Our petition to President Obama is falling behind schedule. If it fails, there could be bad consequences. The following Q & A is to help us understand the intent of our petition and the possible bad consequences, if it fails.
Q: Is the petition proper?
A: This petition is judiciously worded.
a) This petition, unlike the previous "Jimmy Kimmel" and "College Admissions" petitions, addresses a matter over which Pres. Obama has direct authority and therefore must answer. Indeed, chances are Pres. Obama will answer positively.
b) Only people who want to steal America's national and corporate secrets will want to oppose the first sentence in the petition;
c) Only people who want to use race and/or national origin to profile Asian-/Chinese-Ams will hope for our petition to fail;
d) Only people who believe that Sherry Chen & Prof Xi don't deserve an apology & compensation will hope for our petition to fail.
Q: Does the petition go far enough?
A: Some may want the petition to ask for the punishment of DOJ personnel associated with the careless investigations. Cool it please. Let's get the apology & compensations to make the victims whole first.
Q: How will a successful petition benefit us?
A: If successful, Pres. Obama will have to stay that race and national origin profiling is not permitted in the investigation of stealing of secrets.
Focusing our community's attention on the abuse of Pres. Obama's advocacy to "aggressively investigate and prosecute" is the best way to prevent future abuse.
Q: What BAD consequences will occur, if the petition fails?
(a) If the "Jimmy Kimmel" petition can quickly get 100,000 signatories and this one can't, it could be interpreted that Asian Ams don't mind "race and national origin" profiling. Note: profiling by national origin will likely hurt the recent immigrants from China the most.
(b) Worse, the "Jimmy Kimmel" petition which was improperly directed to Pres. Obama, was mostly supported by recent immigrants from China. The lack of support for the current petition by the same group could induce some "China hands" in DOJ to conjecture that many among the recent immigrants from China may be secretly against the first sentence of the current petition which approves of Pres. Obama's policy "to aggressively investigate and prosecute the stealing of America's national and corporate secrets."
An Appeal To All Asian Americans
80-20 is an Asian Am organization. We will aid any AsAm community under siege. To take the view that one will only respond to 80-20's programs when it directly benefits one' s own ethnic group is to take a very short-sighted view. I appeal to all Asian Ams to support the current petition. Go to http://wh.gov/in72s in a new browser, and sign it TODAY.
S.B. Woo
President
The 80-20 Educational Foundation, Inc.