Today’s fractal--Funky Flowers--is only tangentially related to today’s post. I picked it because the red-and-yellow (OK Gold) color scheme reminds me of the former South Vietnam flag and the flowery shapes look a bit Asian to my Caucasian eye. They are a slightly weird bouquet for OC Register Columnist Frank Mikadeit.-
I’m not quite a Carl Sagan, Ronald Reagan, Sand Diegan Pagan (although every other Tuesday night I HAVE been known to worship Menachem Begin but that‘s a story for another time and place.) I DO make a point of reading Frank Mikadeit’s column in the OC Register on a daily basis. (He’s one of the main inspirations for this blog so if you don’t like it please feel free to complain to him.) He’s one of the true "Voices of Reason" in what is often an increasingly-crazy world. Today (April 9) he wrote a column about the ongoing protest in the local Vietnamese community. (Here’s a link to his column if you want to check it out for yourself: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/newspaper-doan-news-2014183-vietnamese-protesters ).
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For those of my eight loyal readers who DON’T live in the glorious OC--here’s the story . . . (Quoting from his column) The facts: In late December the largest Vietnamese-language daily outside of Vietnam published a woman's tribute to her Vietnamese mother-in-law, who had for years worked in a nail salon to support her family. Accompanying the article was a photo of the foot spa the woman had used. The side of the spa happened to bear an image of the flag. … That was the "offense." … Somebody saw it and used it to bait the virulent anti-communist faction in Little Saigon. Protests began outside the News offices … in Westminster. Nguoi Viet (the newspaper) did three things to appease the protesters, ) Apologized; 2) fired two editors; 3) bought back copies of the publication. It didn’t stop the protests. According to sworn declarations and an interview with Nguoi Viet editor Anh Do, protesters have also: blocked entrances to newspaper driveways and doors from customers and employees; stolen and destroyed copies of the paper; urinated on newspaper property; used bullhorns to shout into the rolled-down windows of cars arriving at the paper; yelled through the bullhorn inside the newspaper lobby. Do says the paper also received bomb threats and, most appalling, a threat "to dig up my father's grave and 'kill' him all over again." As of this week Judge Derek Hunt has greatly restricted the activities of the protesters.
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Mikadeit was bold enough to call the protesters “sick” and “dumb”--an assertion I could not agree with more! Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill--if ever there was one this is a prime example! What do these idiot protesters want anyway? It seems like the Nguoi Viet has bent over backward to appease them and yet it is not enough. Don’t these people have anything better to do? Maybe the ruling will calm the protesters down but personally I have my doubts . . .
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I’ve been following this story for a while now and wanted to comment due largely to the trouble of the Jane Kazor blog: the last thing I need is another detour to Crazyville. Still, once my hero Frank decided to comment I decided to put in my two cents as well--not that I’ve added anything constructive to the debate (but that’s not exactly what the blog is about). Keep up the good work Frank. You're not just another newspaper "hot dog." I always look forward to your column: unlike Gordon Dillow’s column it rarely raises my blood pressure. I truly appreciate that and Robyn truly appreciate's that.
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