March Madness
March 23, 2007
Lesson Learned: It’s been a rough few weeks being affiliated with AsianWeek. My sentiments about this disastrous episode were eloquently reflected in previous columns by my distinguished colleagues, Phil Nash and Emil Guillermo.
Many of us affiliated with the paper were embarrassed, besieged by e-mail from friends, and personally angry at AsianWeek for giving such an outrageous racist commentary a public forum. There were even suggestions that I, personally, leave the paper.
I spoke to Ted and James Fang. Ted being the general editor took full responsibility for allowing this hateful piece to be printed. He made no excuses. The paper made a huge mistake. He reached out and sought advice from many APA civil rights leaders and wanted to make right a horrible wrong. He faced the backlash, the negative publicity and angry critics head on, and then proceeded to rectify the situation the best he could on behalf of his family’s paper.
There is still residual anger over the printing of this inflammatory article. But, is this major blunder worth the loss of a 27-year-old publication that was among the first to give a public voice to Asian Americans when this community was considered invisible? The Fang family endured tough years of operating in the red because founding publisher John Fang saw the need for an English-language APA paper to communicate APA issues to mainstream America.
Reading a harsh critique of this blunder by William Wong, who I consider one of the premier APA journalists, he, too, concedes that “there are not sufficient numbers of quality, in-depth, well-reported stories that tell what’s really going on in America’s many ethnic and racial communities.” I feel that AsianWeek continues to fill that void for APA communities today.
Hopefully, AsianWeek will learn from this painful lesson and use its “voice of Asian Americans” by elevating its mission in promoting diversity through proactive community work with other ethnic communities and cultivating better understanding among inter-ethnic groups through positive communication. I hope to continue to work with AsianWeek to be a part of this mission.
The Passing of a True Prince of Politics: A month ago, many of us mourned the loss of former Speaker Leo McCarthy. McCarthy’s funeral service was on the day that I spend with my four-year-old grandson, so I decided to pass on the San Francisco trip to pay my respects. It was a mistake that has caused me much regret.
People tend to align me more with former Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr. than McCarthy because I ascended into the Chief Administrative Officer position during Willie’s speakership. However, it was Assembly Rules Chair Lou Papan and Speaker McCarthy who gave me my start in the state Legislature when they appointed me as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer of the Assembly in 1976.
Speaker McCarthy taught me about good government, ethics and integrity in politics. He and his then-chief of staff Bob Toigo encouraged me to launch the first diversity outreach effort to recruit more professional ethnic minority staff to serve in the state Legislature.
At the end of his speakership, the minority representation on the legislative staff increased by over 70 percent, and women over 50 percent, and this program became a role model for other state Legislatures to follow.
His own leadership staff was among the most diverse in the Capitol.
Among his top APA staffers was Peter Wiersma in his L.A. office, and Lynn Choy Uyeda, both serving in deputy staff positions.
What I respected most about Speaker McCarthy was that he strived to keep politics out of public policy-making.
When I worked for him, he was always very cordial and formal. I didn’t realize how kind this man was until I was affected by the Clinton campaign finance scandal. McCarthy was one of the first legislators to come out publicly in my defense.
In fact he even wrote a letter to a Washington paper to dispute a claim about my background. His wise counsel and encouragement to me during that time gave me much comfort.
To this day, he remains one of the most well-respected and admired speakers of the Assembly who believed, according to Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters “that politics should be merely the path to governance, not an end unto itself.” He truly was one of a kind in politics.
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Dear Maeley Tom:
Talk about UN”timely,” but, then, being senile and at least four, five?, generations behind the times, what the Hell, pardon my English, are 30 weeks or so?
-Belatedly checking out this story about a publishing fiasco, I presume it’s about Kenneth Eng’s literary contributi0n, I wonder why you even considered “apologizing” — to ANYone — for something you were not remotely connccted to, dangling participle and all.
Has anyone axked the august publishers/editors of the New York Times why THEY have yet to apologize to Wen-ho Lee?, lawsuits and damages aside. How much is a year or so in leg irons worth?
No, my dear, no contemporary newspaper publisher(s) OR their dear readers, advertisers?, should have the chutzpah, much less the “right,” to cast aspersions, however “declasse” their peers may appear to them.
Jonah Goldberg today harped on his single note in the LATimes. I, for one, don’t want him “fired,” I much prefer he continue to make an ass of himself. In public.
Kenneth? Who he?
As for those who, for one reason or another, would like to see AsianWeek kaput, I say, “rotsa ruck, anus.” I’m trying to be “polite” to my “betters” here. You should check out Info Clearing House, for one, and Counterpunch for another for those speaking out in braver and more confrontational terms and tones. I kid you not.
Where have you been since Ma