continuing on with dinner discussion

After the discussion about the Paracel and Spratley Islands itself, we went to dinner with everyone, where Lan joined us. Of course, the dominant conversation was on the Little Saigon controversy, with Lan fully supporting what the community was doing and me fully opposing the community's reaction. Most of the arguments are those that you've probably heard, so the following are the points that are heard less frequently:

-How does a lunchtime protest every Tuesday paralyze City Hall?

The fact of the matter is that the protest in itself is a sign, a reminder that the mob will come back. The city should be focusing on the biggest issues of today, like gang violence, which has spiked this year. In fact, gang violence in 2007 alone beats out the combined instances of gang violence in the previous 10 years combined. Oddly enough, it is Madison who is heading up the gang violence task force, and right now, she's pretty much been beaten into a lame duck councilwoman.

The city is also facing a deficit of historic proportions, which include many concerns about healthcare and our education system. In fact, Schwarzenneger's proposed education cuts this year alone may send tens of thousands of teachers packing, and the City of San Jose needs to be able to plan and prepare for these draconian budget shortfalls.

Instead of focusing on these issues, the Council has to come up with a fair process by which it can appease the thousands of Vietnamese people who are obviously passionate about this issue, and the majority of the rest of San Jose that has come to oppose the name BECAUSE of the community's reaction to this (Evidence of this is seen in the fact that non-Vietnamese voters see Cortese as a flip-flopper on the naming issue, changing his vote on the matter simply to get votes instead of sticking to his guns as Mayor Reed is doing, wow…I can’t believe I just something positive about Reed). On top of that, the Council has to try to come up with a fair process that moves quickly to prevent an icon from dying (i.e. Ly Tong). This is why the city is paralyzed. The city is paralyzed because our community has taken the issue of a street name to never-before-seen heights.

-The Vietnamese don't need any other communities to support it. The Vietnamese are the model minority because we perform and contribute without taking up government resources, we're self-sufficient.

First off, being a model minority is not something to be proud of. That means that we can be ignored and taken advantage of. That means that we're the ideal second-class citizens, and I'll fight tooth and nail to fight this type of behavior in and stereotyping of our community.

Secondly, some of you may have heard me say this before, but we DO NOT live in a vacuum. How many of you use financial aid? How many of your families have ever been on welfare? Public education? Subsidized healthcare? Drive a car on the street? Walk on the sidewalk? We do not OWN this land. We pay taxes and we receive refunds. We are defended by the military of the United States. We live under the protection of the US Constitution, and that means that we are as much a part of this nation as any other community, and we have to live up to that obligation and that right.

Beyond that, are we truly self-sufficient? Do we really have NO connection to people outside of our own community? How many of us work in Vietnamese businesses? Are your clientele ONLY Vietnamese? Are your partners ONLY Vietnamese? Are your neighbors and your friends only Vietnamese? If you actually answered yes to all of these questions, I do believe that means you live in Vietnam.

-You have to realize that the only thing the Vietnamese community wants is to continue to fight communism.

This is NOT true. I have seen time and time again that the NEXT generation of Vietnamese leaders is becoming cognizant of our presence and our power. While the elders are staunchly anti-communist, that does not necessarily mean that everyone is so. We already know that there are many Viet Kieu businesspeople who are going back to Vietnam to conduct business (even though I believe this is wrong, I know it happens). We see young Vietnamese leaders get involved in many new fields that are reflective of growing concern in local and domestic matters, i.e. public and social services, non-profit organizing and management, political campaigns, teaching, community and labor organizing, and so on. The leaders of the next generation still know that the Communist regime is corrupt and oppressive, but are starting to realize that the change that needs to happen against the regime HAS to come from the people, not from us.

And beyond that, there are SERIOUS issues that are affecting our community. We have one example that I've already brought up. China has occupied the Paracel and Spratley Islands and have been killing Vietnamese fishermen who work in the area, calling them pirates and terrorists to justify their actions. Another is the deportation issue. 2500 Vietnamese have received deportation orders to be sent BACK to Vietnam, where they can be treated as traitors and be put back into the hands of the very regime that they tried to escape. PROTEST THAT!

The one thing that is true is that the elders and Ly Tong have whipped our community into frenzy, by making FALSE claims of communist ties. The Vietnamese media feeds into this by writing completely biased and anger inducing articles (which, to be blunt, should be expected).

I’ve heard this statement made before, and it was a very sad one for me to hear, but this issue really illustrates the point: “If you want the Vietnamese community to change, you have to wait for the elders to die.” Is it too much to ask people to be open-minded, instead of having to wait until they die?

So here is the kicker. In the discussion about the Paracel and Spratley Islands, there was a woman who strongly urged the youth to mobilize around this issue and join the protests at the Chinese Embassy in San Francisco on April 9th, when the Olympic Torch passes through. I asked the question directly to her: "Can we realistically expect to be successful if this doesn't become an anti-communist effort?"

What do you think?