The First APA Supervisor
DEAR EDITOR: How sad it is that your article on Asian Pacific American members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, “Watching the Sunset” (Aug. 15), left out Honorary George Chinn, the first APA to sit on the San Francisco board. Supervisor Chinn was appointed by Mayor Joseph Alioto to complete the term of Supervisor J. Roger Boas, who had resigned in 1973. Supervisor Chinn had topped the field of candidates for a seat on the Board of Education in the first direct election of members of that board in 1972 following many years of voters confirming (or not) the appointments of the mayor. George Chinn received favorable notice as president of the Board of Education, and so Mayor Alioto appointed him as a supervisor. The voters chose not to return him to the Board in the 1973 election when former Police Chief Al Nelder was elected to the Board. Supervisor Chinn ran again in old District 11 against Ron Pelosi but finished back in the field. It is a shame that this valuable public official has been forgotten.
Paul Rosenberg
San Francisco
Vandalism or Hate Crime?
DEAR EDITOR: I wrote to Mayor Willie Brown on June 30 requesting that the vandalism of city property in the North Beach area by Ed Yee be investigated as a racially motivated hate crime. Yee has been pasting homemade American flag stickers around San Francisco’s North Beach for the last 10 years. Lieutenant Morris Tabak wrote to me July 30 indicating that in his opinion, this was not a hate crime and that the case is under investigation by the General Works detail.
To the best of my knowledge, it is the duty of the Special Investigations Unit to investigate and determine whether a hate crime is bias motivated, not the General Works detail. Some criteria for concluding that a crime being bias motivated is what the suspect has said, what the community thinks, has it happened in the neighborhood before and was the same group targeted more than once.
Apparently Inspector Pieralde has interrogated Mr. Yee. I spoke to the inspector today and tried to ask if he pursued a line of questioning to determine if Mr. Yee holds racial animus toward Italians or European Americans (“whites”). He became irritated with my probing questions, and the conversation went downhill from there. My opinion was that the inspector considers Mr. Yee to lack some sense of reality. That may be true, but he may still have a hatred for Italians and European Americans. That cannot be tolerated and can be prosecuted as a racially motivated hate crime.
The first paragraph of the San Francisco Chronicle article “Old Glory Hound Irks North Beach” (June 29) reads: “Yee, it seems, is insulted by the blatant use of the Italian flag which was placed to recognize the people of Italian ancestry who inhabited North Beach.” There are other incriminating statements in the article.
KRON reporter Don Knapp reported that Yee stated, “I see an American flag by an Italian flag; [the American flag] looks better to me.” North Beach resident Marsha Garland thinks it has something to do with Lee being angry at his community.
The European American Issues Forum is deeply troubled by what we consider shoddy treatment by this city as we try, in a responsible manner, to represent the interests of some European Americans in this community. Hatred from others, being directed against European Americans, is not an uncommon occurrence in this city. We respectfully demand justice in this case.
Louis Calabro, European American Issues Forum
San Bruno, Calif.
Help With Private Relief Bill
DEAR EDITOR: I write to you in hopes that you will take 10 minutes of your time to help save my family. My name is Hitesh Tolani. I am a rising junior at Wofford College, a small private liberal arts school in South Carolina.
My family is in a huge predicament. My father’s untimely demise has left my mother and me as illegal aliens in the United States. Now, we are shockingly facing sudden deportation to India on Nov. 23, even though we have lived here for the past 19 years. The INS has refused to hear our appeals. Further complicating matters, my mother is in remission from breast cancer, and the medical expenses have exhausted our savings. My younger brother will probably be forced into foster care if we have to leave.
Fortunately, Sen. Strom Thurmond has stepped forward to introduce a Private Relief Bill for us. But though the bill is being introduced, there is only a 10 percent chance it will pass. The South Carolina Congressional Delegation is supporting it 100 percent, but that leaves 49 other states to back it up.
I am humbly asking the members of the Asian Pacific American community to come together and help save us. There is strength in numbers. Therefore, I beg of you to come together to help.
Visit the form letter at http://chickna1.tripod.com/Letter.htm, and then please take 10 minutes of your time to e-mail it to California state senators Barbara Boxer at http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.html and Dianne Feinstein at senator@feinstein.senate.gov, or to your senators across the country.
This is our home, and they are uprooting us. Imagine someone coming to your door tomorrow and telling you to leave everything you’ve ever known. What do you take with you? What do you leave behind? How do you decide which memories are more important? Imagine already having lost your father, almost losing your mother due to cancer, and now having to be separated from your brother. Unfathomable, isn’t it?
Once again, I am begging you to do this. Please feel free to contact me at Tolanihg@Wofford.edu.
Hitesh Tolani
via e-mail
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