Charles Bakst: The columnist says the governor and Mrs. Carcieri must meet with the Asian teens outraged by the governor’s layoff of three interpreters and humiliated by the first lady’s comments about the situation.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
How long will it take Governor Carcieri and his wife, Suzanne, to find the decency to meet with Southeast Asian teens outraged by his layoff of three interpreters and humiliated by the first lady’s comments about the situation?
The Carcieris’ snubbing these youngsters is outrageous.
When Donald Carcieri ran in 2002 and in the early stages of his governorship, he projected accessibility, compassion, curiosity, and gutsiness. He appeared to delight in meeting people and going places, even places you wouldn’t expect him, such as an opponent’s news conference.
Now, amid a budget crisis, he seems remote and clueless as to the needs of people who didn’t get the breaks in life he did.
You’ll recall that at a December news conference protesting the layoff of the Southeast Asian interpreters, Lucey Ok, a 15-year-old Cambodian organizer for the Providence Youth Student Movement, said Carcieri was sending her community a message that it is “not valued or welcome.” And another organizer, Tam Nguyen, 16, who is Vietnamese, called his actions “racist.”
I wrote that if I were governor I’d reach out to those two teens and others in their community. Then Sue Carcieri suggested to me that meeting with the teens would be “rewarding bad behavior.” And she said, “I think they have mentors who are much older than them who are training them up. You know — how those terrorists have kids blow up, you know, Benazir Bhutto and so forth? You think the kids thought of it? I don’t think so.”
When the students announced last week they wanted Mrs. Carcieri to apologize, the governor’s office said she won’t and that he is due an apology himself.
But Tam Nguyen, now 17, says the students have nothing to apologize for, and, at a news conference, denounced Sue Carcieri’s remarks. He said, “My mentors and the PrYSM staff provide academic help to Southeast Asian youth who have dropped out of high school. They are willing to take in kids who have nowhere to go, and help youth redefine themselves and develop a vision for a better life. Does that sound like terrorism to you?”
Pirom Ting, a 16-year-old Cambodian who is not a member of the organization but who participated in the news session, declared, “We are not mindless individuals and we can function without somebody telling us what to think.”
Rep. Grace Diaz, who was at the event, told me Sue Carcieri’s views had made her “nauseous.”
Gubernatorial spokesman Jeff Neal says Mrs. Carcieri’s point was that it is unhelpful for groups to accuse politicians like her husband of racism, or for the press to report such charges, and that inappropriate use of “false and inflammatory”’ labels undermines “honest dialogue.” (Myself, I’d call referencing the Bhutto tragedy inflammatory.)
The students want the Carcieris to meet with them and others in the community and listen to their concerns about the struggles of immigrants, and, yes, they want the interpreters reinstated.
But Neal says the Carcieris have no plans to meet with them.
I don’t care so much whether the layoffs were wise, or whether the teens used inapproriate language, or whether Sue Carcieri had a worthy point. I do care that some well-intentioned kids are voicing grievances as best they can, trying to participate in democracy, and looking for some acknowledgement of their existence, and that the state’s first couple prefers to whine and sulk.
The children are acting like adults, the adults like children.
Grace Diaz was onto something. This situation is sickening.
M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.
mbakst@projo.com
The Carcieris’ snubbing these youngsters is outrageous.
When Donald Carcieri ran in 2002 and in the early stages of his governorship, he projected accessibility, compassion, curiosity, and gutsiness. He appeared to delight in meeting people and going places, even places you wouldn’t expect him, such as an opponent’s news conference.
Now, amid a budget crisis, he seems remote and clueless as to the needs of people who didn’t get the breaks in life he did.
You’ll recall that at a December news conference protesting the layoff of the Southeast Asian interpreters, Lucey Ok, a 15-year-old Cambodian organizer for the Providence Youth Student Movement, said Carcieri was sending her community a message that it is “not valued or welcome.” And another organizer, Tam Nguyen, 16, who is Vietnamese, called his actions “racist.”
I wrote that if I were governor I’d reach out to those two teens and others in their community. Then Sue Carcieri suggested to me that meeting with the teens would be “rewarding bad behavior.” And she said, “I think they have mentors who are much older than them who are training them up. You know — how those terrorists have kids blow up, you know, Benazir Bhutto and so forth? You think the kids thought of it? I don’t think so.”
When the students announced last week they wanted Mrs. Carcieri to apologize, the governor’s office said she won’t and that he is due an apology himself.
But Tam Nguyen, now 17, says the students have nothing to apologize for, and, at a news conference, denounced Sue Carcieri’s remarks. He said, “My mentors and the PrYSM staff provide academic help to Southeast Asian youth who have dropped out of high school. They are willing to take in kids who have nowhere to go, and help youth redefine themselves and develop a vision for a better life. Does that sound like terrorism to you?”
Pirom Ting, a 16-year-old Cambodian who is not a member of the organization but who participated in the news session, declared, “We are not mindless individuals and we can function without somebody telling us what to think.”
Rep. Grace Diaz, who was at the event, told me Sue Carcieri’s views had made her “nauseous.”
Gubernatorial spokesman Jeff Neal says Mrs. Carcieri’s point was that it is unhelpful for groups to accuse politicians like her husband of racism, or for the press to report such charges, and that inappropriate use of “false and inflammatory”’ labels undermines “honest dialogue.” (Myself, I’d call referencing the Bhutto tragedy inflammatory.)
The students want the Carcieris to meet with them and others in the community and listen to their concerns about the struggles of immigrants, and, yes, they want the interpreters reinstated.
But Neal says the Carcieris have no plans to meet with them.
I don’t care so much whether the layoffs were wise, or whether the teens used inapproriate language, or whether Sue Carcieri had a worthy point. I do care that some well-intentioned kids are voicing grievances as best they can, trying to participate in democracy, and looking for some acknowledgement of their existence, and that the state’s first couple prefers to whine and sulk.
The children are acting like adults, the adults like children.
Grace Diaz was onto something. This situation is sickening.
M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.
mbakst@projo.com
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