Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2017)
OPINION Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER May 1, 2017 Volume 27 Number 9 May 1, 2017 ISSN: 1094-9453 The Asian Reporter is published on the first and third Monday each month. Please send all correspondence to: The Asian Reporter 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, OR 97217 Phone: (503) 283-4440, Fax: (503) 283-4445 News Department e-mail: news@asianreporter.com Advertising Department e-mail: ads@asianreporter.com General e-mail: info@asianreporter.com Website: www.asianreporter.com Please send reader feedback, Asian-related press releases, and community interest ideas/stories to the addresses listed above. Please include a contact phone number. Advertising information available upon request. Publisher Jaime Lim Contributing Editors Ronault L.S. Catalani (Polo), Jeff Wenger Correspondents Ian Blazina, Josephine Bridges, Pamela Ellgen, Maileen Hamto, Edward J. Han, A.P. Kryza, Marie Lo, Simeon Mamaril, Julie Stegeman, Toni Tabora-Roberts, Allison Voigts Illustrator Jonathan Hill News Service Associated Press/Newsfinder Copyright 2017. Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication. Member Associated Press/Newsfinder Asian American Journalists Association Better Business Bureau Pacific Northwest Minority Publishers (PNMP) Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon TALKING STORY IN ASIAN AMERICA n Polo Correspondence: The Asian Reporter welcomes reader response and participation. Please send all correspondence to: Mail: 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, OR 97217-2220 Phone: (503) 283-4440 ** Fax: (503) 283-4445 News Department e-mail: news@asianreporter.com General e-mail: info@asianreporter.com SUBSCRIPTION RATES (U.S. rates only) Individual subscription (sent bulk rate): q Half year: $14 q Full year: $24 q Two years: $40 Individual subscription (sent first class mail): q Half year: $24 q Full year: $40 q Two years: $72 Office subscription (5 copies to one address): q Half year: $40 q Full year: $75 q Two years: $145 Institutional subscription (25 copies to one address): q Half year: $100 q Full year: $180 q Two years: $280 NEW SUBSCRIBER / ADDRESS CORRECTION INFORMATION FORM: Subscriber’s name: Company name: Address: City, State, ZIP: Phone: Fax: E-mail: Mail with payment or Fax with credit card information to: The Asian Reporter, Attn: Subscription Dept., 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, OR 97217-2220 Phone: (503) 283-4440 * Fax: (503) 283-4445 q q q For VISA, Mastercard, or American Express payment only: Name (as it appears on the card): Type of card (circle): VISA Mastercard Card number: American Express Security code: Expiration date: Address of card: The last four issues of The Asian Reporter are available for pick up free at our office 24 hours a day at 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, Oregon. Back issues of The Asian Reporter may be ordered by mail at the following rates: First copy: $1.50 Additional copies ordered at the same time: $1.00 each Send orders to: Asian Reporter Back Issues, 922 N. Killingsworth St., Portland, OR 97217-2220 The Asian Reporter welcomes reader response and participation. If you have a comment on a story we have printed, or have an Asian-related personal or community focus idea, please contact us. Please include a contact name, address, and phone number on all correspondence. Thank you. Democracy here and now emocracy means so many things. Democracy means one thing in, say, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, while democracy demands a world of difference for folks in the Federal Republic of Germany. Likewise for us living here and now. Sure, we share the same generous continent, but because we’re so many kinds of Americans, our work is weaving our many differences in ideals, in aches and appetites. The rub of our differences is good for democracy. The expectation of important differences then their delightful blending, are essential to healthy governance. According to international research on this, on humankind’s never-ending experiment, institutionalizing kindness and creativity are at the core of our pretty little planet’s best democratic unions. Tests of democracy — loud protests, agitated press, crazy elections — are regular and necessary. Often provoking enormous anxieties. Take last year’s U.S. national election. Candidates for the presidency and for congress always grab at big themes, competitors overstate differences so each can cut dramatic distinctions between themselves and their opponents. Lots of theater. Candidates for local office are usually more pragmatic. Local voters are too. Local democracy, particularly non-political party seats, functions best when campaigns offer practical problem- solving skills. What’s more, local competitors and voters alike know they still have to be neighbors after election day. Civility is central. Community building trumps ugly politics. We are in one of those local election cycles right now. Lots of school boards, water district and rec- reation district boards, will soon be filled in middle May, many with a lot of different, but all dutiful, local volunteers. Portland Community College’s Board of Directors is among these. And among the candidates for a seat is Mohamed Alyajouri. Why this means so much Mohamed Alyajouri’s candidacy is evidence of our D “Local democracy functions best when campaigns offer practical problem-solving skills. Civility is central. Community building trumps ugly politics.” metro area’s political maturity. Our high level of democracy. He’s a Corvallis High grad. He brings an OSU public-health degree and a health admini- stration master’s degree to whatever he does. Mohamed’s day job is integrating public-health services, improving family outcomes, and sharpening delivery efficiencies all over Oregon, including Washington and Multnomah counties. Mohamed and Kamili, a Nike professional, raise three bright and beautiful sons. Mohamed’s supporters mention his skills, his connectivity, and his record of community commitment — the unavoidable glare of his name notwithstanding. That’s two checked boxes on the advanced democracy scorecard. Two big markers of a vibrant, diverse community moving forward together. While his backers will surely set out the specific skills he’ll bring to Portland Community College, if you persist, each will just as certainly add their concerns about how erosive last year’s shrill national elections were to our most fundamental notions of democracy. And how contrary all that is to the community-building role of the PCC Board of Directors. Which brings us to where this essay began: Democracy may mean many-many things, but among our precious planet’s best democracies, voters and leaders expect their many individual and communal differences to be engaged in building a bigger us. A better us. Our metropolitan area’s 2017 Special Election Voters’ Pamphlet is full of all that. Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication. Go paperless! Read The Asian Reporter – exactly as it’s printed here – online! Visit <www.asianreporter.com> and click the “Online Paper (PDF)” link to view our last two issues.
