Posted on 11/07/2004 2:17:10 PM PST by TapTheSource
Nov 4, 3:02 AM EST
First Vietnamese-American lawmaker is object of pride and threats
By BEN FOX Associated Press Writer
WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) -- The first order of business for Van Tran, following his election night success, was a trip to a Vietnam War memorial. With a bodyguard.
That's politics in Southern California's Little Saigon, where the first Vietnamese-American elected to a state legislature - and the nation's highest-ranking Vietnamese-American elected official - is an object of community pride and death threats.
Tran said he has been told by two people he considers reliable that Vietnamese communists have targeted him for assassination because of his new political status and past activism against the regime that rules the homeland his family fled 30 years ago.
It's not the first time he's gotten threats: A year ago, he felt compelled to get a concealed weapons permit and is nearly always armed when he's in public.
"That's the burden of public life and I'm fully aware of it," Tran told reporters before placing flowers at the black granite memorial to celebrate his election to the state Assembly.
The 40-year-old Republican attorney easily defeated his Democratic opponent and said he plans to focus on public safety and transportation when he gets to Sacramento. He also says he wants to ease the financial burdens of small businesses and fight against illegal immigration.
"There is a unique responsibility by virtue of the fact that I'm a Vietnamese-American but ... I have to represent everyone equally and I intend to do that," he said.
In the Assembly, the Democrats have a firm grip on power and Tran isn't likely to succeed in enacting a conservative platform that includes opposition to abortion rights. That may not matter back home: He's a celebrity who is greeted with handshakes and embraces as he walks the streets.
"Everyone is proud of him," said Ngo Ky, a self-described activist in Garden Grove. "He doesn't belong to his family anymore. He belongs to the community."
Little Saigon, which straddles the neighboring Orange County cities of Garden Grove and Westminster, is the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. Many are first generation refugees whose hatred of communism is deep.
Tran, who won a seat on the Garden Grove City Council in 2000, shares that view. He has testified before Congress about human rights abuses in Vietnam and he was among the leaders of an effort this year to pass an anti-communist ordinance that restricts official visits to Little Saigon by delegations from the Vietnamese government.
"I'm a product of the Vietnam War as much as John Kerry and George Bush," he said at the memorial, where he also burned sticks of incense as a tribute to the fallen U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers who died in the war.
Tran's family fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., before settling in Orange County, home to about 133,000 people of Vietnamese descent.
"Van in my opinion is the poster child for the American dream," said Westminster City Councilman Andy Quach. "This is a gentleman who comes from a well-to-do family who lost everything when the communists took over and they came here and started over. ... Now he's contributing back by participating in the political process."
Tran owes his election in part to the fact that his district leans toward the GOP and he was pretty much assured victory over his underfunded challenger. Still, Linda Vo, an Asian American studies professor at the University of California, Irvine, said it has significance: "It symbolizes to many that the community is getting more engaged in the political system and is fostering more leaders."
Here is Van Tran's official website:
http://www.vantran68.com
ping!
That's horrible that he is threatened by a bunch of dirty filthy verministic commies. I am Korean and I feel for anyone who was affected by Communism. North Korea is Communist and millions of Koreans are under the bondage of Kim Jong-Il and his thugs.
"I am Korean and I feel for anyone who was affected by Communism."
It's too bad nobody has put together a truly cross-cultural anti-Communist organization dedicated to achieving complete victory over ALL Communist countries.
Sign me up for any anti-Communist groups. There is the World Anti-Communist League which is led by Sun Myung Moon.
Hell Asians aren't even counted as 'minorities' by the race baiting leftist hypocrites. So why should the 'tolerant and diversive' left care. If they weren't just pandering for the black vote Asians would be minorities and so would whites. How many whites have you seen in the graduate level engineering departments at most universities? They are overwhelmingly Asian and middle eastern.
Yes, let's keep him in our prayers.
"There is the World Anti-Communist League which is led by Sun Myung Moon."
Too many anti-Communists distrust Sun Myung Moon. It would have to be an organization that is not associated with any one country or religion. Can you imagine the damage such an organization could do to the Communists. You would have all these native speakers of countless languages translating and exposing Communist strategems at every turn. It would drive the Communists nuts!
I'm very proud of our Vietnamese American citizens; they are truly representative of the spirit that created this nation and made it great. Often it takes the fresh blood of new peoples who are yearning for freedom to revitalize that spirit in this nation...so many of us unfortunately have lost that same spirit.
I don't really like Sun Myung Moon. I think he is a bit weird.
BTTT
"I don't really like Sun Myung Moon. I think he is a bit weird."
Now there's an understatement!
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VAN TRAN for Assembly Website:
http://www.VanTran68.com
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You know we really need to crack down on these idiots making death threats. If people start thinking they can just assasinate whomever they don't agree with, we are going to degenerate into the middle east or many African countries.
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**Former Bob DORNAN-Aide Elected 1st Vietnamese-American in CAL State Legislature (TRAN)**
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1270585/posts?page=1
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They have it's called FreeRepublic.
Last trip to California I saw what the Vietnamese community had done to clean up what was once called Garbage Grove keep it up and spread the work around.
"Hell Asians aren't even counted as 'minorities' by the race baiting leftist hypocrites"
Know why? How many Asians are on welfare? How many flunk out of school? You can't use them as "victims" so the DNC pretends they don't exist!
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