Letters to the Editor
October 28, 2005
War Heroes
I was surprised and delighted to see your “Special Salute” (Oct. 13), which paid tribute to the Asian Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces. Your tribute to the heroic 76 killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was most moving.
Your tribute was most important to veterans because San Francisco and most of the Bay Area generally turn their backs on war veterans, who have earned and deserve far better treatment.
Lt. Col. Wallace Levin
Vet. Affairs Commissioner
San Francisco, Calif.
Mangling Names
You find that broadcasters massacre names (“Filipino American Spy in the White House?” Oct. 13). You would think that a reporter would review the story before a broadcast in order not to embarrass himself or herself or the company. It makes me cringe when I hear it and makes me laugh at how ignorant they look and sound.
Cindy Ono
Via e-mail
Name Change
While we have dropped the “Pacific” in our name (“NAPALC Changes to Asian American Justice Center,” Oct. 13), we remain strongly committed to addressing the needs of Pacific Islander Americans.
This is a decision that we have not taken lightly. Over the more than two years that it took us to make this change, we have involved not only our board of directors and our advisory council, but also supporters and other members of our community.
Adlai Amor
Asian American Justice Center
Washington, D.C.
Sign for the Dead
BODIES: The Exhibition opened August 20 at Tampa’s Museum of Science & Industry, featuring 20 (unidentified) bodies from Dalian, China. (?Anger over Beijing Corpses Exhibit,? June 9).
Sadly, it violates these nameless human beings who never consented to the use of their bodies for senseless art! This is exploitation of the dead unable to defend their rights! Let us hope the artist will allow a proper burial! Please sign the petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Human_Dignity.
Judith Lai, President
John Chang Foundation, Inc.
Miami, Fla.
Debt Relief for the Third World
San Francisco is now the epicenter of a worldwide electronic signature campaign calling for world leaders to reduce the poverty level of Third World countries.
Introduced recently by the Philippines, the creative debt-swap program converts 50 percent of the debt service receipts of lenders and banks into equity development and anti-poverty projects such as energy production, mass housing and reforestation that poor debtor countries are presently undertaking. The petition is at http://www.petitiononline.com/Poverty/petition.html.
Rudy Asercion
San Francisco, Calif.
Righteous Bombing
I will not debate the righteousness of the A-bombing of Hiroshima (“60 Years Ago,” Aug. 4) and the killing of millions of Japanese civilians and children and helping end WWII nine days later. But was the A-bombing of Nagasaki three days later, and the killing of more Japanese civilians and children really necessary?
Albert J. Fong M.D.
Veteran, WWII
Novato, Calif.
Correcting Cultural Cleansing
The Native Hawaiian population (“Correcting Hawaiian History,” Sept. 8) before contact by Captain James Cook was close to 1,000,000. Today, full-blooded Native Hawaiians are 10-20,000 and 400,000 are mixed Hawaiians like myself. In the States, there are 220,000.
Thirty-five years ago, there were only 5,000 native Hawaiian speakers left. This is why immersion schools were started. Our grandparents and great grandparents were punished for speaking their native tongue and my parents did not speak the language. I am learning to be fluent in it and teaching my students and family to speak Hawaiian.
Traditional dance was banned. Until today, people were afraid of publicly dancing the traditional or ancient practices of hula. Of the 200 hula dance forms, we only have a dozen left.
Kawika Alfiche
Via e-mail
Reverse Racism on Trial
Would you (“A Victim of Circumstance and Racist Men Unmasked,” Sept. 29) go out of your way to do so if the shooter had been white and his victims Asian? If this had been a white man who shot and murdered six Asians, including a woman, and including one in the back, it would be his racism on trial and not the victims. Contemplate your own biases for a moment.
S.A. Smith
Via e-mail
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONSIn Washington Journal’s “Running for Mitch,” (Oct. 20), Mitch Suzuki is in the fourth grade.
Nancy Park wrote the piece “KoreAm Kollaboration Thrives.” (Aug. 18)
Wendy Leung took the photo of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in “6th Anniversary Commemorating Joseph Ileto’s Death” (Sept. 1).
Funie Hsu took the photos for “Textbook Companies Dictating Whitewashed History” (Sept. 1).
Comments
Got something to say?