[re]-living.

Tonight (FiComm meeting for SASC-SI)...much like every moment that I spend with SASC family...makes me feel HELLA juiced and inspired of our community.


"SASC SI was the first time of me learning about MY history and MY parent's experiences and when I asked my mom about her experience as a refugee...tears rolled down her eyes because she never thought that her son would ever ask about her story" -Larry Xuan Bach

"DAMN those are a lot of questions. Why do I have to ask WHY I didn't have the things that other people have" -Son Chau

"It sucks and unfair to think that my sister wouldn't be able experience SASC SI because we have a 'budget' " -Tracy Nguyen

"I came to SASC SI as a nobody and I left as a SOMEBODY. If ME being HUMANIZED because of SASC SI isn't a good enough reason for yall to fund us...then I don't know what will" -Stephanie Yang


Nuff' Said yalls...you beautiful beautiful young leaders spoke loudly tonight...you spoken not only for SASC, not only for the Southeast Asian community...but you spoke for the FUTURE LEADERS OF TOMORROW who will have the chance to be able to experience SASC-SI because of you.

Thank you downass community and the rest of the speakers (Danielle, Amy, Jesse, Nhi, Yer, Boun, and much more) for speaking on behalf of SASC tonight. And those who stood there along our side...snapping your fingers...you too, spoke very loudly for our community as well. Because of you, many lives will continue to be inspired and many life pathways will be paved for the better.

With unconditional love and much respect,
SASC-lover

P.S. I apologize if anyone was mis-quoted...I was trying my best to recall the beautiful poetry that yall spit out tonight.

Need Language Help to Outreach to Vietnamese Truck Drivers

Over the past year, the campaign for Clean and Safe Ports have reached out to thousands of port drivers and built a committee of worker leaders to help lead a campaign for fair wages and benefits all over the country. At the Port of Oakland campaign, organizers are looking for Vietnamese-speaking volunteers to accompany them on visits to more than 100 Vietnamese workers' homes to talk to them about their experiences and encourage them to participate in the campaign.

• Visits would take place between 5 and 8 pm on weekdays and between 10 am and 7 pm on weekends in Oakland, between March 5th and March 20th.
  
  
• If you have organizing experience, here's a chance to use your language skills. If you don't have organizing experience, this is a great introduction and training will be provided.
  
  
• Organizers will work around your schedule but it is best to sign up for 2-3 hour shift.

Background on the Campaign: Teamsters and the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports are organizing thousands of immigrant truck drivers at the Port of Oakland to demand fair wages and benefits – and to cut back the pollution that is poisoning both drivers and West Oakland residents. Campaign organizers need your help to involve Vietnamese drivers in the campaign!

The campaign: about 2,500 truck drivers – immigrants from all over the world – work at the Port for over 100 small trucking companies. Because drivers are misclassified as "independent owner-operators" instead of employees, trucking companies require them to work long hours for low pay and fail to provide them with Social Security, workers' comp, or other basic benefits because of their status as independent contractors, it is illegal for these truck drivers to form a union to advocate for a better life. And because drivers are responsible for maintaining the trucks, they can't afford to make environmental improvements – so trucks keep spewing dirty diesel fumes that cause asthma among drivers and local community residents.

The campaign seeks to organize the truckers and local communities to demand that trucking companies hire the workers as direct employees, provide them with fair wages and benefits, and provide clean trucks that do not harm worker and community health.

For more information, contact Sarah Norr at the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy at 510-435-9475 or sarah@workingeastbay.org.

Welcome!

Hello friends, family and all the down-ass folks of the Southeast Asian Community! Once in a printed form, this reborn blog version of The Green Papaya aims to bring the literary arts of Southeast Asian people to everyone! I hope that in this form, people will be able to contribute, view, and share freely about the amazing articles to come. Thanks for visiting and I hope that this can be something worthwhile to our community.

In Love & Solidarity,
JohnViet - SASCtorian 07/08