I think it's time I started blogging again, not because I feel the need to broadcast my life out to the world, but blogging was good for me as a form of thinking out loud, not to mention introspection. I've been letting the things in my life dictate how I live, and I think it's about time that I change that. I guess I have to accept the fact that life will always be busy, but taking a couple minutes here and there to reflect won't be the end of the world...
When I was younger, I used to have nightmares that never really made any sense to me. I saw horrible scenes of people screaming and crying in the midst of chaos, while others were being shot or bludgeoned to death. I saw the parched dirt roads drenched in a scarlet flood of betrayal as daughters and sons were made to turn against their fathers and mothers. I saw people walking around on stumps, deformed faces caused by the paths they'd chosen to walk on. This was my life before America. They were shards of a past that, even after more than 20 years have passed, I still haven't gotten over...
I was flipping through the tv channels today and I happened to stop on MTV as they were airing an episode of True Life. I was immediately caught off guard and entranced by the eerily familiar images of dirt roads, bamboo huts, and the World Relief insignia. The title of this episode was "I'm coming to America." They were documenting the resettlement journey of a Burmese refugee family to the United States, all through the eyes of the eldest son.
As I watched on and listened to his story, my tears began to flow like the Mekong during monsoon season. I couldn't help but connect to Thimonthy as I watched his story mirror mine. As he walked through the refugee camp, I walked with him feeling the suffocation and depression encroaching with each passing day. This was life in the camp, an endless battle to hold on to the hope that one day, you'll be one of the lucky few selected to breathe the air of freedom once again...
As the bus drove away from the refugee camp and everything he had ever known, I understood his fear and apprehension masked behind a guise of hope that life in America would somehow be better. "No problem," Thimonthy said over and over again, hoping that with each time, it'd be more believable. Like Thimonthy, these same words were echoed by my father and mother. I'm not sure if it was because they lacked the vocabulary to truly express their feelings, but regardless, these two words have bound a community of survivors and heroes determined to find a better life, no matter what the cost or sacrifice...
More than two decades have passed since my family and I left Cambodia, but I've not forgotten the struggles and hardships we've had to endure to get to where we are today. As an American, I think it's easy for me to take both freedom and hope for granted, but no matter where life takes me, I can never forget the texture of those bamboo huts, the pictures of those who preceded me, nor the moment when the bus pulled away and I watched as my extended family was slowly enveloped by the dust...
Life is an impossible ocean to navigate through without having hope as our compass, and the past as our keel...
My friend, Will, got to attend YouTube Live and I had one small request of him, get KevJumba to say hi to me on video! Check it out! Wheeeeeeeeee! Thanks Will and hi KevJumba!!
On November 4th, our country beared witness to both a triumphant victory and a morally crushing defeat. As we stood on the threshold of history, prepared to embrace the fact that we, as a people and as a country, had progressed far enough to elect the first colored President of the United States, we still were unable to transcend the homophobia and hate that still pervades our hypocritical society. As elated as I was about Obama's victory, I only wish that humanity could have shared in that same victory. CA Proposition 8 has torn this country apart. It has torn apart families, and for me personally, it has torn apart friendships...
In the process of reaching out to my conservative and religious friends to try to bridge the communication gap that has been created by this issue, I find myself becoming a broken record, asking the same questions of each person that has voted "yes" on 8. Yes, you're certainly entitled to your beliefs and opinions, but how can you, as a friend, call yourself one when you were in effect denigrating me by voting "yes" on 8? How does this issue affect you? How does my ability to love and my right to marry infringe upon your rights, so much so that you would willingly and consciously vote to certify me as a lower-class citizen, to treat me as sub-human, with your vote. Is this what friendship is about? If it is, then I don't know if our friendship is really worth fighting for...
How quickly we forget the pain and ugliness of discrimination that our parents, aunts, and uncles had to endure as people of color, people who were different from the status quo. They fought bravely so that we could enjoy the right to equality. How can you spit in their face, as well as mine, by destroying what they've fought for?
This issue is not about religion. It's about equality.
I couldn't really sleep last night. The latest polls still have us losing the battle against Prop 8 by about 5 points. I was mulling over ideas in my head as to how I could help in this fight. I decided that I would reach out to as many of my friends as possible to encourage them to vote NO on Prop 8. This morning, I randomly pinged one of my friends to check to confirm that he had at least registered to vote. He hadn't. I was pissed. Beyond pissed. HOW COULD YOU NOT FUCKING REGISTER TO VOTE?!?!?!?! In what will be one of the most significant and historical elections ever where we can actually effect change, there are still people choosing to be apathetic?!?!?! WTF?!? I don't get it. What does it take for people to care? Is it not enough that our economy is in shambles and that we've had an idiot as our leader for the past 8 painful years? Maybe we just haven't wasted enough of the people's money or sacrificed enough American lives in the name of oil yet? Or perhaps people are regressing and actually do believe that separate is equal? WAKE UP AMERICA!!! I get that people have their own lives to live, and that they have other priorities, but we're seriously talking about undermining the very foundation that this country was built upon: freedom and equality for all. Please take your privilege seriously. Please vote, and more importantly, please vote NO on 8!
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" -- Edmund Burke
Lifetime
