“KEEP exploring. Keep dreaming. Keep asking why. Don’t settle for what you already know. Never stop believing in the power of your ideas, your imagination, your hard work to change the world.” —President Obama
“We—most importantly the candidate [Barack Obama] himself — refused to accept the electorate as it was. We thought we could make it younger and more diverse, and that’s exactly what we did. That beautiful map of the 2008 vote, with Obama blues in some very unusual places, like Indiana and North Carolina, is a testament to our belief that we could reach the Holy Grail of politics. We tried to shoot high but remained grounded in a hard analysis of what would truly be possible.” — David Plouffe
It was a meeting in 1994, held in downtown Los Angeles. We were part of a community-based coalition putting our heads together to rebuild Los Angeles after the civil disturbances in 1992. On April 29, 1992, rioting occurred when four police officers were acquitted after Rodney King’s brutal beating. In the 1980s, South Central saw the influx of Latinos and Koreans and the murder rate was at a record high, at 1,077 murders, from warring gangs.
Presentations upon presentations were made, including replacing liquor stores with more productive small businesses. The community prevented the rebuilding of 150 liquor stores and 50 liquor stores were converted into other businesses.
The move was supported by a study done by Karen Bass, when she headed the Community Coalition. “We need to figure out how to rebuild this city with quality and turn tragedy into opportunity.” South Los Angeles, she pointed out, had before the riots more than twice as many liquor stores–728–than the entire state of Rhode Island, which has 280. And the stores in South Los Angeles serve a population of 500,000, while Rhode Island has 1.3 million people. The group has tapped into longstanding frustration over the concentration of liquor outlets in South Los Angeles, and the unique situation created when rioting and looting destroyed roughly a quarter of them,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
While Coalition Los Angeles started out to work against alcohol addiction and drug abuse, it has evolved now into organizing communities on healthy living: weekly farmer’s markets, art shows, summer reading programs called Freedom Schools, registering folks for community health care clinics, attending important policy meetings in city hall and the push to have supermarkets in their areas.
When Antonio Gonzalez spoke, as the President of the Southwest Voter Registration Project, he spoke audaciously of their organization’s big goal of registering a million Latinos to vote, two years after the riots broke out in 1992. What he did not anticipate, to which he honestly disclosed much later, “although they registered million Latinos, they ended up voting conservatively,” against their own interests. Why?
They voted according to the names they heard on television and radios, and they failed to educate them about what were the issues at stake, who have been voting against their interests as a community, and who were the political candidates that will represent their fundamental interests of unifying families, jobs and healthy support systems.
City of Carson, a mini-United Nations
Top employers in this city consist of Ikea, Home Depot, T-Mobile, Verizon, Marriott, CR England, Decker, Western+Dental, CVS, Costco, Petco, Panera, Care.com, Ralphs, Restaurant Depot, Auto Nation, Time Warner and more.
With this diversified source of employment, it has attracted immigrant families to live in this area.
Hence, the City of Carson, according to 2010 Census, has a unique cluster of different ethnicities: 23.8 Caucasians, 23.8 African Americans, 20.9 Filipinos, and less than 1 percent each of Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Asian Indians, Cambodians, Pakistani, Thai, 2.6 percent Samoans and Pacific Islanders and unidentified ethnicities of 18.7 percent.
That presents a unique opportunity for the Filipino-Americans, with other communities, to determine the representation of the members of their City Council.
I still recall meeting Jim Dear (citizen) being introduced to Filipino events by long-time friends and community volunteers, Rose and Florante Ibañez, one of which was held in our home. He was shy, introverted, working as a substitute teacher, and was still formulating his vision for the City of Carson.
Years later, he got elected as its Mayor and became the city’s mayor for 11 years, and vacated his term in the last two years to run for City Clerk’s office, which pays $115,000 a year. He won of course.
So, from a part-time substitute teacher to one who holds the gavel of a multicultural city, backed by support of the voting Filipino-Americans, this city can elect its next city council member from this field of six candidates: J. Alex Cainglet (supported by Mike Mitoma and Warren Furutani, given his community track record of service), Jawane Hilton (a pastor), Emmanuel Chuma Obiora (commissioner/minister), Stephen Randle (business owner), Rita Boggs (former nun) and Joseph Gordon (commissioner).
If one transcends ethnic background and race, the next elected city council member can be of meaningful public service, if s/he considers governing for the highest common good, benefiting all these working families, coming from all ethnicities, and really, form a mini-United Nations kind of governance.
Since their needs are diverse, yet common in one sense, the need for quality jobs, the need for safe and affordable housing units, and the need for good schools, that would mean this city council would have to hold more consultations to determine the local residents’ interests grouped in over 25,000 households.
That can be done by the next elected representative, who is adept in organizing communities, one who has a track record of community service, but the registered voters amongst the Filipino-American communities must make VOTING their primary choice of action come Tuesday, June 2.
Much like what First Lady Michelle Obama said to Oberlin College graduates, “your most important job out there is to VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!”
Indeed, during the Obama campaign period, David Plouffe attested to their organization being healthy. But ultimately, he said, “I believe that organizations are collections of human beings. They will perform best and make their greatest achievements when there is clarity, calmness, conviction, and collegiality throughout the ranks. Culture is about people. And the people of our campaign made this victory a reality. There is no more effective courier for a message than people who believe in it and have authentically embraced it. Our secret weapon, day in and day out, was our army of volunteers, real people who brought Obama’s message and ideas to their neighbors, co-workers, and fellow citizens, guided by our extraordinary staff. The bonds of trust between individuals who shared values, goals, or even just living space were far stronger than anything we might hope to have forged through more traditional tactics. In many ways, the delivery of our message and the execution of our electoral strategy were successfully carried on the backs of these bonds.”
Trust the electoral process, study the track records of public and community services of these candidates, determine who support these candidates, determine how trustworthy they are, and vote for the best council member of Carson this coming June 2!
Think common good, think beyond ethnicities, think universal and global consequences for your vote, and then, vote locally in your precinct, as it affects your jobs, your schools, your temples, your mosques, your churches, your streets, and your health care clinics, and even your liquor stores much like what Coalition Los Angeles did to reconfigure their prior unhealthy status to a much healthier city!
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for Asian Journal Press for 8 years now. She contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in the field of science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium and Mexico and 22 national parks in the US, in pursuit of her love for arts.