Fwd: Response to article from Professor Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde on SJMN 2/7/08

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Khoa Vo kvoman@yahoo.com
Date: Feb 7, 2008 2:07 PM
Subject: Response to article from Professor Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde on 2/7/08
To: letters@mercurynews.com

To The SJ Mercury News Editorial Desk -

The "assistant professor" really should walk the beat and feel the pulse of the community before she can make such a blanket statement. She also should have attended all the meetings and rallies here in San Jose to really understand the issue before making general assumptions while insulated from reality behind her desk at UC Davis.

If the "assistant professor" had attended the meetings, she would have understood that Madison Nguyen has flip-flopped so many times from one meeting to the next, no one can keep track anymore of what or who she represents!!! Madison Nguyen has stated at one meeting that if you don't live within a certain radius of this area, your voice doesn't matter. At the next meeting and at the council meeting, she stated that she's there to represent the entire VN community. In subsequent interviews with the Merc and other papers, she stated she speaks for the silent majority and for the ones who have to work for a living and don't have free time to attend these rallies.

By making that statement, Madison Nguyen is insinuating that those attending the meetings and rallies are on welfare, homeless, retirees, or good for nothing welfare recipients. I am offended by her statement. I am college educated, currently employed, in my 40's, and I made a point to attend these meetings and rallies to support the cause. When she was elected, I was so proud to have someone from the Vietnamese community representing our interests on the Council, but as we all have come to know, she represents no one but her own self-serving interests when it comes to issues that are important to the Vietnamese community. I feel ashamed to see her speak as if she's representing the Vietnamese community now. We are not "those people" that will go away and move on. I for one, given the chance, will vote to recall Madison Nguyen.

The "assistant professor" is so far removed from reality, she must be sharing the same meal with Madison Nguyen on the same trip to the moon!!! Frankly, I'm shocked that an "assistant professor" would show such ignorance in print!!!

Khoa Vo
Santa Clara County Resident!!!