张昭富访谈(5)
anonymous-114 05/01 4857
4.5/59
[donate]http://www.barry4ca.com/donate[/donate]
5. Immigrant, Chinese America
LY: Why you decided to get into elections which a lot of Chinese Americans traditionally prefer to stay out?
Barry: Chinese Americans are Americans. I had three dreams. The top of it is that one day a Chinese American is elected U.S. President (laugh). We have an African American president already. We’ll be there one day and we will talk about my other dreams. You can guess (from reading more about me online).
Actually I started my involvement with the large community while serving as a volunteer in my children’s school. Sue (my wife) and I joined the Lincoln Elementary School’s Parent and Teachers Association (PTA) and helped raise funds for the school. I was in charge of Taco Night which later evolved into “Multi-Cultural Night”. I was then asked to run for the School Site Council and was elected. I helped to establish the Lincoln Education Endowment Fund for ongoing fundraising efforts for the school. Then the CUSD Board. I have been on it for eight years. During that time I was appointed as Cupertino Public Safety Commissioner and served four years. In 2009, I ran for Cupertino City Council and have been a councilman since.
As one of the lowest funded districts in the state, CUSD has a strong track record of superb student academic performance in California. I want to share and expand such successes with more parents and kids. I also like to apply what I learned and succeeded these years in bipartisanship, multi-cultural issues, sustainable business and environment friendly.
LY: How do you think about you as a Chinese American candidate?
Barry: In certain aspects there are stereotypes and misinformation about Chinese American candidates and immigrants though that also gives me a certain advantage. For example, I have been asked about Leland Yee’s latest fall from grace. I can only assure you that I hold myself to the highest integrity. In the 4 years as the Cupertino city council, I never asked one dollar of reimbursement for my travel expense for any official duty. You may know that a councilman’s salary of about $723 a month is not even enough to rent a studio in Cupertino. Sue and I also donated to various charities. It is the belief that we should do the right thing and give back to the community that supported me. I will champion for the rights of all the races and ethnicities.
I created the Chinese Language Immense program while in CUSD. Now lots of Chinese Americans and non-Chinese Americans benefit from the program. This helps us to work with China, our biggest trading partner.
LY: Tell more about China. I Googled and found that you are supporting the reunion of mainland China and Taiwan while calling China to open up for more democracy. You must be feeling the difficult from all fronts from your background as a “Taiwanese”.
Barry: Yes. It is indeed very hard and tricky. Talking about the reunification was not even well understood by my parents, brother or sisters. My family and I were threatened of our personal safety and we were really worried when our kids were young. But look at the devastating American Civil War and the Civil War in China, we have to say the peaceful reunification of democratic China is the best for China and the world.
I was at a point of having difficulty obtaining a travel visa to China back in 2004 because of my staunch support of free speech in China. The old Chinese saying is “Those who speak (of different opinions) shall not to be persecuted”. I believe that China will be more open and improving. History told us that Rights of Speech will eventually win. It has been hard in China for historical reason but we will get there. Looking back in the United States of America, it took more than 100 years from the Emancipation Proclamation to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. For the United States of America, it took 50 years, from 1870 Constitutional Amendment 15 to final passage of the Anthony Amendment in 1920 that gave women the right to vote. We still have difficulty achieving the right agreement on the Equal Rights Amendment after more than one hundred years of Women’s Suffrage movement.
China will get there one day. China and America will be friends.
