In the Name of the Son and His Father, Spencer Kim
January 19, 2007
In the long aftermath of the James Kim tragedy, family members continue to grieve. However, there are options.
You can take the edge off your sorrow by using the tragedy to make the world a better place for everyone.
But it helps if you have a little political clout.
That’s the broader lesson for Asian Americans now that Spencer Kim has spoken.
He’s trying to turn his personal tragedy into a positive — with a little help from his political friends.
Spencer Kim, 61, is the father of James Kim — a 35-year-old CNET editor who was found dead of hypothermia in the Oregon backwoods last December after he made a heroic attempt to get aid for his stranded family.
Recently, Spencer Kim gained notoriety for his published comments two weeks ago critical of the search efforts for his son.
The published venue wasn’t a local Bay Area paper where James Kim lived, or one in Oregon where the rescue mission took place, or in any Southern California paper where the elder Kim resides.
The commentary first appeared in The Washington Post, because the message was targeted to Congress and official Washington.
In his piece, the elder Kim, without naming names, went after the federal agency responsible (the Bureau of Land Management) for not locking a logging road gate that should have kept the back trials off-limits to the public.
He advocated that Congress change the extremely tight security laws that prevented his family easy access to his son’s credit card and cell phone use information, even in an emergency situation. Spencer Kim believes the withheld information needlessly delayed the search by at least four days.
He’d also like to see more effective training and protocols established for search and rescue missions. Kim said the search was “plagued by confusion, communication breakdowns and failures of leadership until the Oregon State Police set up a command post.”
No one ever seems to move fast enough in an emergency if you’re the father of a distressed person. But Kim pointed out that helicopters with heat detecting technology sat idle for days waiting for deployment. A lack of coordination meant lost time, missed opportunities, and a diminished chance for success.
It was Spencer Kim’s final point that raised hackles. He criticized authorities who granted permission to media aircraft to survey the area for broadcast and print images.
Great for those following the story at home. But Spencer Kim said the lifting of flight protocols caused delays in the search when the priority should have been on finding James Kim.
Spencer Kim wasn’t bashing the media.
He was just blaming an overall effort that suffered from inefficient organization and misplaced priorities.
Still, far from a finger pointing session, Spencer Kim’s piece is a thoughtful well-reasoned plea to change some laws and procedures.
PUBLIC ASIAN
So, will anyone in Washington listen to a grieving dad?
They will if he’s a significant donor to political campaign war chests.
Spencer Kim couldn’t move mountains in Oregon to save his son. But he knows how to move politicians off their duffs.
Spencer Kim is a major contributor — as an individual or through his company — in both hard funds to candidates (at least $2,000 to John Kerry, $6,000 to Congressman Brad Sherman) and soft dollars ($10,000 to the Democratic National Committee).
That means politicians will return your calls.
If James Kim was our high-tech tragic hero, then father Spencer Kim is typical of the Asian American first-generation hero, the living embodiment of immigrant success.
He’s the Korean newcomer who in 1963, arrived as a 17-year-old student, and completed his engineering and business studies at the University of Washington and Washington State University.
In 1979, Spencer Kim started his own contracting firm in Louisville, Ky. His business interests evolved along with his technical specialty, the development of hard alloy aluminum to the aerospace market.
In 1987, Spencer Kim founded CBOL, an employee-owned company, and one of the most diverse around, that happily makes and sells things like pumps, cockpit controls.
But somewhere, along the way, Spencer Kim decided to become what I’ve called a “Public Asian.”
That’s my term for the kind of involvement that’s needed by us in the greater community.
Call it “playing politics.” But it’s as simple as refusing to fade into the background and speaking up.
And if that’s a frightening thought, you can always do the next best thing: Support someone else who will speak for you with money.
Spencer Kim has created his share of forums for others. He’s helped found the Pacific Century Institute, a nonprofit foundation that promotes understanding and communication among people of Pacific Rim nations. He’s an adviser to the School of Public Affairs at UCLA.
But mostly he writes out checks.
I hope the politicians listen to him. And that the changes he seeks give him the comfort he deserves.
They will if he continues to believe that what failed his son may lead to a greater societal benefit.
If it does, the Kim tragedy doesn’t have to end in sorrow, but in a mythic act of grace, the victim’s gift to us all.
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