tonite was my poogmul  indoor performance debut. we so rocked! During the show, I droped by drum stick or my "chae" 3X hahaha.

it was held at the Philip Jaisohn Medical Center.

Dr. Philip Jaisohn was the first Korean American Doctor and a Korean expatriate. for more info on the brotha: http://www.ncneighbors.com/media/documents/261.6.doc

tonite also marked a sad juncture. husband and wife tandem, our beloved teachers, are leaving to the westcoast. we hope it's temporary.

here is a pic of  our last year's jishinbalgi (korean new yrs celebration). new york team members are present too.

dont ask what i am doing with the stick.

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Voting: Asians' answer to being forced into 'otherness' in U.S.
It should be a duty for a group that until the 1950s had no political rights.

As Election Day nears, the words of Carlos Bulosan, the late Filipino novelist and labor activist, come to me: "History has determined our lives, and we must work hard for what we believe to be the right thing... . life is something we borrow and must give back richer when the time comes."

For me, as a Korean American and the Philadelphia-born son of immigrant parents, voting is one of those times we give back. It is a civic responsibility and an act of remembrance.

We forget that Asian immigrants used to be excluded from America's shores and that Asians who lived here could not be naturalized until the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. Essentially, Asians were stripped of their political and voting rights until only a few decades ago.

This suggests a reason that Asians have one of lowest voter-participation rates among Americans, and is why only a handful of Asians are in Congress. It also sheds light on why no Asian American has ever held elected office in Philadelphia - the nation's fifth-largest city and one with about 68,000 Asian residents.

But Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing populations in the country, according to a White House report. And with each new generation, our mothers and fathers are passing on their rich political contributions toward a more just American society.

In many respects, U.S. politics have been a racial dictatorship, and being white largely has defined the American identity. Congress first tried to define the American identity with the Naturalization Act of 1790. It afforded only "free white persons" the right to become American citizens. Subsequently, American Indians, African Americans, Latinos and Asians were reduced to "otherness."

That attitude continues. Recently, when a friend and I were volunteering at a voter registration drive sponsored by the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, held at the new Constitution Center, we overheard a security person say over his radio, "Those foreign-looking people are with [the coalition]." Well, we may look foreign, but in fact everyone in [the coalition] is an American. Racial and ethnic stereotypes such as this - and the "model minority" myth that insists that all Asians are doing well academically and professionally - belie the reality that nearly half of all Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees - many right here in the Philadelphia region - live in poverty. The belief that "Asians don't need services" limits Asians' access to and participation in federal, state and local programs.

We need to elect leaders who are sensitive to these issues. In Philadelphia, we need leaders who will intervene in deportation cases, for example, or who will address PennDot's English-only tests for driver's licenses.

Asian Americans' experience of inequity is something real. That, however, does not mean that voters should support a candidate based solely on race. What counts is the candidate's political agenda.

I live in Ambler now, but as someone who attended high school and college in the city, I have paid particular attention to one candidate's politics because, like me, he is Asian.

David Oh, a Korean American who has a small Center City law practice, is running as a Republican for an at-large seat on City Council. So my question is: Will he bring my agenda to the table?

One of Oh's plans is for an "Office of New Philadelphians" to attract and assist new residents from across the nation and around the world.

But Oh did not get involved when at-large Councilman Jim Kenney, a Democrat, pitched the same idea two years ago. He was not among the Asian leaders who testified before Council in support of it.

Oh also never stepped up when Chinatown struggled to keep itself from being hemmed in by development, when residents fought against the building of a new baseball stadium and a federal prison.

These are among the issues that are important to me, and that I judge candidates on.

It almost seems as if Oh has been missing in action when some of the issues most important to the Asian community have been up for discussion. If Oh doesn't identify with the Asian immigrant community, then voting for him would be just rubber-stamping the same kind of unresponsive politicians we've always had.

On Nov. 4, I urge Philadelphia's Asian American community to exercise a right once denied to them. Vote. Vote for a candidate interested in your life and concerns. As for me, that candidate is not David Oh.