Obama cites impact of climate change on Pacific nations; expands largest marine monument

On Midway Atoll, President Barack Obama looks over the new oceanic
preserve off the Hawaiian islands. 

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA once began his remarks in front of a gathering of Pacific Islanders gathered in Paris for climate talks, "I'm an island boy." He stopped in Hawaii on his way to Asia where he plans to have climate change as a theme throughout his trip.

“Few people understand, I think, the stakes better than our Pacific Island leaders, because they’re seeing already the impact,” he told a group of Pacific Island leaders and conservationists at the East-West Center in Honolulu. “Rising temperatures and sea levels pose an existential threat to your countries.”

“Crops are withering in the Marshall Islands. Kiribati bought land in another country because theirs may someday be submerged. High seas forced villagers from their homes in Fiji,” said Obama, who early in his first term billed himself as "America's first Pacific president." 

He also noted that he brought his children to Hawaii for Christmas vacation every year. “I want to make sure that when they are bringing their children here or grandchildren that they are able to appreciate the wonders of this island,” he said in closing.

RELATED:

• 'I'm and island boy,' says Obama
• Filipino/American's work critical to Paris climate talks
• Rhyme & reason on climate change

Earlier this week, he announced the expansion of the national monument off of Hawaii, vastly enlarging an area in a region that six presidents have sought to protect. 

On Thursday, Sept. 1, he landed on Midway Atoll, now a part of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which spans 582,578 square miles – roughly four times the size of California.

The enlarged monument is home to more than 7,000 species, including green turtles, endangered Hawaiian monk seals, various seabirds and a newly discovered octopus scientists nicknamed Casper. As many as a quarter of the species are found nowhere else on the planet.

The monument expansion is part of the president's legacy of conservation. In addition, the Obama Administration is announcing nearly $40 million in new programming to enhance resilience to climate change and advance clean-energy development by building regional, national, and local capacity in the Pacific Islands to prepare for and help mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. 

National Park Service

These steps come as sea level rise and the increased strength and frequency of catastrophic weather events pose an existential threat to places most vulnerable to their impacts, such as the Pacific Islands. In addition, and consistent with the theme of this year’s World Conservation Congress, the Administration is announcing policies to promote conservation and combat climate change by protecting wildlife, oceans, and lands.

Throughout the week, senior Administration officials, including Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, are attending the World Conservation Congress to discuss these steps and hear directly from leaders in government, business, NGOs, Indigenous groups, and youth groups on a broad range of topics related to conservation and climate change.

“I have to say that Teddy Roosevelt gets the credit for starting the national parks system,” Obama said, perhaps cementing his record on conservation, “but when you include a big chunk of the Pacific Ocean, we now have actually done more acreage than any other president.”

President Obama left Hawaii this morning for China where it is expected that a major announcement will be made regarding the involvement of the U.S. and China in the international climate agreement achieved in Paris in December.

UPDATED: President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed the agreement as expected, according to Scientific American.

Obama's visit to the island state where he was born perhaps will be his last as a sitting President. Towards the end of his East-West speech, he got a bit nostalgic noting that “a lot of my life started within a mile radius of here.”

He said his mother and father met “probably a couple hundred yards” from the East-West Center. He went to school about a mile from UH’s campus (at Punahou School), and he was born about a mile away (at Kapiolani Hospital).

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DNC: Reactions to President Obama's speech

I REALLY ENJOY listening to skillful speakers who turn it into an art.  Wednesday night I heard three - perhaps four - speeches from the Democratic National Convention. 

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg masterly destroyed Donald Trump and his supposed business acumen and exposed his hypocrisy toward immigrant workers.

Vice President Joe Biden did a fantastic job, occasionally returning to his Bidenisms as only he can, taking his message to the vast middle class of America, clothing his anger in rightousness. Middle-class Joe is Everyman, someone angry white males, Trump's supposed demographic, can relate to. Biden could have been a Knute Rockny firing up his team.

Vice President nominee Tim Kaine surprised us and just as we were getting used to his loose, conversational style, he came on like gangbusters attacking, mocking Donald Trump. And when he effortlessly slipped into Spanish, I could see all the Latino voters moving towards the Democrats.

But President Barack Obama was the clincher. He is a master orator, building up to a crescendo of emotion and then calming down, waiting until the cheering stopped and everybody was leaning forward to hear what he had to say, then speaking softly and then sweeping up to flourish, speaking louder to be heard over the applause. It was fun to watch and listen. 

What was he talking about? Sure he used the speech to attack Trump, but what stuck with me is he reminded us of all the good people who make up our country and the values they held. Trump is not America. Trump is not even the Republican Party. He made me proud to be an American. 

I'll savor his last remaining days in the White House.

President signs bill banning 'Oriental' in legislation

WITHOUT FANFARE, President Obama signed the bill that would ban the use of the word "Oriental" in federal legislation.

Rep. Grace Meng

“The term ‘Oriental’ has no place in federal law and at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good,” the author of the bill, Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), said in a statement Friday. 

RELATED: 'Oriental' reinforces the Western point of view

President Barack Obama signed H.R. 4238 on May 20, which amends two federal acts from the ’70s that define “minorities” with terms that are now insensitive or outdated. 

Two sections in the U.S. Code written in the 1970s governing public health and civil rights attempted to define minority groups by using the outdated terms. 

Thanks to the new law, references to the term “Oriental” will be replaced with “Asian American” and the word “Negro” will be changed to “African American.”

AAPI Heritage Month: 2016 Presidential Proclamation

SIGNING of this Proclamation is almost automatic these days, but it is still worth valuing for those of us who remember the years before it was created in 1977 as a week-long observance and AAPI people were hard-pressed to convince the rest of America that AAPI were part of this country's cultural and historical heritage.

May was chosen because of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants on May 7, 1843 and the completion of the Trans-continental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority the workers on that nation-changing feat were Chinese even though the famous photo commemorating the event excluded the Chinese.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush made the entire month Asian American Heritage Month. Two years later, it became Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

After he took office, President Obama continued the observance as Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Here is this year's proclamation:

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are the fastest growing racial group in our country, growing over 4 times as rapidly as the population of the United States. As one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse groups in America, the AAPI community reminds us that though we all have distinct backgrounds and origins, we are bound in common purpose by our shared hopes and dreams for ourselves and our children. Our Nation's story would be incomplete without the voices of countless Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders who have called the land we all love home. This month, we honor the irreplaceable roles they have played in our past, and we recommit to ensuring opportunities exist for generations of AAPIs to come.

The AAPI community's long and deeply-rooted legacy in the United States reminds us of both proud and painful chapters of our history. Confronted with grueling and perilous working conditions, thousands of Chinese laborers on the transcontinental railroad pushed the wheels of progress forward in the West. Japanese American troops fought for freedom from tyranny abroad in World War II while their families here at home were interned simply on the basis of their origin. And many South Asian Americans in particular face discrimination, harassment, and senseless violence often in the communities in which they live and work.

Today, AAPIs lend their rich heritage to enhancing our communities and our culture. As artists and activists, educators and elected officials, service men and women and business owners, AAPIs help drive our country forward. Yet despite hard-won achievements, AAPIs continue to face obstacles to realizing their full potential. One in three AAPIs does not speak English fluently, and certain subgroups experience low levels of educational attainment and high levels of unemployment. AAPIs also often experience heightened health risks, and millions of AAPI men, women, and children in the United States live in poverty.

My Administration is committed to supporting and investing in AAPI communities. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 20 million uninsured adults have gained health insurance coverage, including 2 million AAPIs. Among Asian Americans under the age of 65, the uninsured rate has declined by 55 percent since 2013. Last year, we brought together thousands of AAPI artists; advocates; and business, community, and Federal leaders from across America for the first-ever White House Summit on AAPIs to discuss the key issues facing their communities. The Summit was hosted by the White House Initiative on AAPIs, which I reestablished during my first year in office and is housed within the Department of Education. We are working with Federal agencies to build stronger and more robust regional networks across our country that improve access to Federal resources and expand opportunities. We have worked to protect civil rights, foster educational equity, and create economic opportunity across our country. Because a lack of detailed data perpetuates the false notion of AAPIs as a model minority, we are working across Government to improve data collection to counter existing stereotypes and to shed light on the realities faced and resources needed by the AAPI community. Through the White House Task Force on New Americans, Federal agencies are working with cities and counties around America to build welcoming communities that allow immigrants and refugees to thrive. And we will continue working to allow more highskilled immigrants to stay in our country -- too many talented AAPIs are held back from fully realizing our country's promise, and too many have suffered the consequences of our Nation's broken immigration system.

Peoples of diverse backgrounds and circumstances have long come to our country with the faith that they could build a better life in America, and spanning generations, the story of AAPIs in the United States embodies this promise. During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, let us celebrate the many contributions our AAPI brothers and sisters have made to the American mosaic, and let us renew our commitment to creating more opportunities for AAPI youth as they grow up and embrace the hard work of active citizenship, adding their unique voices and experiences to our Nation's narrative.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2016 as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/AAPI to learn more about our efforts on behalf of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.

(Signed)
BARACK OBAMA

400,000 undocumented Asian immigrants in California may be impacted by Supreme Court ruling

Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas,was among the hundreds of immigration activists demonstrating outside the Supreme Court as the justices heard arguments in the case challenging President Obama's executive actions on immigration.

LAST MONDAY (April 18) at the U.S. Supreme Court, the eight justices heard oral arguments for and against President Obama's executive actions on immigration: Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Based on questions from the Supreme Court justices, it appears to court-watchers that the case will end in a 4-4 tie based on party lines. That would be bad news for the White House. The high court has been operating one justice short since the death of Antonin Scalia in February.

If SCOTUS remains deadlocked in the U.S. vs. Texas, the lower court ruling that said the president went too far in his executive actions would stand, voiding Obama's effort on  immigration reform.

“We know that DAPA and expanded DACA stand on the right side of the law,” said Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles. “In the last five decades, Presidents from both sides of the aisle have taken executive action to shape immigration priorities.”

RELATED: Asians are part of the immigration debate

The decision could impact about 4 million undocumented immigrants; 400,000 of whom are from Asia. Asian immigrants have surpassed immigrants coming from Latin America.

In California, an estimated 15 percent of the state’s undocumented residents are Asian, comprising approximately 416,000 people. Of those, 130,000 are in Los Angeles County and 52,000 are in Orange County. Statewide, Advancing Justice-LA estimates that the largest groups of undocumented Asians are: Filipinos (143,000), Chinese (76,000), Koreans (71,000), Vietnamese (60,000), and Asian Indian (46,000).

RELATED: Dreaming with the American dreamers

"For the average person, what's at stake is: What are you going to do with all of these millions of undocumented people?" asked Jose Antonio Vargas in an interview with Rolling Stone. Vargas is a Filipino/American immigration advocate who himself is undocumented.

"It's been perpetual limbo for them. Nothing is getting done. Congress is saying the president is overreaching, but I would argue that Congress has been irresponsible in not doing anything," said Vargas.

RELATED: Jose Antonio Vargas - an undocumented American

“While the legal battle ensues and anti-immigrant campaigns on the state and national level continue, we must remember that these actions have a real human cost,” said Anthony Ng, immigrant rights policy advocate at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (Advancing Justice-LA). “A ruling against DAPA won’t just impact undocumented immigrants; it will impact their families, as well as our neighborhoods and communities.”

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Americans, read AsAm News.

Why not an Asian American on the U.S. Supreme Court?

California Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye

EVERYBODY else has opined on who should be the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice, so I might as well join in.

When Justice Antonin Scalia apparently died in his sleep, it opened up a seat in the highest court in the land and busted open a political beehive during a Presidential election year. Suddenly, we're not just looking at the next four years, now we're looking at the the next 10 to 20 years. The Supreme Court will make important decisions that will impact issues that will determine the type of country we want America to be.

Scalia, one of the most conservative judges in the High Court, saw himself as a strong Constitutionalist but his decisions have been highly partisan making him one of the most activist judges in history by overturning precedence, ignoring history and instead, some say, interpreting the Constitution to push his very conservative agenda.

RELATED: Asian American potential nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court

President Obama said he would make a nomination for the court as soon as he can and on the Republicans have vowed that they would not approve any nominee from Obama, preferring the selection be the next president's choice - and they are assuming a Republican would win the Presidency.

Right away, people began speculating who should be nominated. Asian Americans advocating for an AAPI member in the esteemed court would be appropriate. They feel that a court reflecting the diversity of the country would be apt since the United States is moving towards a minority majority by mid-century. 

Not widely known outside of California, Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye is the 28th chief justice of the State of California. She was sworn into office on January 3, 2011, and is the first Asian-Filipina American and the second woman to serve as the state’s chief justice.

AND - she is one of those rare creatures: a woman and a member of an up-and-coming minority that could play a crucial role in the upcoming November elections AND ... she is a Republican. Would the GOP-controlled Senate reject one of their own?

After former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated her as Chief Justice on July 22, 2010, the California State Bar Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission rated her as exceptionally well qualified for the position. At a public hearing on August 25, 2010, she was unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, and in a general election on November 2, 2010, an overwhelming majority of voters elected her to that position.

Cantil-Sakauye's Filipina mother was a farmworker, and her Hawaiian-born Filipino/Portuguese father, worked in sugar cane and pineapple plantations before moving to Sacramento. 

Cantil-Sakauye has shown herself to be a moderate on several issues. Her court rejected attempts to revive Prop. 8, an anti-gay marriage proposition and she advocates for more access to the courts despite having her budget cut in recent years.

Accourding to the court's bio of Cantil-Sakauye, in addition to her administrative work on the Judicial Council, she has served as president of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court, which is dedicated to promoting civility, ethics and professionalism in the law. That background would be a welcome change to the Supreme Court that has been involved in some highly charged decisions and volatile opinions, albeit many written by the late Justice Scalia.

Born in 1959 in Sacramento, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye attended C. K. McClatchy High School (1977) and Sacramento City College (1978) before receiving her BA from the University of California, Davis, graduating with honors in 1980. After taking a year off to visit the Philippines, the Chief Justice entered the UC Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., School of Law in 1981. After receiving her JD in 1984, she worked as a deputy district attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, where she prosecuted a variety of criminal offenses. From 1988 to 1990, she served on the senior staff of Governor Deukmejian in two capacities: first as deputy legal affairs secretary and later as a deputy legislative secretary.

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye is a former board member of several nonprofit organizations and has been active in numerous professional community organizations, including membership in the California Judges Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the Sacramento Asian Bar Association, and received the Filipina of the Year Award. 

She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Conference of Chief Justices, The American Law Institute, the Board of Visitors for UC Davis, an Advisory Board member of the Sacramento Federal Judicial Library and Learning Center Foundation, an honorary member of the Foundation for Democracy and Justice, a private nonprofit organization devoted to civics education, and is actively engaged in a civic learning initiative Your Constitution: The Power of Democracy. 

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye is married to Mark Sakauye, a retired police lieutenant, and they have two daughters. If chosen for the court, she would become the second Sacramentan on that august council, the other being Justice Anthony Kennedy.

After law school, one of the jobs she undertook was as a blackjack dealer in a Reno casino. (It earned more than being a law clerk, she says.) That aptitude - playing the cards that are dealt - would do her well in the U.S. Supreme Court where she could potentially become a crucial swing-vote in issues of a politically partisan nature.

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Filipina/American spoken word poet featured at climate talks

UC grad Isabella Borgeson will perform her poem "Yolanda Winds" at the climate talks in Paris.

ISABELLA BORGESON, of the San Francisco Bay Area, is in Paris to perform her "spoken word" work at the summit where for the next few weeks world leaders and experts have gathered for the climate negotiations.

The Filipina/American was one of the four winners of the Spoken Word for the World competition sponsored by the Global Call for Climate Action.

Along with the other winners, Borgeson will be performing her piece in Paris during the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), where world leaders will discuss how to slow or prevent the global warming that is melting the polar icecaps, creating extreme weather events, and threatening to inundate coastal areas and island nations.

The conference's ambitious goal: to limit rising global temperatures this century to no more than 2 degrees Celsius - or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit - above pre-industrial levels.

President Barack Obama, who opened the conference Monday (Nov. 30), said that “the United States not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.” But he stressed that all nations must act “right now.”
A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Borgeson is a community curator for Adobe Systems, a multinational computer software company based in the Bay Area. Despite her Bay Area ties, however, she is representing the Philippines.

Her entry, "Yolanda Winds," was inspired by Typhoon Yolanda, also known as Typhoon Haiyan, that devastated the central Philippines late in 2013. Burgeon and her mother, Geline Avila, spent the next two years helping rebuild that region, where her mother was raised.

In her statement to the Spoken Word for the World competition, she wrote:

“Learning about my family’s stories of death and trauma surrounding the ocean was a vivid part of my experience. In my community/family/motherland, climate change means re-learning the ocean … The Ocean is now a mass grave of family members and townsfolk, whose bodies were washed away by storm surge waves during the super typhoon. This piece titled ‘Yolanda Winds’ is dedicated to my mother, a survivor of the super typhoon, who struggles to forgive the sea. A reminder that we are a people of the sea. And for some of our families, sharing our stories about climate change, typhoon seasons and rising oceans is an act of resistance, necessary for our survival.”

Listen to Borgeson's entry:

Watch Obama sing 'Amazing Grace' during Pinckney eulogy

President Obama sang the lyrics to "Amazing Grace" and brought the congregation to its feet to sing with him.

AMAZING ... GRACE! This is one of the emotional highpoints of eulogy delivered by President Barack Obama for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was one of the nine people who was killed by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

The eulogy itself was one of the president's best speeches. He was in front of a friendly audience and he drew from the cadence and spirit of other black orators who had their training on the pulpit.

At first glance, even though the eulogy might appear to have nothing to do with Asian America, it has everything to do with being an American and that's why I am writing about it in Views From The Edge. 

It would be difficult to not say something about this singular powerful moment in history because of what it means to race relations, all people of color and to America's future. Even die-hard Republicans have to admit that it was a moment to remember.

If you missed it because you were at work or the gym, this MSNBC video captures ... that ... moment.

The Rev. Clementa Pickney

The audience was nodding in agreement, "Amening" to the President's statements, punctuating his every phrase. Besides race relations, talked about gun control, faith, forgiveness - and grace. Boy, did he talk about grace.

I can't remember any other president soaring like Obama did, moving into song and singing a cappella the old spiritual "Amazing Grace."  I don't think any other president could have pulled it off. It seemed so spontaneous but, you know it had to be planned and when the president reached that point in his speech, it was up to him to take it down that road, or not. It was a daring ploy, but it was so natural, so fitting and not at all fake or insincere. He was obviously feeling it ... in the moment. He paused, and repeated "Amazing Grace!" He looked down to his notes, paused for a good 25 seconds as if he was pondering, "Should I do it? Should I do it?" 

He went for it! When he sang his first note, the ministers behind him realized what he was doing - a technique they probably all employed in their sermons - and they were laughing and applauding in joy. The entire congregation stood up with him and joined the president in those inspirational lyrics. 

It was a daring decision to take it to the next level. The incredible moment will go down in history. Simply, amazing.

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