Newsletter

June 2007
Letter from the Chair

Greetings,

As summer approaches, I hope that we all reflect on 2007's halfway point. So many things have happened around our world, and of course all of that will shape up for what's to come in 2008. World events, national spotlights, regional and local activity; it's been a ride. We've learned that in our country, when people are fed up with the what's happening with the direction of the country, we use our power to vote. What happened in November 2006 was profound. What has happened in 2007 was even more interesting as around twenty (and counting as of this writing) candidates for president have been declared. That's for the President of the United States! One of the most popular public officials in the country is our own Governor Schwarzenegger. He's learned to work with the opposing party and we seem to have some results, some of it overdue. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made waves in his city and just declared himself and independent.

Which leads to us here at CAPA CEF. These are the bits of information that we all should at least be aware of because they do have implications, direct and indirect. Other issues that have come up have involved slip ups by both writers and media hosts about disparaging remarks against communities, especially the Asian Pacific American (APA) community. Even local politics have had a profound outlookas APAs are slowly being elected to office. San Jose just elected their second APA councilperson, Kansen Chu, whom I've met before, and I believe will do a fine job for the city. On the other hand, SF Supervisor, Ed Jew, is now under investigation for a whole list of things. This is really something, considering San Francisco is 35% APA, but Ed Jew is the only supervisor of APA descent.

Awareness, education and activism, regardless of your party affiliation (and in California, lack of party affiliation is growing) is what the Education Fund strives for. Without the knowledge, we lose our involvement in our community and surrender it to our leaders. That's not a good thing. Our programs from the Summer Internship Program to the changes made to our Leadership Development Program are examples of how we're doing our part in educating folks.

At our annual Gala Event on June 9th (if you missed it, you missed a good one!), we were fortunate to have new Contra Costa County Supervisor, Susan Bonilla as our keynote speaker and special remarks from California Secretary of State Debra Bowen. They reminded us of why we are involved in the community and why it's important to have an informed and educated voter when they go to the polls. In addition to introducing our Class of 2007, we had in attendance a huge number of public officials and/or their representatives. They included folks from both Speaker Pelosi's and Governor Schwarzenegger's office. They included State Senator Tom Torlakson and Assemblymembers Guy Houston and Mark DeSaulnier. In addition to Susan Bonilla, we had Supervisor (and current Board President) Mary Piepho as well as a slew of local officials from Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Danville and our own Walnut Creek which was headlined by a wonderful welcome speech by Mayor Sue Rainey. In addition to community leaders and sponsors, we honored two deserving organizations and individuals for their work. Vision New America, our counterpart in the South Bay and Aily Zhang, a 14 year old from Castro Valley that took the initiative to help those in need and those who are in poverty. Imagine, a 14 year old taking this task on. An inspiration!

I'm not writing out everything to just gloat and brag. On the contrary, I'm trying to display CAPA's and the Education Fund's work in nurturing relationships with our public officials. I wish that we had even more, especially folks from our Franchise Tax Board (by the way 4 our 5 members are APA) or even from a national scope. For me, it's important that regular folks meet their public officials because they work for us, the people. Also, it shows that they support our community and our efforts to educate voters. Without those kinds of relationships, CAPA can't do it's job, and CAPA CEF can't function. Now with our young people on their way with their assignments, we can concentrate on our two other programs. My predecessor, Jonathan Wen Hsu, is working on spearheading our Leadership Development Program. With our contacts with the Secretary of State's office, we're going to update and upgrade our voter education and outreach. And now that we have passed the milestone of sixteen years for our internship program, we're now in position to mold it for the next sixteen years led by Cindy Chin, who has done a magnificent job leading this "crown jewel".

Finally, we're now at the cusp of doing something wonderful. 2008 gives us the platform. Three elections (2 primaries and the general), national attention by the presidential candidates (please go to an event presented by them when they drop by the neighborhood) and of course our own local races will indeed make 2008 a critical and crucial year. I hope that you will join us and help us make CAPA and CAPA CEF a participant and leader in our efforts to promote and educate APAs in leadership and public affairs.

Cedric Cheng
Chair, CAPA Community Education Fund