I had a nice day today at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. Afterwards, I met up with Rebecca and Karin to go to dinner at some Cajun joint near West Hollywood. It's always good to see and talk to them. They're the kind of friends that remind me why I feel so strongly about Asian American issues. I don't know exactly why... maybe it's the way they think, or the work they've done in law school or as lawyers... or just the fact that we shared such a common vision for the APA community down at U of I. A thought occurred to me while we were sitting at dinner: Karin was AAA president the year before I was. Rebecca was AAA president 2 years later. Here we are, still friends after all these years. They inspire me and lift me up in so many ways still.

Right before dinner, though, we made a little pitstop at Barnes and Nobles to hear Wen Ho Lee talk about his book My Country vs. Me co-authored by Helen Zia (who wrote Asian American Dreams). Some of you may also remember Helen Zia as the journalist who worked on the Academy Award nominated documentary film Who Killed Vincent Chin?. Excellent film. But we won't go there today.

It was touching to listen to Dr. Lee talk about his experiences and how unfairly he was treated. He definitely reminded me of the "any-old-Taiwanese American dad" who came to this country to work hard, support his family, and (despite his experiences) remain faithful to the "American Dream." I think back to when this whole thing hit the news, and I wish I had done something more to fight the injustice. I'm guilty for being just an observer on the sideline.

Anyways, I've been trigger happy with my digital camera lately, so here are a couple of pics of Becca and Karin getting their books autographed by Wen Ho Lee and Helen Zia. And a somewhat goofy looking photo-op with the authors. We are so Asian... but hey, we're damn proud of it.