Just to be clear, what follows is not an endorsement for a candidate campaigning for elected office. This community paper’s publisher, our editors and writers, don’t do that. What’s more: I would never urge you to vote for anyone. Not once in 33 years of problem solving among our robust newcomer communities, have I tried. I cannot.

I cannot because politics, really bad ones, got millions of families like ours murdered or expelled during those 60 ferocious years between the end of colonialism right up to today. History lives in us.

I cannot because, like our father, I am basically a mechanic. I do what those fellas in their tidy corner garage, four blocks from our house, do. Broken parts and broken hearts. But unlike their business, customers in my shop know what’s wrong and they know how to make it right. Sure they do. Sure they must. I just lend them my tools. Craftsman. USA-made. The best.

The same goes for societal issues, for electoral contests, for Portland’s problems — I simply cannot say which political candidate’s solutions are best. I cannot know. I am already overwhelmed by the complexities of my own raucous household.

What I do know is that democracy rocks. I know that people know what to do. Sure we do.

So to be clear, that’s what my electoral season essays are. A pitch for participating in democracy, y no mas. And no more. They’re written out of my hapless generation’s punch-drunk POV. A point of view not yet anchored in River Willamette’s precious soil. A perspective still possessed by this grand clockwise sweep of Pacific current and history, our histories, just beyond Astoria’s turgid bar.

With what remains of my 1,000-word essay, let me talk a bit about democracy generally, and then more specifically about next month’s contest for seats on Metro Council.

Democracy coming to our communities

My generation knows not a lot about democratic processes. Our families were not thus engaged, not back home. Not back when race and class totally determined how much school, how much money, and how many years in this precious life, you got. Not back where those scoring high on these indices, felt fine about the outcomes. And felt fine about us, those who labored hard and obeyed always, to make their privilege possible.

So every next Oregon primary season is a new experience to many new Americans. Suddenly there’re so many important matters we’re asked to vote for. Or vote against.

And yes it’s true, not until a few months ago did I know anything about the elected officials we entrust with comprehensively planning our region’s livability — that is, our Metro Council. I didn’t know the names or demographics of who’s on Metro Council. I didn’t know why they mattered in our lives, not until we traded stories with old friends in Fubonn’s frantic produce section. Friends, family really, who used to be neighbors when Helen Ying was Parkrose High’s VP.

"Thu-Thuy said that Kim-Phuong told her that Helen Ying is running for Metro," our old next-door neighbor enthused.

"Oh bagito (is that so)?" I smiled.

"Yes-yes," she nodded earnestly.

"Wow. Umm. Uh, what’s Metro?" I said.

Her nodding, my smiling, stopped. Were we our kids’ generation, we would’ve asked our iPhones. Instead, we examined our shoes, then we bragged about our children. And grandchildren. Like I said, democracy and comp planning and regional livability are new concepts to us. Harder to love than familia.

Helen Ying running for public office. In America. It all seemed so sudden. So dissonant from the math teacher, student counsellor, parent encourager, and public educator, we all thought we knew.

We revere our educators. We trust them with our girls’ and boys’ moral and intellectual development. Our kids’ American success depends on teachers like Helen. So the news of her running for office meant I either have to drop my esteem for her, or raise my regard for political leaders.

Democracy coming to our mainstream

And there you have it — the splendid chaos of America, the contradictions that make American creativity possible.

Imagine Helen’s sojourner grandpa crossing and re-crossing that dark blue expanse, vulnerable to every humiliation, just to make his mom proud, to gain his wife’s respect, to give his children and his children’s children dignity. Imagine his little Helen sailing this same deep sea and a decade later teaching math to smart Americans, then counselling north Portland tough guys, then managing an energetic big city high school.

It’s easy for us to imagine, from where we sit. Harder to imagine is this stubborn sojourner imagining his granddaughter asking local voters to elect her to regional leadership. Democracy was not in this grandpa’s black-and-blue bones.

But we can learn it. And we can love it. The discovery of democracy is happening all the time. All over our wobbly world. Democracy grows like rice — rapidly, certainly. Like I said, a few months ago, I knew next to nothing about the unimaginably important work Metro Council does. Urban planning for healthy families, for happy communities.

Then, someone we know well, someone we esteem, declared this work is really important to us. And decided to campaign for a seat. Democracy grows like that.

When someone like Helen Ying gets involved, that broad-shouldered, big-hearted grandpa is also in the room. Our room. And with his shamelessly optimistic immigrant girl comes her muscular community, including us nosey neighbors. All of us, unexpectedly in the mix of democracy.

It’s good for new Americans, numbering now between 1 in 6 for our city generally, now between 1 in 2 at the western, northern, and southeastern edges of our metro area. It’s good for settled Americans, broadening of our social and cultural mainstream can only create more adaptive institutions, a deeper economy, and a kinder community.

And if all this seems a lot to put on Helen Ying, that skinny just-off-the-boat Asian girl, that veteran teacher, and now a rookie politico — it’s not. This is not an endorsement. We don’t do that. This is less about our current electoral season than it is about how democracy grows. Like rice — rapidly, certainly.

* * *

Notas:

Just after learning about Helen Ying’s candidacy, I had my first conversation ever about Metro Council, over scalding doro wat (Ethiopian chicken) with Metro Councillor Rex Burkholder, who was out engaging new Americans, urging our elders and activists to do democracy. Get involved. Democracy works like that. Terima kasih (I offer our love to you) Councillor Rex.

Chinese sojourners are the same as Filipino, Mexican, Indian, Irish, Italian, and a hundred more. All of them alike, breaking hearts and breaking laws to keep their sacred promises to family. For family. This stubborn loyalty is elemental to the American experience. And needs now to take a place at democracy’s table.