Dear Editor: I am writing in response to the article “Violence Spotlights Lao Community,” (Dec. 7).
The article states:
In retrospect, he said his family is trying to understand the merchant and deal with their anger without hating back. “A black person did this to us but I can’t hate all black people. Our parents taught us right,” Soonthorn said.
“We went to schools where the majority of people were black. And we are minorities, too. Dealing with a situation like this is really hard, really complicated.”
This reasonable comment was from the son of a tragic beating victim in Baltimore, an Asian American man. We need to acknowledge the European American victims of hate crimes in San Francisco also. Please accept this basic responsibility. If we do not acknowledge a problem — there is little chance of solving it.
Also, the main question to ask the police is: Did the interrogation of the suspects contain a line of questioning that would bring out racial animus against the race of the victim? It appears as though the police have forgotten this simple investigative technique when searching for racial animus.
Louis Calabro
European/American Issues Forum
San Bruno, Calif.
Editor’s Note: The following letter was a message posted Nov. 24 on AsianWeek’s online discussion bulletin (http://www.asianweek.com/bb_frameset.html).
Dear Editor: I recently read columnist Phil Nash’s comment on the Florida elections, “Florida, Through a Third World Lens,” (Nov. 24).
How people perceive America is a very interesting topic, but one must recall from events of the past how a society and country became what they are today.
When the Constitution was drawn up, there was a major argument over how to divide power. We are all familiar with checks and balances, and comments like “vacuum of power.” The Electoral College was designed to protect the smaller states, as was the concept of two senators representing each state. There was also an issue called slavery, in which human beings were considered “chattel.” Our forefathers grappled with these questions and with the knowledge they had produced a magnificent document. One can argue that the document was drawn up by a privileged class, but are not our most educated people considered admirable?
I do admire a person who can paint, or write a beautiful tribute, or analyze a complicated legal document. As we are a republic and not a true democracy, we elect people who we trust to represent us in Washington. I do think that the representatives in Philadelphia were exceptional.
As many TV analysts have stated at the end of their comments about the happenings in Florida: We Americans are not in the streets shooting people, not panicking. We are still going about our business. Why? We have elected officials who we feel are up to the task before them. We may disparage our leaders at times, but we still trust our system.
Although many of the noble ideas in the Declaration of Independence were tested in a terrible Civil War, its words convey, “Yes this is possible.” It is possible to live in a free society, have differences, argue, and make mistakes. We must keep in mind that we had to add ten amendments called the Bill of Rights to our constitution to correct a lack of protection to our people.
Society is not perfect, but it should always continue to correct its mistakes. I feel that we can accept the failures of human beings, and hold out a proclamation: “You can do better; don’t give up.”
I am very proud of the fact that we have a Republican secretary of state in Florida, and Democratic voting officials in the counties involved in the recount. I trust the Supreme Court of Florida. I am proud that we will fight our differences in court with words, and not with guns. I am proud that we are “excited over this election.” I am proud that 100 million people had the duty, right and the desire to vote. I am most proud that we know there is right and wrong, and one vote, and possibly only one vote, can decide such a moment, that one human being can walk into a voting booth and make a decision and walk out knowing that they determine their own future.
Let’s continue to be the best — and read our history. As long as we make mistakes, I know of no better system that allows for correction than ours. Yes, our forefathers knew our weaknesses, and what would make us strong. Let us not disparage our differences, as that is what makes us the United States.
Donald McCarthy
via the Internet
Dear Editor: Thank you for including my letter about James D. Phelan in your Letters to the Editor section, “Facts about Phelan,” (Dec. 14).
I see AsianWeek — like other civil rights oriented Asian American journals/newspapers of the past 100 years — as important sources of research for future scholars and social activists.
It is the ability to recall memory residues, as in the Jewish Holocaust and South African apartheid, that will cleanse and, with hope, obviate such enormous hatred and rendering of one ethnic group into sub-speciation status by another. Otherwise, the unthinkable history repeats itself. In a couple of weeks, the new millennium will officially begin. The curse and sins of the fathers should not revisit future generations.
Raymond Lew
San Francisco
