Letter...

Yay... my letter was printed today...

http://glendalenewspress.com/articles/2007/04/16/opinion/gnp-mailbag16.txt

(The link will only work for two - three weeks so I've included the GNP version below - same letter that I blogged a few days ago).

When the city editor called to "verify" my letter, we chit chatted a bit about Glendale... politics, community relations, etc. He was a bit surprised to hear that I still read the GNP everyday. Yes, I'm lame. I know. But it was great to be asked my opinion - OFF the record for once.

Also, he asked about school and whether I'm incorporating this stuff in. I wonder if he asked that because he remembers the really harsh email I accidentally cc'ed him threatening future legal action. hm.




Ethnic politics in city is still an eyesore

In his From the Margins column, Patrick Azadian suggested that a certain amount of tribalism might have played a role in the recent elections ("Going tribal during elections," April 7). In typical fashion, readers responded with a knee-jerk reaction, attacking Azadian's theory.

The unfortunate truth, however, is that tribalism exists. The exact manner in which tribalism works and effects elections is not a hard science. But the notion of bloc voting and voting based on race or last names is nothing new or unique to Glendale. Those who were so quick to reject Azadian's comments should take a course on politics or even sociology.

I don't believe Azadian means to suggest an absolute theory. There are always exceptions, and sometimes more than just a few exceptions. Not everyone votes based on last names. In fact, many of those who are so vocal in the Glendale News-Press are those who are most aware of the issues and perhaps least prone to tribal voting.

The message here is not that candidates always win or lose solely based on their ethnicity. Indeed, Councilman Rafi Manoukian would never have been elected in the first place without support from all Glendalians. But the numbers suggest that Manoukian lost the support of only one segment of the community. Furthermore, I would propose that after his failure to take the lead for Genocide Commemoration Week, Mayor Dave Weaver lost a majority of the Armenian-American votes. Thus, Weaver was likely voted into office solely on non-Armenian votes. If true, this shows tribalism on two fronts.

I believe the message here is that we need to be aware of our own tribalism. Self-awareness is the first step to erasing imaginary lines and breaking down the walls we've created. The suggestion that there was an anti-Armenian sentiment heading into these elections is not meant to be a racist remark. The suggestion is based on real and actual events throughout the last two years. Mailers linking Armenians to terrorism targeted to non-Armenian male voters (the tribalism there is undeniable), letters in the News-Press making unsubstantiated claims that Armenian-Americans commit a disproportionate amount of crime, a slew of e-mails against a proposed Armenian high school, backlash against multilingual ballots (produced by an Armenian-American city clerk), etc. Although some of these discussions are based on issues, they undeniably show that ethnic background still plays a significant role in community politics and relations in Glendale. It is on us to move beyond this.

I second Azadian's wishes. I congratulate those who were elected and have high hopes they will work to unite this community rather than using the divide-and-conquer method for the sake of their own political aspirations.