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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2017)
OPINION Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER August 7, 2017 Volume 27 Number 15 August 7, 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 How Tongan America speaks to us 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. ele Kavapalu let loose a Tongan trill so strong that it took mothers’ attention from their squirmy kids, it took uncles from their conversations among each other. From corner to corner in our crowded church basement, eyes turned to Mele’s elegant hands and arms, to hips rolling as sure and steady as that deep blue sea between here and her family’s island home. Mele’s dignified mother and her lovely sisters, tears streaming, swayed with her. And our achy little earth moved with them all. So strong these women are. Mele’s traditional dance with her family, inside their house of God, before all those folks gathered on this River City summer Saturday evening — says it all. Our Pacific islanders took quiet, though enormous pride in this daughter’s star-spangled graduation from Madison High School. And the crown she earned to become a princess on the 2017 Rose Festival Court. Here’s some of what got her voted there. Over the last year, Mele was Madison’s student body co- president. A first in that Portland school’s history. She’s also known for standing tall as Madison’s varsity women’s volleyball team captain. Every year since arriving, Mele’s been standing out on the basketball court, in track and field competitions. Ask, and her classmates will tell you all about Mele’s inspiring presence in sports and in packed classrooms. Characteristic of her stubborn commitment to both her proud islander community and to America’s robust mainstream, Mele strums irresistible ukulele at Pacific islander backyard lu’aus and plays a mean trombone in her high school’s symphonic band. And of course, she does each equally well. Her ethno-cultural crossover ukulele singalongs on otherwise long boring school bus rides, are legend. How big and brave, how fun On this evening, inside the United Methodist Church’s Lents Tongan Fellowship, Rose Festival 2017 Queen Michaela Canete (Filipina American representing Century High School) and princess Biftu Amin (Ethiopian American representing Cleveland High School) joined princess Mele for an impromptu shot at the Jackson 5’s 1970 soul and M Likely the hearts of every hardworking father and uncle and grandpa sitting quietly with Madam Kavapalu’s words, surely swelled with pride for every tough and tender daughter in that humble church basement. pop hit “I Want You Back.” The crowd loved them. Banquet tables ran wall to wall in the church’s community room. Each heaped high with juicy, whole, spit-roasted pig, with all kinds of blessed sea life, a variety of breads, dumplings, and puddings made of their beloved coconut, all that highlighted by heaps of Pacific island and Pacific Northwest fruits. Splendid feast notwithstanding, everyone hushed when Mele’s regal mom, Madam Kato Kavapalu backed by sisters Helen and Milika, humbly presented her family’s successes and sorrows, and their gratitude, to their church and community elders. Missing from the celebration was husband and father, Ofa Kavapalu. Mr. Kavapalu passed away from their lives nine years ago, in July also — but in his absence, the hearts of every hardworking father and uncle and grandpa sitting quietly with Madam Kavapalu’s words, surely swelled with pride for every tough and tender daughter in that humble church basement. And in our blessed lives. Outside Lents Tongan Fellowship, a cooling evening breeze was bringing an end to another Oregon summer Continued on page 8 Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.