| When Mr. Ramey Ko stood up to testify before the Texas House Committee on Elections on Wednesday, April 8, I'll bet he never expected for Republican State Rep. Betty Brown to ask him to erase his family history so that he would be easier for her to deal with. He may have expected having to discuss his "naturalization" papers that were needed in order for his parents to come into the country -- as if there was something unnatural about them before. He may have even expected needing to explain to Rep. Brown that he wouldn't need any ID to vote in China because, as he gently told her, "there's not a lot of elections in China." But I don't think he expected to be asked to disown his family name so that he would be easier to deal with for small-minded, America-centric, ignorant elected officials like Republican State Rep. Betty Brown. The remarks -- for anyone who hasn't seen the story on blogs, in e-mail action alerts, on the TV, in the newspapers, on Facebook, or anywhere else -- were rather shocking for me to hear. When I listen to Republican State Rep. Betty Brown make this proposal -- even after having read it and watched it over a dozen times -- I still cringe with anger: Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese - I understand it's a rather difficult language - do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here? Names are important. The history of how a name evolves is unique to every family, whether you are American or -- if you're like most of the people in the world Rep. Betty Brown knows so little about -- non-American. A name is identity. A name is posterity. A name is more than just a few characters marked onto a document to make it easier to ensure someone doesn't disqualify your legal right to vote. A name tells the story of a journey and a struggle. A name reflects a heritage and a past that is greater than any one person. One of the biggest decisions one can make in life is to change a name. The process of transliteration Mr. Ko patiently explains is very complicated. It is also extremely emotional. Changing a name through transliteration is the technical realization of a much more personal decision that people of all backgrounds struggle with on a daily basis. Whether it is an Asian-American not wanting to be laughed at by his or her classmates because the teacher never learns to correctly pronounce a name, or a woman deciding that she can love her husband and respect the tradition of marriage without leaving her name behind, the decision to "adopt a name" is always a serious one. But for Republican State Rep. Betty Brown, it isn't. For her, the consequences of Mr. Ko changing his name are probably no different than calling french fries "freedom fries." For a person and a party who believe that unlawful immigrants and "illegal aliens" are the same thing, the sheer ignorance of such remarks remains startling, though is not so surprising. However, there is one thing that did surprise me: Mr. Ko. Watch the video if you haven't. Look at his poise. See how calmly he responds, and how patiently he answers all of her questions. He does not get angry. He does not yell. Instead, he is thoughtful. He listens, he speaks, and then he listens again. The name we have given to something that would be advantageous for us to act on is the word, "behoove." Its etymological roots go back to the action, "to raise." Mr. Ko raised himself above Rep. Brown's remark in his testimony, and in doing so, honored his family's name. I am proud of him, and I hope that an intelligent and thoughtful person like Mr. Ko is never denied the right to vote. Rep. Betty Brown, meanwhile, should do more to develop a sense of her own name: - brown: O.E. brun "dark," only developing a definite color sense 13c.
The voter ID legislation that Republican State Rep. Betty Brown and her colleagues champion is as suppressive as Rep. Brown's remarks are stupid. The barriers they want to put in place -- and the ones that some House Democrats are beginning to compromise about -- are real. Voter fraud is a wedge issue that Republicans are pushing to throw red meat to their base. They don't care when, if ever, it is enforced. The Republican State Chair of the Committee, State Rep. Todd Smith, has admitted that he would want nothing more than to use this issue against Democrats in an election. There are some things we can compromise, and some we can't. We shouldn't compromise our names, as individuals or as Democrats. We shouldn't compromise who we are and what we believe in. We shouldn't trade away our votes to appease Texans that can't accept that we live in the 21st Century, or to buddy-up with Republican elected officials who have proven, time and again, that they will do anything to increase their political power. Democrat State Rep. Jim Dunnam was in that room when Mr. Ko gave his testimony. House Democrats Rep. Rafael Anchia, Rep. Alma Allen, Rep. Aaron Pena, and Rep. Joe Heflin all sit on that committee. I sincerely hope that they, and all Democrats, have courage like Mr. Ko to rise above the nonsense and stop the voter ID legislation. If they compromise, then they should know that many in their family will not be happy. |
