Message from JACL National President Larry Oda
Friends,
This year, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of redress, we celebrate what is perhaps the crowning achievement of the Japanese American Citizens League. At no other time in the history of the United States has any individual or group of individuals successfully obtained redress and reparations from the government for an egregious suspension of civil rights. The ramifications of our successful actions have been far reaching and on more than one occasion, given pause to proposed legislation or government action to again abridge the civil liberties of another group.
JACL can be proud to have led the effort to correct the injustice perpetrated on our community during World War 2. During this last biennium, the National Board has been steadfast in its effort to maintain the spirit of those who made redress a reality. We must all work to insure that no group is singled out for persecution as we were. The success of redress was a combination of efforts of many people and the honorable history of the community. The industriousness of the Issei, the heroism of the Nisei soldiers, the activism of JACL and the leadership throughout the community are some of the reasons we were able to succeed.
As we take JACL into the twenty-first century, and our membership being impacted by the loss of our veteran members, the National Board has a significant challenge to revitalize the organization. We must keep up the fight to insure our civil liberties and offer our experience to other new immigrants. It is important because we did not have a mentoring group who took up our cause when laws were written to prevent our immigrant parents and grandparents from becoming American citizens or owning property, and stripping American citizenship from those who would marry someone who was not a citizen.
Today we enjoy the wealth of a great nation and we face virtually no prejudice, especially compared to period in the early twentieth century when thee were more than 400 laws specifically written to limit our participation in society. It is time for us to give back to society by giving the larger community the benefit of our experience, from keeping the memory of the Internment alive so it does not happen again to any other group, to sharing the finer points of our arts and culture, to being advocates for new immigrants, to help them navigate the treacherous waters of American bureaucracy. To solidify our place at the table, we need to have a succession of representation at the highest levels of government. We must groom our youth to serve their community as elected officials.
Let us do a mental exercise of drawing up a roadmap for the next 100 years. Our top priority should be to develop and groom effective civic and political leadership among our community. Let us start with our young. Most of our children participate in mainstream activities but is their vision expansive enough? To help our children to think beyond their own self-interest and take part in solving the social ills is to help them take ownership of their community. It gives them confidence to expand their vision to include the interests of others. This is the beginning of building leadership skills and it requires examples from adults in their lives. Nobody would want to follow a person who cares only about his own immediate self-interests. There is a paradox in human psychology that is sometimes overlooked in the pursuit of rampant individualism: We thrive best in a supportive and thriving community, but a supportive and thriving community is best built by people who are engaged in the welfare of others in the community. If we want to thrive as individuals, we can thrive best by wanting to thrive not only as individuals but also as a community. Thriving as a community is about empathy, the understanding and compassion of, and for each other. While empathy is ultimately not taught, it can be inspired first by parents, teachers and friends. This is the wisdom about human nature from our heritage that will serve us all well.
I am thankful for the support you have given me this past biennium and ask for your support to keep JACL moving forward, productive and sustainable in the twenty-first century.
Larry Oda
JACL National President