The L.A. Times published a story today about how the protest of Viet Weekly, a newspaper in Little Saigon, is hurting businesses on the historic Main St. area of Garden Grove.
“When they’re out there, you can’t hardly even walk,” said real estate broker Scott Weimer, who owns a small office building on Main Street. “Most of the merchants here are fed up with it.”
The OC Weekly has been covering this story for awhile. Their August 16 issue featured a story entitled “Red Scare in Little Saigon.” It is a must read primer on what is going on in Little Saigon.
As one might expect, the protest has Assemblyman Van Tran’s fingerprints all over it. Here are a few excerpts from the OC Weekly article that hint at Tran’s involvement:
A week earlier, California Assemblyman Van Thai Tran told a crowd of protest organizers at Westmister
Art, you make it seem that everything going on in Little Saigon is Tran’s fault or his doing.
As if your beloved Janet didn’t send her staff to the meeting in Westminster or to the protest site.
“There is something in this country called FREEDOM OF SPEECH!”
“Earlier today I wrote about an offensive column by O.C. Register columnist Gordon Dillow. I intend to cancel my subscription to the Register on Tuesday.But I am NOT going to start protesting the Register”
That’s because the last protest you tried to put together only had two people show up-you and your co-blogger.
“I WILL be supporting freedom of speech”
No you won’t.
You claim you will cancel your paper because you did not like what they wrote.
You are the hypocrite.
There is definitely a Janet connection to the story. Her brother in law owns the building that houses Viet Weekly.
Hey anon!
Get your facts straight.
Her brother in Law is a tenant at the building. Scott Weimer owns the building and is not related to Nguyen.
No wonder no one in their right mind would run for public office in Little Saigon.
Art, you and I disagree on a lot of things, but I’m with you on this one.
Little Saigon doesn’t fully support free speech for those community members with divergent views. If I were older at the time, I would’ve gone and counter-protested when they were up in arms over that man’s communist paraphernalia in his video store. Why? Because I believe in free speech as long as it does not cause physical or psychological harm. Those Little Saigon protesters could’ve boycotted the business, but they didn’t have to instigate a red scare and chase him out of town.
In terms of Viet Weekly, apparently any attempt at journalistic objectivity gets you a free lynching.
As a peace activist, I wonder why those 500 don’t turn out for a rally denouncing the occupation of Iraq, which is repeatedly likened to Vietnam. If they look closely, they’ll see how the US government colluded with the South Vietnamese government to fight a regime backed by the people for the sake of effectively ejecting any and all colonial rulers.
I hope Little Saigon starts to respect others’ exercise of the civil liberties that they themselves came here for, but unfortunately maybe economic opportunities trump all of that.