If Elvis Presley comes back from the grave for a performance one last time, chances are Bernie Lehrer will be with him. And Bernie will be holding the microphone, if not the guitar. This writer is sure that somewhere in the Great Beyond, Mr. Presley is laughing-out loud (LOL) and more, as the octogenarian Bernie regales him with his Elvis impersonation, as accompanied by witticism and humor that the rock-and-roll king never heard or experienced in his short life on Earth.

This writer never met Bernie Lehrer in person. The Filipino-American poet Maya Teague introduced me online to Bernie. Well, Bernie contributed three articles to, and some comments every time we posted a Maya Teague poem in, this website.

* Editor’s Note: The links to Atty. Lehrer’s articles in this website are found in this obituary piece written by Maya Teague: Bernard Lehrer, LLB, JD, Writes 30 

J ust last February, I sent Bernie an inquiry if he would be interested in helping us organize a Philippine-American Legal Defense and Educational Foundation (PALDEF). I asked him, “Will you be interested in joining our legal arm in the United States?" I told him about our five-pronged approach to uniting the Filipino Americans, beginning with the organization of an "American-Philippine Public Affairs Council (APPAC)" as the first step. He replied: “I’ll help where I can. But present health concerns keep me from making commitments (getting eye surgery and I’ve got a bum back). But I’m still active at the computer. b.” 

On 2/13/2009 8:08:15 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, I sent another e-mail to Atty. Lehrer about our plans of fielding Overseas-Filipino candidates for the 2010 Philippine national elections. I said also that he should retire with us and help us organize in Northern Philippines the ultimate retirement city in the world, which we dub the “Vegas of the East (VOTE).”

I said that the Vegas-style retirement cultural-and-gaming resort project was one of the targets mentioned in the socioeconomic platform of our “ReVOTElution.” I kidded him that he could be the next “Harry Stonehill” and that he could be a better and more socially-relevant version and more-entertaining at that. He replied: “Good luck. Keep me advised.  Bernie.”  

* Editor’s Note: To read more about the planned “revolution through the ballot” for the Philippines, please go to this section, Revotelution. And if readers do not know who Harry Stonehill was, please go to this link, Smoke in Manila - TIME[OPEN_P] Harry S. Stonehill resembles the kind of character that the late Sydney ... "Every man has his price," said Harry Stonehill, and in the Philippines ...
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873686,00.html  

N ow, our plans of seeing Bernie perform his impersonation of Elvis Presley at the “VOTE” are gone. But we do hope that somewhere in the “Filipino Nation of America,” we can find an ABER Filipino or an American married to a Filipino (like Bernie was to the love of his life) who can do a superb imitation of Bernie Lehrer, who was “the quintessential soul for all the ages,” to borrow the words of Maya Teague. (An “ABER Filipino,” as I coined, refers to the “American-born, educated and/or raised scions of Filipino immigrants.”)

Maya continues to describe Bernie: “He became, for me, the father I had lost, the brother I could jostle with, the friend with a quenchless admiration for all things well-cooked, well-endowed and well-written. And may I add how well-lived his life was, too. 

“We were his second family.  I am just grateful he left us with many YouTube videos – some spectacular, others excruciating – clips to remember him by.”

Well, I am very sure that someday, I will get the chance to meet Bernie Lehrer in person in the Great Beyond. And I am doubly sure that he will introduce me to Elvis Presley, who has by this time probably hired Bernie as his personal lawyer. Alas, St. Peter won’t be able to stage another Presley concert without signing the dotted line of a contract that Atty. Lehrer would type out.