Immigrant blues

San Jose, California has a large Vietnamese-American community which featured in a recent brouhaha, with V-A activists marching and protesting and getting a recall election set for a member of the city council--a fellow V-A named Madison Nguyen whose mortal sin was voting not to name a V-A shopping district "Little Saigon," but rather something bland like "Saigon Business District."

That's it.

So I entered the following in a forum about this topic hosted by the San Jose Mercury News:

I don't have a dog in this fight, living in Palo Alto as I do. But FWIW here's what this looks like from the other end of Santa Clara County: San Jose's Vietnamese-American community is following the example of South Florida's Cuban-Americans: dominated by revanchist obsessions, eager to assert their rights under America's constitutional democracy, but slow to shoulder their responsibilities--to learn the respect for others' rights that go hand in hand with asking respect for one's own rights. Negotiation, compromise, inclusiveness...you don't have to master these skills...unless you want others to respect you. Ruling through pressure, fear, intimidation--well, that's how it's done in Hanoi, and that's what you look like here. Recalls can be mandated if you get enough signatures on a petition. That said, they should be reserved for major malfeasance--usually involving large sums of money or criminal behavior. Naming a business district in a way you don't like doesn't rise to that standard. Not by a long shot. If you've got the votes you could vote out the council member(s) you don't like and get the name changed to one you prefer--at the regular election. Making the naming of a business district the subject of a costly recall election makes you look ridiculous: self-absorbed, petty, bullying, short-fused, and ultimately sad--like a group that lost its old home and can't figure out a way to fit into its new home, spending all its days gazing fixedly into a rear view mirror. And Nguyen didn't even propose naming the district "Little Ho Chi Minh City."