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Talking Story  by Polo

From The Asian Reporter, V18, #26 (July 1, 2008), page 7.

Yes, it’s true. We just finished. Right on time for the Fourth of July, we finished phase one of our 2008 City of Portland/Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization (also known as IRCO) Civic Engagement project. Engage ’o8 for short. In italics for buzz.

E8 (if Engage ’o8 is still too long) is lots of things to lots of people. But, with what remains of this 750-word column, I will set out just five things, big ones I assure you, and talk a bit about 39 people and why they’re really important. I will try to be brief, I will try to be funny.

Ayoh. Here we go.

Not so long ago, for some reason, certainly an extraordinary one, Mayor Tom Potter got it in his head that our ethnic minority, immigrant, and refugee community organizations are essential to good city planning, policies, and practices. No one can say how it got in our Mayor’s head. I cannot know his thinking. But it sure sounds like democracy to most of us. A grand idea to many-many more.

Not only did Mayor Potter ask us inside City Hall — nice invitations, you know, are not entirely new to ethnicky activists — but our Mayor actually made his words real, made our aspirations true, by budgeting money for it. For us. Yankee doodle dollars.

Many jumped in to help our Mr. Mayor out, including the Center for Intercultural Organizing, our Latino Network, Native American Youth and Family Center, Oregon Action, Portland’s Urban League.

Our part, IRCO’s contribution to building the bigger "us" envisioned by our Mayor, is Engage ’o8. And E8’s work is urging Portland’s Asians and Islanders, Russian speakers of several ethnicities, and Africans of a half dozen distinct histories, engagement in Portland City Hall politics. In governing. Big goal. New idea.

It’s all a hard sell for families brutalized by Somali warlords or silenced by generations of Moscow mobsters only posing as government. But Portland’s boss really meant it. Come on in.

Selling Tom Potter’s sincerity would’ve been real hard, had they not heard him and felt him with their very own twisted bones and broken hearts. "Welcome to your house," said Mayor Potter, opening our Engage ’o8 civic leadership training series back in still-chilly March. "This —," he turned and gestured at City Council Chambers, "— is your house."

And we believed him. And from that moment forward, getting our newest newcomers engaged was, as they say: easy street.

Okay. So what are the five simple things mentioned at the top if this column? And who’re those 39 heavyweights wanting those five big-ticket items?

Big numbers first, big deals second. A couple of Saturdays ago, Portland’s Mayor-elect Sam Adams graduated our group of Ukranian, Russian, Somali, Ethiopian, Viet Kieu, Khmer, Korean, Congo, Burman, Moldavian, Hmong, Iu Mien, Lithuanian, Lao, Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese American, elders and activists. Three generations. Two genders. All leaders. All in English. Ayoh-ayoh.

Six short months ago, E8 promised City Hall 12 to 15 trained immigrant advocates. We did a lot better. We handed over 39. You know how folks get when you give us democracy. Crack that door, and it’s crazier than a Nordstrom Rack 50-percent-off sale. All elbows.

Now, our new Mayor promises all 39 civic leaders placement in key City advisory boards. And what our E8 immigrant advocates promise to do once appointed, once focused on bettering City services, are those five big things we keep bringing up. Everybody knows them, batteries included. Turn on any working immigrant mom, every worrying refugee pop, and these five items will roll right out.

New American families need Portland to back up our parental authority.

Anxious immigrant parents need Park & Recreation activities reflecting our values.

Highly educated and widely experienced newcomers want equitable access to city jobs.

Ambitious small business owners want access to

City Hall contracting and purchasing opportunities.

Energetic new Portlanders want a single city bureau that

knows our families’ needs and our communities’ strengths.

* * *

In fair trade for these five expectations of good governing, our communities will invest our precious Old World cultural capital, five immigrant assets just as necessary (ask anyone) for happy and healthy Portland families, for effective and efficient bureau services, for lively city offices:

1. Respect for everyone’s elders and for civil authority.

2. Reverence for all traditional social and spiritual values.

3. Responsibility for our big families and for our cool new community.

4. Acceptance of Portland’s cultural and racial differences.

5. Inclusionary attitudes and conciliatory practical skills in working a world of differences.

* * *

Yes it’s true. We just finished the first phase of prepping our first crew of Portland civic leaders. Engage ’o8. More than three dozen tip-top-drawer refugee elders and immigrant activists pretty clear on what our families need in Portland and what our communities will contribute to our city’s vigorous mix.

The next phase integrating our community work with City Hall will be sitting with Portland’s Commissioners and bureau chiefs in their offices, and inviting them out to where we live. Making everyone a bit more at home.

Just in time for the Fourth of July too.

Just the time for celebrating a bigger us.