Capital Moment: Former Rep. Norm Mineta (far left) receives a “Crystal Eagle,” the caucus institute’s achievement award, from the institute’s chairman, Rear Admiral (retired) M.E. Chang, at last Thursday’s dinner in Washington. Looking on are emcees Garrett Wang and Tamlyn Tomita and Rep. Robert Matsui, holding the award . Photo Sam Chu Lin |
More than 1,200 turn out for Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Institute gala
It was a busy and eventful time for Asian Americans in Washington last week. More than 1,200 guests from around the country turned up in the capital for the second annual Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Institute (CAPACI) dinner, which featured President Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker (see excerpts in “Voices” on page 7).
While the caucus is only two years old, its fundraiser has already become the largest and perhaps the most important Asian American political event of the year, especially in this election year. The chair of CAPACI, Congresswoman Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, remembered that she used to “run into [her colleagues, Rep. Norm Mineta and Rep. Bob Matsui], in the hallway, and we’d have a caucus.” Together, they decided to establish a formal caucus to bring attention to Asian American communities and their concerns.
A sure sign of their success, President Clinton’s appearance at the dinner confirmed the importance of Asian American votes. Attendance at the black-tie gala event virtually defines Asian Americans active in national politics. Representing diverse Asian American ethnic groups and viewpoints, everyone from Mink to Matsui to Washington state gubernatorial candidate Gary Locke showed up to honor Mineta for his lifetime achievement.
In an evening emceed by Joy Luck Club movie star Tamlyn Tomita and Star Trek: Voyager series regular Garrett Wang, the audience heard community leader Helen Kim sing the national anthem and “Miss Saigon,” Rona Figueroa, perform Broadway numbers. Two giant-screen televisions projected the images from the stage for the crowd.
During dinner, President Clinton arrived to deliver the keynote address. “As we debate the issue of immigration again, we should never forget that America is a great country because we have welcomed successive generations of immigrants,” he declared.
Addressing a community that has more than doubled in the past decade to a total of nine million individuals, and which is comprised of as many immigrants as native-born citizens, Clinton emphasized that, “This is a country founded on a certain set of ideas ... and anybody willing to embrace them, to work hard to make the most of their own lives, to be responsible, can be an American citizen.”
The Washington Post reported that President Clinton had attended three other events the same evening, but delivered his lengthiest speech to the CAPACI dinner, drawing applause 33 times. Clinton stayed for a few minutes afterward to greet people while the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up”-apparently his campaign theme song this year-played in the background.
Following President Clinton, Rep. Mink gave a fiery talk on “the important place of all legal immigrants.” Mink stated that legal immigrants who are following the rules should be “accorded all the rights and privileges of residents of this country.
“I get heartburn every night when I think about debating it again-this idea that unless you speak the King’s English, you’re not an American,” Mink said. The country should “accept you for what you are, no matter what your accent” and the English-only movement is “a detriment to the concept of democracy,” she said. She later joked that if she could she would speak a different language every day while on the floor of the House.
Concluding her dinner remarks, Mink named 10 new members of CAPACI. The new members include some officials who were elected from districts that are a quarter Asian American, even though they themselves are not Asian American. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who represents San Francisco, is one of the best examples of such an officeholder; she, too, was seated prominently at the dinner. Mink reminded dinner guests that these CAPACI members also “are your representatives.” She urged Asian Americans to work together “in combination with the Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus, together to protect the rights of minority groups.”
After Mink, Matsui introduced his former colleague and the evening’s guest of honor, Mineta. On a personal note, Matsui thanked Mineta for calling him when he was trying to decide whether to run for Congress.
Matsui recalled that he made up his mind thanks to Mineta. Matsui said, “I’ll never forget that phone call, Norm. You didn’t know me. I didn’t know you. But that phone call meant more to me [than the encouragement of other leaders].”
Matsui credited Mineta for the 1988 Civil Rights Act, which provided reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned during World War II. “If anyone had said that in the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, you would be able to get $1.2 billion from the federal government to give to 66,000 people who had been incarcerated during World War II, you’d have said, ‘Good luck, guys.’ We thought we’d keep the pressure on, and when it didn’t pass, we could say it was a good try,” Matsui said.
The measure passed thanks to personal efforts by Mineta. Now an executive with Lockheed Martin, Mineta came to the podium wearing an anti-CCRI button pinned prominently to his lapel.
Mineta recalled the internment “vividly”-he left his home for the internment camps as an 11-year-old, wearing his Cub Scout uniform, carrying a baseball and a baseball glove. Mineta said that he had arrived at the train platform carrying a baseball bat as well, but military police confiscated it as a deadly weapon.
Linking the internment to more recent history, Mineta told a story about the treatment of Arab Americans during the Persian Gulf War against Iraq. Due to the experience of Japanese Americans, Mineta was concerned that Arab Americans would face hostility and suspicion during the Desert Storm military operations.
On the first day of the war, his office received a call from an Arab American doctor living in a suburb of Detroit, which has the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans. Highly upset, the doctor explained that he was a proud Republican who kept photos of himself with President Ronald Reagan and George Bush in his living room. But as soon as the war started, the FBI paid an unannounced visit to his home to ask him about the Arab American community.
Mineta said that after receiving the call, he immediately phoned the director of the FBI. At a meeting in Mineta’s office that afternoon, FBI officials argued that interrogations of Arab Americans were necessary to allay Arab Americans fears, to obtain information from them, and to protect them from their fellow citizens.
Mineta refused to believe these explanations. According to Mineta, “I heard that in 1942. ... If they were protecting us, why were the machine guns pointed at us?”
Accepting his award, Mineta told the audience it was important to continue their political participation. The evening closed on a positive note, with the emcees reminding the audience to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
Aside from having President Clinton as a keynote speaker, the caucus has been scrupulously bipartisan in its activities. Among its board members are Congressman Jay Kim and California Treasurer Matt Fong, both Republicans. The likely G.O.P. presidential nominee, retired Sen. Bob Dole, was an invited speaker and was expected to attend until only a few days before the dinner. Instead, he and his wife sent a letter of greeting, stating, “America is a country rich in diversity, and a country that is very much the better because of the invaluable contributions of Asian Pacific Americans.”
The following day, CAPACI guests turned from the past toward the present and future of Asian American political involvement and policy-making. They heard presentations from Washington insiders on issues such as affirmative action, immigration, small business, and the process of "campaigning" for an appointment to office by the President. The Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee also offered private briefings on their strategies for winning the White House with Asian American assistance. The CAPACI events ended with a White House briefing by Vice President Al Gore and high-ranking officials such as Doris Matsui, Dennis Hayashi, and Paul Igasaki.
As Heritage Month winds down, it is clear that Asian Americans have begun their ascent onto the stage of national politics. As a political group, Asian Americans have arrived at a crucial moment in defining their role in public life.