The Wily Filipino

Hey, I Got Published!

In an otherwise excellent op-ed piece, Rodel Rodis lauded "the new Filipino American war heroes" -- Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa, Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Nino Livaudais, Army Spc. Sgt. Joseph Hudson, Marine Lance Cpl. OJ Santa Maria -- and proceeded to take the U.S. government to task for their numerous anti-immigrant policies (Filipinos swept up as INS "absconders," veterans without equity, airport screeners fired from their jobs). True, but...

So I wrote, in part:

Conspicuously missing from his list of "Filipino American heroes," however, is Marine Lance Corporal Stephen Funk, who is half-Filipino and was the first American conscientious objector of the war on Iraq.

In this current political climate where simple dissent is automatically characterized as traitorous, Cpl. Funk stood up for what he believed. He, too -- to quote Rodis -- "[represents] a new generation acting on the courage of their convictions." That makes him a hero in my book as well.

I'm sure Rodel was just playing it safe -- why muddy up the argument when he's already established that Filipinos are heroic, and therefore do not deserve the unjust policies wrought against them? But he glosses over the complexities: of dissent within the Filipino and Filipino American community, of the reasons why Filipinos "comprise 20.6 percent of all noncitizens in the U.S. Armed Forces" (as he himself writes), of Cpl. Santa Maria receiving automatic U.S. citizenship (bestowed personally by Bush, by the way) after being injured, of veterans of Corregidor and Bataan "risking death to defend America," of the multiple meanings of "heroism" itself.

Posted by the wily filipino at May 6, 2003 09:52 AM