From the Readers

From the American Legion

Dear Editor, Someone once said, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Well, the founders of the American Legion took note. Actually, found in the Preamble to the Constitution of The American Legion is the clause, “to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses.”

The key word here is “autocracy.” Wikipedia defines autocracy as, “a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanism of popular control” (except for rebellion of course, I might add). That said, “Americans” quoting from The American Legion / Vote America Brochure, “have the right to vote for whom they choose to represent them in our representative form of government. They also have the duty, and responsibility, to use their right to vote and familiarize themselves with the candidates and the issues that are up for decision on Election Day. Every election is important, as the individuals elected to office will establish laws under which we must live.”

Friends, this is incredibly important to our families, the community, state and nation. Albeit, you will hear from our representatives, when you have the opportunity to speak with them, that they feel that they are doing what is right according to their constituents best interests. But, understand that there is a long way from the chambers where laws are written and policies are made to that of the end user, you and me, at the retail level where the implementation of the same are felt! At closer analysis of what gets priority to be acted upon by our representatives thus impacting your family’s life, is summed up in the old expression, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

What I am saying is that the organization that speaks the loudest will get the attention. We have an opportunity, indeed the responsibility to act on engaging through The American Legion’s Get Out The Vote program to do our part to get more eligible voters to participate. The Get Out The Vote program has been around for the last one hundred-plus years. We can participate and learn how to make our communities better in a variety of ways, both as American Legionnaires and as private citizens of our beloved United States of America. The information on how to participate is readily available from The American Legion. Let’s do this now.

For God and Country,

Dale Tippett / Chaplain

9th District Council,

Department of Illinois

The American Legion

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Building Chicago’s First Asian American Ward

Hello Veronica, There are certain organizing opportunities that only come around once every ten years. Last year, it was the 2020 Census — the decennial process of counting every resident in the U.S. We successfully advocated for state funding for census outreach and then conducted extensive outreach in the Asian American community with our Pan-Asian Voter Empowerment Coalition to ensure our community was accurately counted.

This year, it is redistricting — the process of redrawing district boundaries at all levels of government. Despite significant growth in the Asian American community, as demonstrated by newly released Census data, there are currently no Asian Americans in Chicago City Council.

We hope to change that by advocating for the Asian American community in Greater Chinatown to be redrawn into one city ward. Currently, Chinatown is split across two different wards, making it more difficult for the community to advocate for their interests and elect someone who is representative of the community. To learn more, check out this piece from WBEZ featuring Advancing Justice | Chicago and the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community.

In solidarity,

Grace Pai, Exec Dir

Asian American Advancing

Justice Chicago