"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it." -- George Santayana

   Our community is unfortunately politically relatively immature. We
may have an inordinate fraction of people who are really eager to get a
government office without a commensurate sense of justice, integrity
and obligation to the Asian Am. community.

                Don't Let such people take over

   We've seen such people in the past. When the community was in
trouble e.g. the Asia Gate of 1997, they hid. When there was work to do
e.g. winning equal opportunity and justice for Asian Ams., they were too
busy. When we needed to mobilize the Asian Ams. in battleground states
to get a bloc vote for Obama, they sat idle. Indeed some of those folks
were the same ones who got the entire Asian Am. community into deep
trouble in the 1996 fundraising scandals. However, when there are
appointments, these same people come out and want to take over. :-(

             How To Learn a Lesson From the Past

   I am not seeking any appointment nor will accept any*. So I don't have
the turf motive. I just want our community to examine our mistakes of
the past and NOT repeat them. It may be that we want to discuss

1) how our community allowed those mistakes to occur,
2) why did people hide and not fought for our community when things
got tough, and
3) what kind of people our community should be supporting to
represent us, instead of just letting the greedy and the selfish take
over again.

             We've had bad political role s

   We have also had bad role s -- people who were in high
government positions & who would not care if Asian American enjoy equal
opportunity or not. They considered themselves the high class Asian
Americans and are loath to hear our grievances. They should follow
President-elect's urging: CHANGE.

                     Stopping the bad apples

   Our community has politically matured a great deal, partially owing
to the e-newsletters of 80-20 PAC and 80-20 Educational Foundation.
But many of the rotten apples may not hear us, because they have such
a different value system from the rest of us. Because they are greedy,
they are also very aggressive.

   This e-newsletter is a clarion call to let these folks know that we'll
not sit idlely by. They need to show their awareness of and willingness to
address the grievances of our community first.

             Do your share to nominate the good folks

   Do your share to nominate the good folks. The best way to block the
bad folks from getting office is to come up with our own good nominees.
President-elect Obama wants an open government. So please take time to
nominate the good folks. To write to the Transition Team, click on
http://www.80-20initiative.net and then "Send your view to the Transition Team."

  "People who don't work for good government deserve to be
   ruled by those are worse than themselves." Source Unknown

Yearning for you to do your share,

S. B. Woo
President, 80-20 Educational Foundation, Inc.
 

* An irrevokeable promise by me to the community since 1999.