The aftermath.

Hmmmm....how long will the peace last? The usual paths that those who are not victorious in elections tend to be the courts. Will the elders take that route?

What will be the next step for them? Is it to organize an opposing candidate to Madison when next year's election comes up? How do we go about repairing what was broken during this entire ordeal?

Last night, I had a friend call me to see if I was going to Madison's election party. I told him I won't be going to anything. There's no reason to celebrate. We all lost in this effort. We lost face, we lost all our political gains over the past decade, our community is divided, and worst of all, we've lost trust. We don't trust each other.

There were moments during this saga that I do regret. There were moments that I treated the entire process as a joke because to me, it is a joke. It's still a joke. A horrible mind-blowing, spirit-defeating, joke.

I can't help but think the same thoughts that I did before. Why are we led by people who are only looking for a crusade? Why do people follow mindless idiots who know nothing more than how to yell and scream? WHY DO ALL OF US HAVE TO BE DRAGGED INTO THIS? Those who claim to represent the "community" could've waited and used the normal election cycle to voice their anger. They could've used the time in between to raise more money, to build a coalition with other groups that may have been just as frustrated, to put in place an actual campaign that would be ready to go from the outset, instead of scrambling around trying to figure things out as they go. Why couldn't they have just been patient?

I hope they learn from this. The elders and wannabe demagogues like Barry Do escalated this entire ordeal too fast. They tried to rush everything in their moment of foolish pride. They believed that they could do this on their own and believed that all they needed were the Vietnamese voters, until it was too late...

Most people don't know Madison did not win her seat with the majority of Vietnamese votes. Most people assumed that because she was Vietnamese, that somehow they all coalesced behind her during her first election and during her term. Most people don't know that Madison draws her Vietnamese support primarily from the youngest voters, not the elders who drove the Little Saigon campaign, along with her recall effort.

In thinking about it, did this entire drama split the community? Or did it simply reveal the split that already existed?