News from Pete

Discovering the Bridge Generation of Sonoma County CA

Where have I been all my life?  I had been to Sonoma County a number of times.  I know about its wineries.  I know about the Valley of the Moon made famous by author Jack London.  What I didn’t know – Sonoma County also has long been the home to a vibrant Filipino American community, including a committed group of Bridge Generation Filipinos.

As an active Filipino Youth Club member and participant at numerous youth club athletic tournaments and dances during the 1940-50s, I was able to meet many of my Bridge Generation contemporaries in just about every corner of California.  But here in 2012, I was meeting a lot of local area Filipinos of my generation for the first time. People such as Karen Mejia Pennrich, the hardworking president of the FANHS Sonoma County; retired school principal Jeannette Tipon Anglin; Eddie Taan, volunteer supporter of local public schools; and Sonoma County natives Fay Mendoza and Michael Viloria – all are sons and daughters of Manong Generation Filipinos who immigrated to the area in the 1920s.

My personal discovery of my Sonoma County contemporaries occurred on April 28, 2012 when I was keynote speaker at a forum on diversity at Sonoma State University.  Title of my talk was Diversity, Pinakbet, and You.  The forum program featured a thoughtful multicultural panel, an intergenerational dialogue on diversity, entertainment by an indigenous dance group and enthusiastic hip hop dancers, and a Filipino fashion show with beautiful and handsome young models.  Serving as forum moderators were SSU faculty members Leny Stroebel, Associate Professor of Multicultural Studies and Elisa Velasquez-Andrade, Director of Diversity and Inclusive Excellence. 

Forum attendees at the free event lunched on a delicious array of mostly Filipino food.  To cap off the great event -- sponsored by FANHS Sonoma County Chapter and Filipino American Alliance of Sonoma State University -- attendees were generous in purchasing my book Vanishing Filipino Americans: The Bridge Generation.

Voter ID Laws

In my January column, I wrote about my concern over the suppression of the nation’s voting rights due to the proliferation of proposed laws requiring photo IDs.  In 2011, only the states of Georgia and Indiana required photo IDs to vote.  Since then 34 states, led by recently elected Republican governors and legislatures, have introduced voter ID laws.   

According to a 2006 Brennan Center for Justice study, photo ID laws hit older people, the poor, students, African Americans (and other minorities) the hardest.  These demographic categories usually voted for Democrats during the last presidential election.  A recent Brennan Center report now estimates that states that have enacted or proposed voter ID laws could make it difficult for up 5 million persons to vote in November. 

Proponents of photo ID claim that requiring them in order to vote would reduce voter fraud.  Yet, there is no evidence to support their claim.  There been no cases in any state of significant voter fraud.  So why has there been a proliferation of laws and bills requiring photo IDs?  Is this the modern version of outlawed poll tax laws in Deep South states?  Is this an organized effort to defeat President Obama in November?  The answer should be obvious.

GOOD NEWS!!!  -- The U.S. Department of Justice declared the photo ID laws of South Carolina and Texas to be unlawful.  Let’s hope this is a continuing trend.  In our great democracy, we should encourage – not discourage -- voting.