Land of Bondage, Land of the Free

Curiously, while studying for Calculus, I suddenly wanted to read the great oratorical piece by Raul Manglapus, "Land of Bondage, Land of the Free". Kuya was able to deliver this piece, choreographed brilliantly by papa of course. Sayang, I wanted to deliver this piece too, but the opportunity never came up. Thank goodness kuya posted this on the internet. So I'm posting here to further "preserve" it .

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Land of Bondage, Land of the Free
By Raul Manglapus

And yet, ladies and gentlemen, the tao is constitutionally free! No wonder, then, that the tao being a slave has acquired the habits of a slave.
No wonder that after three centuries in chains, without freedom, without hope, he should lose the erect and fearless posture of a freeman, and become the bent, misshapen, indolent, vicious, pitiful thing that he is!
Who dares accuse him now? Who dares rise up in judgement against this man, reduced to this subhuman level by three centuries of oppession?
Ladies and gentlemen the tao does not come here tonight to be judged -- but to judge!

Hear then his accussation and his sentence:

I indict the Spanish encomendero for inventing taxes impossible to pay!

I indict the usurer for saddling me with debts impossible to bear!

I indict the irresponsible radical leaders who undermine with insidious eloquence the confidence of my kind in our government!

I indict the hacendero for seizing my lands with subtle trickery and reducing me to peonage!

I indict him for sacrificing the honest efforts of an honest government on the altar of his illimitable greed!

You accuse me of ignorance. But I am ignorant because my master finds it profitable to keep me ignorant. Free me from bondage, and I shall prove you false!

You accuse me of indolence. But I am indolent not because I have no will, but because I have no hope.

Why should I labor if the fruits of my labor go to extunguish an inextinguishable debt! Free me from bondage, and I will prove you false!

Give me land. Land to own. Land unbeholden to any tyrant. Land that will be free. Give me land for I am starving. Give me land that my children will not die.

Sell it to me. Sell it to me at a fair price as one free man sells to another. And not as a usurer sells to a slave.

I am poor. But I will pay it! I will work and work until I fall with weariness for my privilege and my right to be free!

But if you will not grant me this last request. This ultimate demand, then build a wall around your homes... build it high!... build it strong!... place a sentry on every parapet... for I who have been silent these three hundred years, will come in the night when you are feasting, with my cry and my bolo at your door...

And may God have mercy on your soul!