When I was in graduate school, I befriended a total stranger one day. It happened as I was getting my haircut and I was eavesdropping on the conversation going on at the next hairstylist's chair. I forget the conversation but I recall that it was an animated Asian American woman who was carrying on about something. Laughter seemed to fill the room. After the haircut, I was grabbing a drink next door at a local watering hole when this laughing person walked by. On impulse, I introduced myself to her and we briefly chatted. Sensing I was safe, not creepy (and probably surprised to meet another Asian American in Richmond, VA), she invited me to her birthday party that upcoming weekend. Well, fast forward 15 years and we are still friends!
The other day, as I was preparing for work and listening to NPR on the radio, I heard a story about Ali al-Marri, the only person being held as an enemy combatant on U.S. soil. I think Ari Shapiro was reporting on it. I thought to myself, this is so whack!
Well, it turns out that Ari was not the only one reporting on this story. That is, my laughing, haircut friend of 15 years -- Zinie -- was and still is a reporter for the Associated Press and continues to live in Richmond. She also wrote a great piece on the (il)legality of the detainment of what Bush calls "enemy combatants." It is a very fascinating legal case on Constitutional rights with clear implications for immigrants and refugees. Read her story by clicking here. From the article:
"If the U.S. can do this, it's contrary to the Constitution," Motz said. "It would give other nations the ability to do that by declaring a U.S. citizen an enemy combatant."
Salmons responded: "It's different; we're responding to the attacks of September 11." He added that the government doesn't make such declarations lightly and that al-Marri will receive a combatant status review tribunal in the District of Columbia federal court.
The al-Marri case has drawn friend-of-the court briefs opposing the government's position from liberals and libertarians, including former Attorney General Janet Reno and seven other former Justice Department officials and 29 U.S. law school professors. All contend the government's treatment of al-Marri is unconstitutional, and would set a dangerous precedent in depriving U.S. residents of basic legal protections.
The case, which is expected to reach the Supreme Court, could help define how much authority the government has to indefinitely detain those accused of terrorist acts and to strip detainees of their right to challenge the lawfulness or conditions of their detention.
Posted by richlee at February 2, 2007 09:53 AMFound your blog while trying to find information on Zinie Chen Sampson, especially whether she was a she or a he. Chen would be Chinese, a family name, but while "Zi" is part of the Chicom transliteration for dz, as in the diminutive erdz, for child, or dz, for character, and ni can mean "you," I can't figure out the "e" at the end. So I had to look.
She reported on the recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals pane's ruling on the Ali al-Marri case. I found two versions. My newspaper, the Telegram & Gazette, in Worcester, Mass., ran this one:
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070612/NEWS/706120637&SearchID=7328418155115
I Googled and found another version, at:
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=070611&cat=news&st=newsd8pmrmi81&src=ap
She did not mention who nominated the three judges. She should have, because the supposed "conservative" nature of the judicial district is unrelated to the decision and the panel, two of whom are Bill Clinton nominees. That missing fact has led some to misconstrue the import of the ruling.
I worked as a newspaper reporter and understand how little time reporters have. But I think something other than time led to the omssion. Let's call it an attitude on the participants and the substance. Adam Liptak, who reported on the ruling for The New York Times, and I agree on something, that the key difference in the ruling concerns whether Mr. al-Marri is an "enemy combatant." Two judges say he is not. The third says he is.
Members of my family are Democrats and we differ strongly on the war, the Administration, and all else political. So we avoid the topic.
Separately, I learned some Chinese in the Army years ago and studied it before and after service. I still have lots of problems with the language and the characters. Learning Russian is easy by comparison. Korean, which uses a syllabary, as does Japanese, though the Japanese use characters more for nouns, seems easier, too.
I can't find my book on Korean that I bought to compliment the family of a marimba player, friends of relatives who live near Lincoln Center. This reminds me that I need one the next time I visit the store where I bought a Zojirushi rice cooker. It was relatively expensive, but it's terrific. Perfect brown rice! Perfect barley and perfect buckwheat (kasha) too! I have to thank them.
I have read your posts. Sometime this year, I hope to learn how to blog. I worked for seven years as a newspaper reporter and have much to say about what is reported and how. However, since I have read your posts, I'd write that I understand your frustrations. Similar things have been thought and written by others, including members of my Franco-American ethnic group, most of whom no longer see themselves as such, after perhaps a hundred years in this country.
And you have to admit that Americans are open and receptive. Almost perhaps too much: it was hard for a woman whose parents came from Beijing and Shanghai to accept one of my nephews in marriage, and hard on her family, but they're happily married now. As with the Jews, some immigrants get loved almost out of existence, certainly as ethnic groups here, though I suspect there's no danger of the Chinese disappearing as an ethnic group. (I think the U.S. has the second largest, or perhaps the largest, group of Jews in the world; the Chinese immigrant community, by contrast, is a tad smaller than the population of the home country.)
And I've written so much to call your attention to good news. I hope you ejoy watching the women play professional golf. There's sure no barrier to women from Korea to play and succeed. And, as you know, one whose family now resides in Hawaii has an injured wrist. Perhaps next year, she will do really great. But an 18-year-old may beat her to a tournament win, Na On Min. They are taking this weekend off, but will be back the next weekend for the Wegmans Tournament in Pittsford. And, from 23 to 29 October, the LPGA will be playing at The Club at Nine Bridges in Jeju, 남한
나� 사과 나는 쓴다너무 많�
Ain't computers great?
Posted by: Alfred J. Lemire at June 14, 2007 02:12 AM