More congratulations!

Asian Americans finally made some good political news in the past week, after a long hiatus. Latino leaders have been pushing President Elect Obama to appoint more Latino Cabinet members, but it was Asian Americans - who generally backed Hilary Clinton in the Democratic primaries - who first reached the two Cabinet members mark. No doubt with intentional irony, this past Sunday - Pearl Harbor Day - Obama tapped Japanese American Eric Shinseki (pictured above) (like Obama, a Hawaii native) as Veterans Affairs secretary designate. A former Army chief of staff who stood up to General Rumsfeld about Iraq war planning, Shinseki's pick may soothe a little Obama's former left-wing supporters who don't like his national security picks (too many moderates who didn't oppose the war) and economic policy picks (too many devotees of Richard Rubin, who at Treasury during the Clinton Administration and then at Citigroup helped usher in financial market deregulation and the mortgage crisis - or, worse yet, Reaganomics' Paul Volcker).

Then later in the week Obama's second Asian American Cabinet member designate was Steve Chu (pictured below), a scientist and alternative energy afficianado (who has directed one of the Energy Department's largest labs). The selection of a bonafide scientist as Engergy secretary designate adds to the academic pedigree of Obama's picks (also to his White House staff) and may also generate support from the scientific community (to whom Obama may pay more attention, especially on issues such as climate change and stem cell research).


An additional Asian American also wound up in Congress, this past weekend, when a Louisiana special election propelled Vietnamese American Anh "Joseph" Cao (pictured below) into the U.S. House of Representatives, over incumbent and indicted Democrat Willie Jefferson, part of a small Southern Republican tide, also with the victory of Georgia's incumbent U.S. Senator Saxbee Chambliss. Cao seemed almost apolitical, but, a Catholic, opposes abortion. He joins fellow Asian American Bobby Jindal, as part of Louisiana's Asian American political elite. The Cao-Jefferson race settled all but the last of the contested Congressional races. Post-Election Day ground zero for how much the Democrats would control the House and Senate was in many familiar places to us. In Virginia, there was a recount which sustained Democratic challenger Tom Perriello over the incumbent Republican, in a district in which my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew live. Last weekend on Sunday morning there was still no winner in a contested race in western Central Ohio, where former New Left activist Mary Jo Kilroy (a former Columbus Board of Education member then a Franklin County Commissioner who sought to represent also Union County, where we stayed a week ago tonight) battled a Republican. They both sought to succeed Deborah Pryce, whom Kilroy had almost knocked off two years ago, and whose 1994 election as a pro-abortion rights Republican against both a Democrat and an anti-abortion independent, definitely made the news in my dissertation. With Perriello, Kilroy, Cao, and Chambliss all winning, the one remaining seat up for grabs is the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota (where we lived eight years ago). There, former "Saturday Night Live" comedian (and former "Air America" radio commentator) Al Franken continues to gain ground, in the recount, versus incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, a former St. Paul mayor and former Democrat.

Of course, none of this was news by late this past week, when the apparent would-be Senate seat-selling by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (pictured below) captured attention. Blagojevich was a first-year Illinois governor the year I lived and taught in Macomb, IL, and he helped Western Illinois lande the money for expansion of their Quad Cities campus. Even if he was something of a lone wolf trying to enrich himself personally, he's certainly damaged the Democratic "change that you can believe in" "brand." If this hasn't rubbed off on the president elect directly (and assuming he wasn't involved and didn't know about it), a would-be ally - Jesse Jackson, Jr. - is out as a potential U.S. senator, all the news about this detracts from Obama's message (even if it's more dramatic then - say - Dr. Chu's selection - and harkens back to the Governor Palin saga or the long Hilary vs. Obama saga), and it may well be that people who are somewhat close to Obama - like state Senator Emil Jones - should (and perhaps did?) have known something about this attempted seat-selling. Shame on the governor and shame on any Democrats who didn't turn him in. It's remotely possible that the way that the Democrats will have to force the Senate seat decision out of Blagojevich's hands is by setting up a special election - which could result in this environment in a Republican victory, thereby whittling the Democratic-independent majority in the Senate - even with ultimately a Democratic victory in MN - down from 58 or 59 to 57 or 58.

-- Perry

Up and down; now and then

I started a 3 1/2-week vacation and found out that the lateral move/promotion I had applied for earlier this year I finally got, with another modest raise. I'm honored and a little anxious about my new responsibilities (which I'll likely share with my old responsibilities for a while) as administrator of the Presbyterian Panel but also excited nonetheless. I'm also on my way home to Florida, where I'll visit briefly with my Mother and a few friends and - if all goes according to plan - drive back to Louisville with Mom's old Toyota Camry. We currently have three sick cars. The trick will be deciding which one or ones to keep (for me to drive) and which one or ones to decommission. We're also a little anxious about Mom getting used to her new Camry.

On the down side, we've gone for a couple of years since the old pipes - mainly in the basement - in our rental house have gone bad. In the past, two plumbing catastrophes had spewed all kinds of noxious materials mainly in the unfinished part of our basement. This week Stephanie adroitly caught this - while she was showering - so it was shower water only spewing, instead of something else. Plumbers - to be paid by our landlord - came and attacked the immediate problem. However, they want to come back to fix a leak in a pipe in the wall in our kitchen, and I'm not sure our landlord will authorize this. Now is a good time to be a renter (in that we don't have to worry about a house we own suffering falling values or about trying to sell a house), but we don't control maintenance (except for a few things we've gone ahead and paid to have done that our landlord wouldn't). And the sad sahpe that our 60-year-old house's plumbing and electrical systems are in give us pause about ever trying to buy the house.

The very serious academic problems Vincent is having helped trigger a conversation with his social studies teacher in class earlier this week that has him informally suspended pending a meeting with school district staff. Within the context of a conversation about whether Vincent would need the Commencement items we had ordered (some of which came in this past week), Vincent told his teacher - while some classmates listened - a disparaging comment. This triggered a phone call by the teacher to the principal, who in turned called my voice-mail. The next morning a rotating group of the principal, new assistant principal, high school guidance counselor, Vincent, Stephanie, and I met. It wasn't clear if Vincent was going to agree to talk with district staff, to whom they referred him. Now that he has agreed, he can't get an appointment until Monday AM and he declined this AM (Thursday) to go to school after we realized the school would let him be there (as long as we'd made the appointment) and he realized he would face two classes with the teacher (who - from Stephanie and my point of view - quite predictably - had called the principal about Vincent's remark). Yesterday (Wednesday) they cut him some slack by reporting him home sick while he contemplated compliance. I'm not sure what they'll do about today (Thursday - when he stayed home). (Either way - if the district staff clears him to go back to school Monday - he'll presumably be going to social studies class that day. We'll see.)

P.S. Vincent went back to school Friday - ironically - to see "The Nutcracker" which is used to see in Columbus. He also saw this ballet once in Tallahassee, and this weekend I'm reminded not only of Vincent's (up and down) days in Tallahassee, including at my Mom's house, where Vincent and Stephanie lived for two years and where I'm of course staying for this three-day visit, but also of our long fugitive week. I think it was really a week later 10 years ago when we were fugitives. But Vincent went to the Nutcracker Friday, when we saw that Sunday afternoon in Florida State's Ruby Diamond auditorium, during the fugitive period. More importantly, tonight was the night of the Flotilla of Lights - which we saw along with leftover fireworks - on the bridge in Carrabelle, FL, 10 years ago (Carrabelle harbor by day pictured above)- staying in the Beachside Motel that night ("What's that noise?"), eating at Julia Mae's, walking on the beach in the morning, and driving through the Apalachicola National Forest on the way back in the morning ("There's a deer on the other side of the road"). While we drove back after breakfast, Vincent's father met with our pastor, Pastor Brant, who did not disclose our whereabouts, and warned Pastor Brant that he might be back late that afternoon, for a carol sing and chili supper we were planning to go to. Mom warned us about this at the Nutcracker and sent us out to Shell Point, where we stayed for several nights with the late Marilyn Crook. There we watched videos and Vincent and I even swam in the Gulf (Vincent always loved telling people up north that we had gone swimming at the beach in FL in December - later that day it got too cold for this). Tuesday evening we drove into Crawfordville for dinner, and Stephanie called her lawyer (whose house we drove near in Pickerington, OH last weekend), who told us that the court had cleared us not to turn over Vincent to his father and so we went home to Mom's the next day, since we were no longer fugitives. The Tallahassee police did not get the message and so when our tire blew on our way back into town from Pascagoula, New Orleans, and the Sugar Bowl two weeks later, the police asked us about that. 10 years ago!

To check out videos of the two apropos songs we listened to on the way "home" from Crawfordville to Shell Point (thanks Mom, Ruth, Elizabeth, Brant, Nancy, Marilyn, Walter, Marian, Terry - and Steve!), click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e9y6-LRDPY

And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGZufk4HFs

-- Perry

Congratulations, Dr. Rice!

Back in September I participated in and then blogged about an Obama-Biden campaign foreign policy event across the Ohio River in the library of IN University Southeast, which Vincent had visited and where Stephanie had consulted. There were were former IN Congressman Tim Romer, mentioned until recently as a possible Obama homeland security chief, and Susan Rice, a Brookings Institute scholar who emerged as a chief Obama campaign foreign policy aide. Readers might recall that I was a bit disappointed that Dr. Rice was as hawkish as she was on Russia, aping the McCain campaign's tough line that anyone - even Russia's immediate neighbors - should be able to join NATO (even - although she didn't spell this out - at the risk of events like that in Georgia - this when subsequent events have borne out some of my caution in "Georgia on my mind" and - indeed - some of candidate Obama's caution until McCain hammered him and he had to tow the hawkish Bush-McCain line). (Actually, Bush's secretary of state - Condoleeza Rice - ended up being more balanced even than Obama here). Today in Chicago, Obama introduced his new national security team, including - at the end - Dr. Rice - as U.N. ambassador (and elevate this position to Cabinet status, which means she will have to seek Senate confirmation). Already I've been reading about this and I've been confused as outgoing Secretary of State Rice - another Dr. Rice - also commented on the selections - and it's sometimes not clear from the articles which Dr. Rice they're talking about. I wrote about General James Jones, the new national security advisor, as a dark-horse potential Obama running mate this summer. (As Marine commandant, Jones apparently disagreed with and disliked Defense Secretary Rumsfeld so much that he turned down an opportunity serve as Joint Chiefs of Staff chairperson). At the top of the list, of course (disappointing Senator Kerry and Governor Richardson) was the selection of Hilary Clinton as secretary of state. Of course, we followed Hillary closely throughout the Democratic primaries (see various blog entries) seeing her speak several times. Although I've watched it on YouTube since, I did not see her speech live (only snippets of the rest of the press conference) - Talking heads say she seemed stiff - but it was a sober press conference. It's bittersweet no doubt for Clinton, her family, and we her former supporters who sought for her to be the one announcing Cabinet appointments, instead of Clinton leaving her safe Senate seat to serve her former opponent. Earlier this fall Stephanie started talking politics with a colleague at work who was one of those former Hillary supporters flirting with voting for Senator McCain. Stephanie started to talk her out of it partly by saying - I bet Senator Obama if elected will make use of Hillary's talents - for example, as secretary of state. Given his supposed disinterest in Clinton as a running mate, this seemed improbably at the time. But Stephanie won back her colleague's vote for Obama with the argument, and she turned out to be prescient too. Congratulations to Clinton, Rice, and all in the new national security team!

-- Perry

The Danes' arrival

A big day for Vincent - and, indirectly, for us - arrived on the last Thursday in September when some 30 Danish exchange students from Roskilde Little School - a K-10 private school - outside of Copenhagen - arrived. You might recall that Vincent first ran away from home when we said that - because of his grades - we would not host a Dane (presumably his host from the summer). But - as it turns out - much more than Vincent had imagined at the time of running away - and more than we wished - Vincent got to see plenty of them. Vincent had been depressed when he first came back from Denmark and said he wanted to move there. He had stayed in touch with some of the Danes - including Tim, his former host; and Kristine, a woman he was courting - by e-mail and instant messaging. We had been through this Dane pick up twice before - when we hosted Simon and then Jon in the previous falls - and so back we went to witness it one more time - this time without taking a Dane home. Also there were our friends Jon and Libby and their son Nathan, who was hosting a Dane again - and one of Vincent's favorite teachers, Carrie, an English teacher, who you might recall had sponsored all of his explosion of 11th grade extracurricular activities (Danish exchange program, 10-Minute Plays, KY United Nations Association), with her daughter, Molly (Carrie and Molly are pictured above at the airport). You might recall seeing lots of pictures of Molly and her brother in the Danish trip blog, still at:

Below is the coterie of soon-to-be host students and families and other Danish exchange program hangers-on - awaiting the Danes' arrival.



Here is the first wave of Danes - boys, in this case (below) - arriving. Notice all of the black. After Vincent came back, all through the summer heat, Vincent wanted to wear nothing but black. I believe the person on the left hugging is Lars, one of the Roskilde School teachers.

On the left with the jacket on her shoulder is Kristine, the aspiring fashion designer who Vincent ended up spending a lot of time with in October (including - unbeknowst to us at the time - unsupervised at our house at least once).

Below is a closer-up picture of Kristine (unfortunately with red eye).

And again - below.

Here is Tim, who ended up coming over to our house (and I believe having dinner, un-planned-ly) once. Vincent spent half his time in June staying at Tim's father's house, and the other half of the time staying at Tim's mother's house. We had sent one gift for the host family, and so we sent a similar gift back with Tim to give to the parent without a gift (his mother). One of Vincent's better friends in Louisville split his time between parents' houses, but this doesn't seem to be the norm in Denmark or with Vincent's classmates here. Instead of with us, Tim ended up staying with a friend of Vincent (now a better friend) whom we like and her sister and their family, in a bungalow in Germantown, not too too far from my old neighborhood. Tim apparently spent a lot of time with Vincent's friend Sharon's younger sister (Sam), and Vincent has spent a lot of time over at their house subsequently. Although he got a lot on our nerves, Simon and Tim didn't look totally different from each other (and both were self-confident - although Simon didn't end up being that nice to Vincent).

Here's Vincent and Tim talking with another parent in the foreground from my old neighborhood, who I'd met in Phoenix Hill Neighborhood Association activities. Carrie had taken several students to take the ACT in Hamburg, Germany (and also her family), and Edie had stayed flown out to Denmark to help keep an eye on the remaining kids. It turns out funds from the Brown Parent Teacher Student Association, which I had helped fund-raise for, had helped pay for this.

I don't recognize the person on the far left, but below are Tim, Sharon's sister Sam, and Vincent as luggage arrives at the airport.

Here (below) is the mob of Brown and Roskilde students and families awaiting luggage. As you might expect, a decent number of the Danes were blondes, although Tim and Kristine (like Jon) were not. Every year there's one or two adoptive Danes who are Asian or African. This year Sonya (apparently originally from South Asia---India) was friends with Vincent and borrowed one of his sweatshirts for a couple of days.

Bizarrely - after Jefferson County Public Schools students' de facto Ike aftermath fall break - they had another scheduled one - three days off plus the weekend makes a five-day weekend - the first week of October. The Danes always arrive just before this five-day weekend and spend the long weekend getting to know the host families and the environs (and hanging out a lot with each too). Friday I stopped by the St. James Court Art Show after work, called Vincent because I thought he was in the vicinity hanging out with the Danes and others - and then as he started to talk I saw him in front of me in the middle of Central Park (see Walkathon blog entries). Sunday there is always a late afternoon picnic for host families, exchange students, and so on. This year it was on the grounds of Jewish Community Center, which we had considered joining and where there'd been two end of the year church youth group picnics. Louisville has a prominent Jewish community, and the town is one of two major U.S. cities with a Jewish Democrat for mayor and a Jewish Democrat for Congressperson (the other is Las Vegas). A number of Jewish institutions are located on the east side not too too far from where we live in St. Matthews (although our immediate area is a Catholic enclave). I'm sure like other Jewish institutions the community center was originally more in town - like the religious structure near my old apartment which I believe is an old synagogue. We arrived at the picnic late (and we didn't stay - just hung out for a while and then left Vincent) and Vincent was quickly in his element. Below he's talking with Edie again.

I got to hear a different perspective from Nathan's mother Libby. Already we knew that Vincent was/is failing a bunch of his classes and we're starting to realize that his graduation may be in jeopardy. But Libby - whose son faces some social skills difficulties associated with very mild form of autism (aspberger's)- watched the two of them and talked here about how her son - somewhat disorganized like Vincent but - in 11th grade - now more compliant with some organizational skills - was getting As and Bs but wondered somewhat aimlessly at an event like this - unable to sustain conversations, not popular with his Danes spending lots of time away from home and not with him. Without any prompting from us, Libby said she'd trade her son's decent grades any day for Vincent's social skills, popularity, and self-confident comfort. She's also one of those many parents who loves having Vincent over and thinks he's a great kid (which he certainly can be - though we've seen more sides of him). But it was interesting to hear a parent talk about how they wish their kid could be more like Vincent, even if that meant the kid failing some classes. Below Vincent is in the background talking with friends. Eventually Vincent was out away from under the picnic awning, partly playing kickball. I can't remember where we ended up picking him up or whether he eventually got a ride home. It continued to be a challenge trying a little to keep track of where Vincent might be, trying to get him home (not to mention do any school work), and trying to get him home at a decent time. I'm not sure Libby would have liked this part so much.

-- Perry