Monday, March 01, 1999

The American Way to Win Equal Opportunity

You may ask, after reading the last e-mail, why haven't the undersigned who knew of such statistics, tried removing the glass ceiling? We have. However, we found that as individuals our voices were not heard. That's why we searched YOU out, because TOGETHER WE SHALL OVERCOME.

There is a tried-and-true American way through which immigrant groups have gained equal opportunity. THE POLITICAL PROCESS!

A long time ago, when the Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants first arrived in America, discrimination against them was also rampant. The Irish first tried using the ballet box to get politicians to help the Irish get good jobs and succeeded. After that, the Polish and Italians used the same method to win their equal status. In the mid twentieth century, the Jews and blacks followed that recipe to win equal opportunity. More recently, women and Hispanics flexed their political muscles to dislodge their respective glass ceilings. Time is now for Asian Americans to do the same.

First, we must develop a community consensus to vote as a block. That way, we can reward politicians who worked for our equal opportunity and punish those who didn't. Shortly thereafter , most politicians will be working for our equal opportunity.

The African Americans who reside in cities of industrial states vote 9 to 1 in favor of the Democratic presidential candidate. That's one BIG reason why the Democratic party always speaks up for interests of the black community. The Jews have even greater political cohesion. While they voted mostly for Democrats, they could swing, voting in a 8 to 2 ratio, for a candidate of EITHER major political party.

Is our population large enough to have political clout? Mind you, there are only six million Jewish Americans, while there are 10 million AAs.

In e-mail 4, we'll present you with a specific strategy to induce both major political parties to fight for our equal opportunity and form a "more perfect Union."

Sincerely (members of Steering Comm., titles for ID purposes only)
Alex Esclamado, Nat'l President, Filipino-Am. Political Assoc.Kenneth Fong, C.E.O., Clontech Laboratories,Yu-Chi Ho, Harvard Univ., member of Nat'l Acad. of Engineering, Stephen S. Ko, MD, Founder of Asian Am. Political Coalition N.J. Michael Lin, former Nat'l President, Org. of Ch-Ams (1994-98), Henry Tang, Chair , Committee of 100, Chang-Lin Tien, Chancellor, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley (1991-97), Dennis Wong, former Chair, San Francisco-Taipei Sister City Comm., Charles Woo, President, Magatoy, and S. B. Woo, Lieutenant Governor of Delaware (1985-89)