Showing posts with label Frank Irigon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Irigon. Show all posts
Friday, September 2, 2011
PSARA’s Frank Irigon seeks Newcastle Council post
PSARA Executive Board member Frank Irigon, a candidate for the Newcastle city Council Position #4, succeeded in winning a slot in the November general election. Three candidates competed and Frank was the second highest vote getter.
The November election will be tough. While the position is an open seat, the other candidate in the race is a former city council member.
Newcastle faces daunting financial challenges. There is no commercial tax base for the community and the primary sources of support for city services are property tax and sales tax revenues as well as development fees.
Frank has expressed enthusiasm for taking on the financial challenges faced by the small city. We know Frank to be a committed, progressive activist and wish him well in the upcoming election.
For more information about Frank’s campaign please email irigonforcouncil@gmail.com, or call 425-235-4795.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Seize the time...Again!
By Frank Irigon
Members of the Asian Pacific Islander community and their allies gathered at Seattle Central Community College on March 2 to commemorate a struggle of forty years ago that transformed the perspective of their community and whose influence was felt throughout the Puget Sound region.
In 1971, on February 9 and again on March 2, led by co-chairs Alan Sugiyama and Mike Tagawa, the Oriental Student Union demonstrated at Seattle Central Community College, closing the district’s administration building to protest the lack of Asian American administrators at the multi-ethnic college.
“If there are no Asian administrators working, there will be no one working”, declared at the beginning of the peaceful demonstrations.
Sugiyama pointed out that highly qualified Asian Americans who applied for top jobs at the college were consistently not hired or passed over for promotions of lesser-qualified whites. Tired of these injustices, the Oriental Student Union decided to seize the time and correct these injustices by holding peaceful demonstrations.
The demonstrations brought together the Black Panthers, Brown Berets, American Indian Students Association, Young Socialists and sympathetic white students in support of the Asian American demonstrators and their demands. Ironically, the top administrator at the college was an African American who instead of being a harbinger for change was an opponent of it. He decided that in no way was he going to capitulate to the demands of the Oriental Student Union. Instead he was going to fight them.
These demonstrations were a portent of things to come in the metamorphosis of Seattle’s Asian American community in the coming decades. Young people from the community would no longer choose to let things slide and not cause waves. The community became dedicated to direct action to change things for the better. Once baptized in the waters of civil disobedience and taking it to the streets, the Asian American community was emboldened to challenge the status quo. They were no longer going to be the model minority. They were going to stand up and be counted among the brothers and sisters who
clamored for peace and social justice.
Out of the cauldron of the demonstrations at Seattle Central Community College spawned many more direct action activities, from the founding of the Pacific Northwest’s truly Pan Asian community newspaper, the Asian Family Affair, to the Kingdome demonstrations. The former published the news that was important to the Asian American community that the local media suppressed, and the latter prevented the loss of the character of the International District/Chinatown to the construction of the Kingdome and kept it as a neighborhood for its primarily Asian elderly residents.
In the end, though it didn’t happen immediately, the Seattle Community College District hired an Asian American, Dr. Peter Ku, to a campus presidency and later its chancellor. Presently, an Asian American, Mark Matsui, is president of North Seattle Community College. But there is room for improvement not just on this campus but also in other community and technical colleges in the State of Washington.
In the face of today’s economic challenges, the burden of paying for the state’s financial insolvency is falling on the backs of the poor, the middle class, retirees, and on labor unions’ right to organize. The burden is falling disproportionately on people of color. Isn’t it time for all of us to seize the time, again!
Members of the Asian Pacific Islander community and their allies gathered at Seattle Central Community College on March 2 to commemorate a struggle of forty years ago that transformed the perspective of their community and whose influence was felt throughout the Puget Sound region.
In 1971, on February 9 and again on March 2, led by co-chairs Alan Sugiyama and Mike Tagawa, the Oriental Student Union demonstrated at Seattle Central Community College, closing the district’s administration building to protest the lack of Asian American administrators at the multi-ethnic college.
“If there are no Asian administrators working, there will be no one working”, declared at the beginning of the peaceful demonstrations.
Sugiyama pointed out that highly qualified Asian Americans who applied for top jobs at the college were consistently not hired or passed over for promotions of lesser-qualified whites. Tired of these injustices, the Oriental Student Union decided to seize the time and correct these injustices by holding peaceful demonstrations.
The demonstrations brought together the Black Panthers, Brown Berets, American Indian Students Association, Young Socialists and sympathetic white students in support of the Asian American demonstrators and their demands. Ironically, the top administrator at the college was an African American who instead of being a harbinger for change was an opponent of it. He decided that in no way was he going to capitulate to the demands of the Oriental Student Union. Instead he was going to fight them.
These demonstrations were a portent of things to come in the metamorphosis of Seattle’s Asian American community in the coming decades. Young people from the community would no longer choose to let things slide and not cause waves. The community became dedicated to direct action to change things for the better. Once baptized in the waters of civil disobedience and taking it to the streets, the Asian American community was emboldened to challenge the status quo. They were no longer going to be the model minority. They were going to stand up and be counted among the brothers and sisters who
clamored for peace and social justice.
Out of the cauldron of the demonstrations at Seattle Central Community College spawned many more direct action activities, from the founding of the Pacific Northwest’s truly Pan Asian community newspaper, the Asian Family Affair, to the Kingdome demonstrations. The former published the news that was important to the Asian American community that the local media suppressed, and the latter prevented the loss of the character of the International District/Chinatown to the construction of the Kingdome and kept it as a neighborhood for its primarily Asian elderly residents.
In the end, though it didn’t happen immediately, the Seattle Community College District hired an Asian American, Dr. Peter Ku, to a campus presidency and later its chancellor. Presently, an Asian American, Mark Matsui, is president of North Seattle Community College. But there is room for improvement not just on this campus but also in other community and technical colleges in the State of Washington.
In the face of today’s economic challenges, the burden of paying for the state’s financial insolvency is falling on the backs of the poor, the middle class, retirees, and on labor unions’ right to organize. The burden is falling disproportionately on people of color. Isn’t it time for all of us to seize the time, again!
Friday, July 30, 2010
The battle for America’s soul
By Frank Irigon
“If America wants us to be living and free, then we must be living and free. If we fail, then America fails.” The words are those of Carlos Bulosan, a noted Filipino writer, poet and migrant worker.
In a nutshell this is what Immigration Reform is all about: the battle for America’s heart and soul. It is an epic battle for what is fair and just in America. This battle pits the strength of our values and beliefs as Americans against those who would trample these values under the guise of protecting our borders and our jobs and keeping out the lawless.
Before us is the monumental task of convincing our fellow working Americans that none of us are that far removed from the undocumented and the problems they face in the labor market. From our immigrant roots, either legal or illegal, to a time when we were denied the right to organize and carry a union card? A time when we were exploited for our labor and paid the barest of wages? What happened to earlier waves of immigrant workers is happening now to those whose dire circumstances are dictated, not by what they bring to America by the stint of their labor, but by their immigration status. Workers whose only transgression is try to live and enjoy the American Dream.
We should never forget President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms:
Freedom of Speech and Expression; Freedom of Religion; Freedom from Want; and Freedom from Fear.
These Four Freedoms are what all working Americans strive for and march for. These are our core values and what makes us tick. This is what makes us enlist in time of war, and in peacetime to join the picket lines and gather in mass protests when the Four Freedoms are violated. We can do no less for the undocumented working Americans.
In the midst of mass hysteria, to build walls, to pass divisive laws, to witch-hunt for suspected undocumented workers, and to deport them if they cannot show papers; to deny citizenship to their children born on American soil -- in such a time of hysteria, we must be that bulwark for reason and truth. We must stand up for Immigration Reform that protects Families, Workers, the Economy and Security.
If we fail, then America fails.
“If America wants us to be living and free, then we must be living and free. If we fail, then America fails.” The words are those of Carlos Bulosan, a noted Filipino writer, poet and migrant worker.
In a nutshell this is what Immigration Reform is all about: the battle for America’s heart and soul. It is an epic battle for what is fair and just in America. This battle pits the strength of our values and beliefs as Americans against those who would trample these values under the guise of protecting our borders and our jobs and keeping out the lawless.
Before us is the monumental task of convincing our fellow working Americans that none of us are that far removed from the undocumented and the problems they face in the labor market. From our immigrant roots, either legal or illegal, to a time when we were denied the right to organize and carry a union card? A time when we were exploited for our labor and paid the barest of wages? What happened to earlier waves of immigrant workers is happening now to those whose dire circumstances are dictated, not by what they bring to America by the stint of their labor, but by their immigration status. Workers whose only transgression is try to live and enjoy the American Dream.
We should never forget President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms:
Freedom of Speech and Expression; Freedom of Religion; Freedom from Want; and Freedom from Fear.
These Four Freedoms are what all working Americans strive for and march for. These are our core values and what makes us tick. This is what makes us enlist in time of war, and in peacetime to join the picket lines and gather in mass protests when the Four Freedoms are violated. We can do no less for the undocumented working Americans.
In the midst of mass hysteria, to build walls, to pass divisive laws, to witch-hunt for suspected undocumented workers, and to deport them if they cannot show papers; to deny citizenship to their children born on American soil -- in such a time of hysteria, we must be that bulwark for reason and truth. We must stand up for Immigration Reform that protects Families, Workers, the Economy and Security.
If we fail, then America fails.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Welcome, Frank Irigon!
Frank Irigon, a distinguished leader in the Asian Pacific Islander community whose impressive resume would fill this page, has joined the PSARA Executive Board.
Frank brings to the board a rich background of community service in Seattle’s International District and beyond. He was co-founder and first editor of the Asian Family Affair, serving the Northwest API population; co-founder of the International District Community Health Center; a former trustee on the Renton Technical College Board – and the list goes on.
We look forward to years of fruitful leadership from Frank Irigon on issues of social justice. Welcome, Frank!
Back to Home
Frank brings to the board a rich background of community service in Seattle’s International District and beyond. He was co-founder and first editor of the Asian Family Affair, serving the Northwest API population; co-founder of the International District Community Health Center; a former trustee on the Renton Technical College Board – and the list goes on.
We look forward to years of fruitful leadership from Frank Irigon on issues of social justice. Welcome, Frank!
Back to Home
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)