Giving Thanks (Feature) Access to Sept. 11 Relief Still Elusive for New York’s APA Community (in National News) Task Forces Examines Thurgood Marshall Incident (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: 2002 Gamer’s Gift Guide (in Business) Mark Chung: American Soccer’s Coolest Man (in Sports) A Piece of Raw Humanity (in A&E) Emil Amok: Good and Plenty (in Opinion)

Being Grateful For What We Have

Thanksgiving is my cousin’s birthday and he’s turning 11. For his 10th birthday, I got him a discman and started him out with the basics — a little bit of Bob Marley, Talvin Singh’s Anokha and Nirvana’s Bleach. This year I really wanted to find a book that would talk about the state of the world — you know, globalization, the American empire and what not; Noam Chomsky for pre-teens if you will — but aimed for the 10 to 12 set. The search has been futile though and book lists for young adults are turning up finds like Rudyard Kipling and Helen Keller’s biography. This is starting to worry me a great deal. There must be books out there explaining the origins of this country that don’t have kids focusing in on turkeys and cornbread? Right?

But sometimes looking at what’s missing out there in the world makes you grateful for what is there. In this issue, we decided to reach out and thank some of those people that often go without gratitude — everyone from a Justice for Airport Screeners organizer to the guy who takes your complaints at MUNI. Here’s a few more things that we are thankful for:

Independent Media: With the “War on Terror” raging and a war in Iraq about to begin, independent media sources, from alternet.org to groundbreaking docu-journalists like Michael Moore are keeping the nation informed and questioning. Check out the Independent Press Association’s great roundup of ethnic news from New York, “Voices That Must Be Heard” at www.indypress.org and Pacific News Service’s great “Bridges to the New California” site at www.pacificnews.org.

Political Power: Over 100 Asian Pacific Americans were elected to office this year. Voter turnout in ethnic enclaves like San Francisco’s Chinatown was high and more and more APAs are joining third parties as major players — proving that APAs can both rock the vote and rock the two-party political boat. What more do I have to say?

A Building Movement: APAs are making their voices heard loud and clear in the face of the new ban on civil liberties. Organizations like Seattle’s Campaign for a Hate Free Zone and the Bay Area’s Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition Against War can be seen en masse at protests and marches, showing that APAs are at the heart of the new movement growing in this country.

And lastly, thank you dear AsianWeek reader for your continued support — you make our world go round.

— Neela Banerjee