The TV show “Alpha House”(of eight years ago) has one episode about the chaotic scenes after an overenthusiastic republican senator pulls out a gun to assert her rights to bear firearms in the hallway of the Capital. She is a beauty with straight blonde hair, sweet smile and a true killer attitude. The alarm is sounded, the evacuation order is given, two policemen arrives to assume shooting position, aides block office doors and a lot of other frantic actions ensue. In the end, it was resolved anticlimactically by the senator from North Carolina. Compared to what happened yesterday, the “Alpha House” is a bit inept in the portrayal. Eight years is a long time and politics has evolved, now crazier than ever.
I can’t believe that even Asian immigrants like us start to talk about politics, which, I guess, has too much drama now to be ignored even by people who are invariably lay back and deliberately inattentive. Usually politics is at the bottom of our list of choices of conversations, books, aspirations etc. We want to pretend that politics doesn’t exist until the pretension is no longer possible. This is probably why Asians are so keen on family and education, which are something that we can pass on to the future despite the vicissitudes caused by fate and politics, both considered out of our control. For thousands of years, we’ve never thought about the possibilities that politics can probably work for us if we are more active about it. No, that has never been in our psyche and probably never will.
Surely, we will see more and more Asian Americans care about politics and join in it. Most of our older generation of immigrants were not educated in the United States, and English was not their native language. They were usually engaged in laundry, restaurant, or grocery business. It is basically an individual economy and rarely deals with society. They do not seem to care about politics. But the new Asian generation is different. They are born and educated here. Most of them would be employed in big companies, where they have direct observation and experience in politics. They start to think and voice themselves in the society. This is very good thing to see. This country is made up with immigrants, no one is superior to another.
LikeLike