Alice Huang, an 80-20 Board Member, has just been elected President-elect of AAAS. AAAS publishes the "Science" magazine & is one of the nation's most prestigious science organizations. Congratulations, Alice.
Ivan K. Fong, a participant in one of 80-20 Educational Foundation's projects, has been nominated to be Homeland Security General Counsel, having the rank of a deputy secretary. Congratulations.
Subject: An Asian Am. President soon?
Inspired by the election of President Obama, Asian Americans are running for higher offices.
Ted Lieu, a CA Assemblyman, is running for CA's Attorney General. Judy Chu, Chair of CA's Board of Equalization, is running for Congress. John Liu and Sam Yoon respectively city councilmen of NYC and Boston are considering a run for Mayors of those cities.
What are their prospects? Bright, we think. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step."
An important relevant fact is that 80-20 has already cleared a severe & improper barrier to their successes and that of any Asian Am. candidate, since 1992. How?
A truism in America is that the higher the political office a minority candidate seeks, the more he/she is subject to racist attacks. In 1992, a Chinese Am. Alice Lai-Bitker and a Filipino Am. Christopher Gabaldon were running for county level offices in California. Even at those levels, they came under racist attacks by their opponents. Visit http://www.80-20initiative.
As a result of these attacks and similar earlier attacks against Matt Fong in CA and S. B. Woo in Delaware when they ran for the US Senate, 80-20 RESOLVED that
"In marginal cases (of racist attacks), 80-20 may provide support to attacked APA candidates, and
In the worst cases where the racist attacks have clearly crossed the line of decency, 80-20 will (1) help the attacked candidates with its resources so as to win the race out right, (2) aim to defeat the attacker in the next election, if the attacker wins that election, and (3) greatly publicize the name(s) of the political consultant(s) and his/her firm and boycott both, if the person(s) is from an established political consulting firm."
That RESOLUTION was posted on 80-20's website and widely circulated to Asian Am candidates. In addition, 80-20 advised all Asian Am candidates to "find a way to subtly make the above resolution known to their opponents," because "an early preventive measure is usually the best measure."
Result? No racist attacks against Asian Am. candidates had occurred in the 2004, 2006 and the 2008 election cycles!
That is how 80-20 uses its GROUP political clout to serve the Asian Am community and help make America "a more perfect Union."
To all Asian Ams. In Politics:
Please consider joining 80-20. The more you help 80-20, the more 80-20 can help you. A third party like the 80-20 PAC is in a much better position than the Asian Am candidate him/herself to turn the tide against the racist attacker. To join, go http://www.80-20initiative.net. Or send your check to
80-20 PAC
PO Box 22509
Philadelphia, PA 19110. Thank you.
Respectfully,
S. B. Woo
Acting Exec. Director, a volunteer