, it also casts serious doubts on those elected to other positions. Is their election tainted or was there also Jack N' Poy involved?

I can only commiserate with the FACC-Comelec for this situation. I can only theorize that they were tired with dealing with it and that they've dealt with it more than once in the past few years. 

Familiarity can get boring sometimes. But by allowing this Jack N' Poy to happen, the FACC-Comelec gave its blessing to those who instigated this farce and opened the floodgates of outrage ventilated by the group's members and even non-members who care about the FACC. 

Did the FACC-Comelec abdicate its duty and allow the Jack N' Poy so they can buy peace within the group? Jack N' Poy, hale, hae hoy and poof, their job is done?

This could only worsen the situation and provoke and agitate those who put their faith in the group, believing that everything is okay and there's nothing to fix. 

Having allowed the two presidential candidates to agree among themselves in their presence, the FACC-Comelec only succeeds in cheapening the presidency and other posts in the group. 

Florami Lao Cordero-Lee, past FACC president, said the group is about transparencies and the members have to “know the truth.

“Someone is slithering like a snake somehow and is lying about everything, just to be a president,” Florami said. She did not elaborate who she was referring too.

The Jack N' Poy also sends the wrong signal that guidelines and by-laws can be by-passed simply because there were years that there were no candidates or volunteers to the positions. 

Or was it because nobody is watching, that they don’t even attend or take into consideration the sentiments of the members? That was a wrong move—my apologies because the FACC and its FACC-Comelec needs a “pistol shot of truth” to be awakened and reminded of their duties and mandate to their members.

That pistol shot or several pistol shots were the Facebook posts that commented and questioned that Jack N' Poy allowed by the FACC-Comelec.

Did the recent incident awaken a sleeping volcano of sentiment (resentment?) among the FACC members? That volcano was bound to erupt after years of neglect by the group and the abuse of power of the few.
   
Times are different now, times are changing. The group's constitution and its by-laws must be pragmatic and dynamic, it must be attuned to serve the future. 

Gone are the days of “tayo-tayo (us together)” and “ato ni (this is ours)”, when people are holding on to power ad infinitum as principles of transparency,check and balance and fixed terms of office are in place.

That those elected to office are reminded that a sword of Damocles is hanging over their heads lest they violate the terms of their tenure.

Events are easily reported due to social media and technology. No more secrets because even before secrets are revealed, they are already disclosed and tweeted to the public.

This Jack N' Poy is a litmus test on the FACC-Comelec's credibility and it can redeem itself from extinction by calling for a general membership meeting the soonest time possible.

Is the FACC beyond reform? Read the next blog on Straight from the Carolinas.

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines and is now employed teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)