Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 545 - Can A Social Worker Rebuild Garden Grove Without Political Drama? - Hieu Nguyen

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545 - Can A Social Worker Rebuild Garden Grove Without Political Drama? - Hieu Nguyen · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember much, and more and more of those just, yeah, they're fishish, I recognize, without knowing their name.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: They smile like they know me, so I smile back.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: years to have a story.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know I love someone.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know I work hard and know I come from somewhere far away.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad someone asked me who I wish.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I see a new
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: They saved my work and kept my story when I no longer could.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So even if I don't remember where I come from, they will.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even if I look at them, I don't know the name.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're still not mine.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the Vietnamese podcast today.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: I have a wonderful guest, Hugh Win.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hugh is running for Garden Grove City Council for District 4.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I swore like I would never get in the politics, but here we are.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: And before we start, I just wanna tell everybody out there.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: I will interview conservatives as well.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: I welcome conservatives to come on to the podcast.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we're here.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're going to like do this and if I'm going to have like three or four Democrats reach out and I'm going to have everybody on like let's bring that's open up the floodgates.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: I am an equal opportunity.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, my host here.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: So let's let's go welcome to the podcast.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: You looking forward to talking to you today.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thank you on Kenneth.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know we we've known each other for several years now.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think a year into you starting the block this podcast we kind of met via mutual friends and glad I have this opportunity to sit down with you.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think we've never had a sit down like this.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's exciting for me and it's an honor for me to be on your podcast.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: And likewise, I always feel that way with our guests that sit with me and about, and that should be it, right?
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: That should be like the thing is that we, whether we're on the same team or the opposing team, or we share some things and overlap things, we should always be honored and feeling excited to have conversation within our community.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, I see it as very much like in my family, right?
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not everybody agree with me.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, not everybody is on the same side, right?
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have, you know, liberals, and I have them, you know, MAGA family members as well.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I take every opportunity to kind of share my point of views and my perspective.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when you do that, and you also have to respect other people's
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: even if even when you don't agree with that opportunity kind of break bread and just have a conversation is really important and I'm learning that a lot during my yes good thing you're not in yeah yeah yeah this idea of tolerance is a huge thing because I think that when we think about tolerance in other cultures like the Vietnamese or the East
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: and the idea of tolerance in the West, in America.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a very different thing.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think in America, the idea of tolerance is not only accepting the other side's point of view.
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: This is how it was before Trump.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was not just accepting the other person's
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: point of view, but it was also affirming it, saying, you know what?
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: I hear you, I understand you.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't agree with you, but I hear you and I see you, you're visible to me and all that has gone out the window.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's just so loud now that we're just like fighting and I want to bring that back.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I welcome any conservative.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: to come on the show, not only that, but I would love to have conservatives battle you and Tracy and all these people in some like public forum.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, let's go.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you heard it, right?
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's inviting you to his show and half that dialogue.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: we're open to having, you know, public forums, right?
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, well, moderated, that are neutral, that are not one-sided, but, you know, that kind of conversation is so important.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's what...
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's why we lack here in the local politics, especially in Little Saigon.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have these kind of forms or when we do have forms is very one-sided.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so how do we kind of bring back these kind of conversations to the community and their questions from community members in a way that can push things forward?
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the most important thing.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Why are you so crazy enough to hop into politics?
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: What would drive you and all the political candidates to do this?
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: You seem like a very sane guy.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: You seem like you have a lot of sanity.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Why are you inspired to do this?
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, my...
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Every time I get asked this question in an interview, I think back to what my mom shares.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not shared, right?
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: When I told her I was gonna run.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, out Vietnamese parents are correct in that they don't see politics as, you know, something that's positive, right?
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where they grew up and even here when we come, you know, coming to America and our local community politics is quite wild and chaotic and, you know, not a healthy kind of,
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: introductory for a lot of people, right?
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, she asked me the same question.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: She's like, oh, con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con con
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right?
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: You and in law of a hundred, right?
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, continually, mouille, right?
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because, you know, there's nine people, and there's ten different perspectives, ten different ways that they want to do things.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so... And...
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I tell her, I tell her, my wish that I can easily be like you, say, no, I'm not going to do politics and that's it, right?
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I did that for 10 years, and I, you know, when I was a community, you know, over the last 13, 14 years, when I started the fight for LGBTQ inclusion,
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: back in 2014, folks have asked me to consider running for office and my answer was very clearly know and I never thought twice about it, right?
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was no, no, no, I never thought twice about it.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think something clicked in the last two years, kind of observing and seeing what's happening to our communities, right?
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Our immigrant communities, the LGBTQ communities, and all the rollback of the rights that we have as Americans and LGBTQ folks, as immigrants, as all the minority groups, right?
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I'm going to stop you.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Starting at the past.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to have to stop you because when I, as a conservative, I'm not a conservative, but if I was a conservative and I hear the word rollback, my rights, what rights are being rolled back?
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you see what's happening with immigrants, right?
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's no due process now, right?
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: They can just pick up anybody on the streets and, you know, family members don't know where they're being, you know, detention.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's our kind of constitutional rights for due process.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's the piece where we're half of the country is forgetting, right?
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Until it happens to them, right?
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: When they
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: after the due process, right?
• 9:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: In terms of LGBTQ folks, in terms of just accessing like healthcare, a lot of youth now are being targeted for the medically necessary access to their care, right?
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have rights of human, you know, women's rights being taking away, right, in terms of abortion.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think if they're able to do that with these kinds of rights, they're going to do more.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it doesn't stop here, a dictator doesn't stop the key pushing, the key trying to see what they can do, what they can get away with, right?
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: they're able to get away with a lot right now for sure, but on a local level, how do you affect because what you just mentioned or big rollbacks for like the federal policy, the federal level, like what is it about what you can do in district four garden growth that can affect that bigger picture.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and so I love that you're distinguishing the kind of the national, the federal kind of politics and policies, and then what can we do at the local level, and at times we can't do much, right, we can't do much, we can focus on the roads, the pot holes, like Mondani, focusing on the pot holes, which is making a lot of impact, right, improving the quality of life of people.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we can focus on parks, we can focus on make sure that the local community have the resources and services to support them.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm very clear about that, where I think some of the federal policy and we can impact at the local level is around.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: making sure that our cities are not utilizing CDB sources and services to support federal immigration policies, right?
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: That are inhumane, that are just not right, right?
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that are tearing families apart.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I want to
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know for me I would love to see Garden Grove as a sanctuary city and so that we can protect the the immigrant families from being territory apart right now we are a compassionate city and beyond the word compassion I don't know what that mean in terms of policy and ordinance
• 11:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's not at the sanctuary city and I would love to support Carden Grove in leading that way, right?
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's one one way.
• 12:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, when I hear about these values, compassion, empathy, making sure that we are turning into a sanctuary city and protecting the weak.
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, that sounds like language for soft people, and I know that Vietnamese community
• 12:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're not a soft group of people.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: We are a hardcore group of people like we want to protect our cities from like criminals and illegal criminals and all these things that we hear in the mainstream buzzword today in the conservative and in the other side.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I'll play both sides, you know, I'm going to play Devos Advocate for both sides.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's just like, you know that the majority of these constituents
• 12:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: really Vietnamese people were very conservative.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: So when you go in with these things that I care about deeply, like what you just mentioned, you know, and I'm really on the side of being more compassionate.
• 13:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: But when you go into a city or a group of people that you know is clearly on the other side,
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you know that that is going to capture the hearts and minds of these future constituents of yours when you're like on this more compassionate side and not on the conservative right side, the strong side that don't want to keep the want to keep the legos and all these criminals out of out of their city?
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think for me, I'm a social worker, so I start with the heart.
• 13:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've been a social worker for 20 plus years and I always start with the hard.
• 13:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm also Buddhist and so I'm proud Buddhist and so there's always starting with compassion starting with non-chic mental attitudes and approach, right?
• 13:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think we are more nuanced than just compassion or heart and hate or love.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think we're much more nuanced in that.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think in the current political climate and kind of social structure doesn't honor those two sides too easily, right?
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's kind of that divisiveness.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think that those two sides and always exist in us, right?
• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can be very compassionate, but a very bold and hard and when it comes to protecting human rights, right?
• 14:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Protecting LGBTQ rights, protecting immigrant rights, protecting the rightful folks to be able to afford things, right?
• 14:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So just because I'm compassionate and soft, doesn't mean I don't.
• 14:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: kind of exhibit those kind of strong and bold and values, you know, kind of answering your question.
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was not door knocking.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this is kind of telling a story to answer your question, which is, I do our knock on not only Democrats and NPPs, which is a non-party affiliation, right?
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: People who don't feel like they're a Democrat, or be Republican, they don't disclose themselves that way.
• 15:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: They don't see themselves that way of independence.
• 15:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so we door knock on everybody's door.
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't just target the Democrats and the MPPs.
• 15:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, you know, I was, I was, uh, I was door knocking at a door, really trying to target, uh, and talk to a 90, some 90 something year old Democrat.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then the rest of her family who are red red red red red red red and one of her daughter can open up the door and saw my literature and I had she was informed around politics.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had democratic endorsements like from Derek Tran, from Walter Moonutone, from the Garden Grove School Board.
• 15:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: from other city council members that are Democrats.
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even though city at the city level is nonpartisan, right?
• 16:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can tell based on people's values and what they fight for.
• 16:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's where I begin.
• 16:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I always begin with, this is a nonpartisan seat.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm running so that I can represent the constituents in my district, right?
• 16:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not just one side of the district.
• 16:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she saw my literature and she's like,
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not, this is not going good for you, right?
• 16:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I said, oh, please let me know, please let me know why.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, well, you have support from Derek, you have support from Walter, and I don't like their politics.
• 16:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like their values.
• 16:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: They keep wanting to give, give, give, give, give, give, right?
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Give people things.
• 16:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I said, okay, may I have a conversation with you, right?
• 16:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Can you and I just have a conversation?
• 16:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so we begin having that call sensation and I ask, are what do you care about?
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: What is it that you care about at the city level?
• 17:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: To share that you cared about the homeless situation, the homeless situation, I care about that as well.
• 17:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so we had a conversation about that.
• 17:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then I ask, or how can I gain your support?
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: What can I do?
• 17:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: to gain your support.
• 17:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, you already did.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I said, oh, okay.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why are you supporting me now?
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: She said, just because you spent the time listening to me, right?
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And actually just hearing what I'm trying to tell what I'm trying to say.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You probably don't agree with what I'm saying, but the fact that you listen to me, you took the time to listen to me and have a conversation, right?
• 17:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that that experience is not the exception.
• 17:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've had multiple experience like that when I do door knocking.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, and I don't ever, I don't ever say I agree with you when I don't agree with you.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: My, we just have differences of opinions and differences in terms of approach.
• 17:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, I think that I don't shy away from those conversations, and I welcome those conversations like you.
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You welcome your very equal opportunities.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I see I see one politician that's doing this so well is Mundani.
• 18:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have such clarity in terms of his values and yet he's also flexible.
• 18:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: in terms of who he's willing to work with right as long as you right he doesn't it doesn't eat up at his values and as long as it meets the his his ultimate vision which is to improve the lives of New Yorkers right and I think that's such a powerful thing that and he's very respectful to on the other side
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know I think he was on the kimo show the other day and kimo was joking around like you should call him and let's do uh uh uh uh uh uh you know it's like playing a prank with prison drum i mean because they're probably close and trump is from New York and they probably respect each other in some weird way and it's like he goes you know what um even though i love you but i love housing even more
• 19:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: And what it's saying is like, I'm not going to disrespect your other side just to have a laugh or at the expense of losing President Trump's support for housing and I thought that was so amazing that here's a politician who could easily make jokes and have a good time with Trump and
• 19:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: at the expense of perhaps losing funding for housing for New Yorkers, you know, and I think that that response was just so, it's so measured and just a genius way of letting everybody know, look, like, we're still working together with each other.
• 19:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Me and the opposing side.
• 19:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to do this in a very civil way.
• 19:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I, you know, I've always liked what his policies are, but I just had another level of respect.
• 20:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: And here we talk about that is the same.
• 20:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I'm kind of, I think that speaks to like, you see that kind of politician, you see that someone like that, not.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think at the core of it is like he doesn't happen.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't have a big ego of himself.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 20:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's putting people first rather than his his his his own ego first.
• 20:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's a, that's a beautiful thing right now that we need, how do you remain very steadfast and have a lot of clarity in terms of your values, what you're fighting for at the same time, right, willing to work with somebody who is completely, it may seem completely opposite of you and finding that sort of like that, that opportunity, that window to work and like,
• 20:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Come on, like that is like hats off to him, right?
• 20:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know, this is what we need now.
• 20:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: What we need in Vietnamese American politics is this.
• 21:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: We need to see each other.
• 21:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: We need to be able to see each other with clarity.
• 21:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: We need to know and define our values.
• 21:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: And we need to attack each other based on these values in the policies.
• 21:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: The thing, and when I say attack, I mean it, in every sense of the word, attack it, like go hard about your stance on the policy and my stance on the policy and the values that we bring, and not this red baiting, and not this idea, like, you're a communist, you're a socialist, because none of that is, at the end of the day, I hope all the young people,
• 21:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: tune out to that and I hope all the people that are our age and above are tuning out to this whole language of red baiting and all your comments all your but but done all that should be thrown out the window at this point we should be able to like do battle like real civil battle with each other based on what our values are and our policies are and I think at the end of the day when we as young
• 22:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: I include myself as a young man.
• 22:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: We as young voters can see that we're all battling for the values of what we want in the world.
• 22:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's a fair fight!
• 22:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 22:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, and you're talking about like the word attacked and you said in every sentence.
• 22:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: For me, in every sense, besides the playing dirty, I think that's what happens.
• 22:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the dirty tactics of red baiting, the dirty tactics of now, the code word for communism is a socialist or social democratic socialist, right?
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think,
• 22:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I have a two and a half year old and thinking about the the boy who cried wolf, right?
• 22:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: It kind of gets very old when you keep everybody who you don't agree with you read bay you kind of You know, say that there are calm in is it gets it gets very like
• 23:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody believes it, right?
• 23:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so when it's actually true, nobody believes it because it's constant and it's not based on facts, right?
• 23:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've always believed that, you know, like, you know, we can go, we can go negative.
• 23:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't need to go dirty.
• 23:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: We can go negative.
• 23:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that has to also be based on facts, right?
• 23:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, of course.
• 23:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And based on the reality, and based on a person's policy, where they've been in currently and in the past.
• 23:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so attack, attack.
• 23:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I draw the line of going dirty and red-based in all of that.
• 23:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's not true.
• 23:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we just have to begin to
• 23:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: approach each other and see each other and be clear about each other.
• 23:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And go, look, I believe in this, you believe in this.
• 23:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's just have voters vote on what we believe in.
• 23:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that is the central core to emotional democracy.
• 24:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: So this idea of like, because once we start saying Communists
• 24:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: is Vietnam really calmness anymore, China calmness anymore.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're talking about very capitalist infrastructures here.
• 24:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: The thing that's calmness about it is the control.
• 24:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I mean, now there's a woman, right?
• 24:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, human rights and all this stuff.
• 24:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't hold the same.
• 24:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I hope this all just really, it doesn't work anymore.
• 24:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's just like the labels have to go away.
• 24:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do want to because I'm a mental health professional, and I've worked with a lot of people with PTSD, right?
• 24:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to kind of honor also people's lived experience, right, when they are, and I think that's a very important thing.
• 24:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: for us to also keep in mind.
• 25:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you in terms of not red baiting for red baiting sake and not being dirty and whatnot.
• 25:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the experience of trauma lives in people's body and it actually changes the structure of the brain and how a brain function and how a brain responds to stress.
• 25:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so I think that lived experience kind of transmit right and some, it's unexplainable and it doesn't make sense for many of us and so I, I, I, I, I, I kind of emphasize that part because I think when
• 25:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: We can intellectualize, and especially for those who are not about person, right, even though my parents experience the war and have to go down underground every day, all of that.
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's great from an intellectual standpoint to have that discussion to distance ourselves, and et cetera, and recognize what's going on.
• 26:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: at the same time, you know, that lived experience that many of our elders still have, even though it doesn't make sense for us.
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I still honor that and I still respect that because I know what trauma does to the brain and what trauma does to your emotional response as well.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's it's it's not explained in a book and it doesn't make sense and sometimes it's not rational, but I want to
• 26:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right?
• 26:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: The lived experience is also as important as scholarly articles.
• 26:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you can quote all you want.
• 26:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right?
• 26:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: But that we also have to honor that narrative and that that experience that people still have and that people still go through because that trauma is ingrained.
• 26:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right?
• 26:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'd share with you, and it changed the structure of the brain.
• 26:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And oftentimes the response that they have is not even something that they can control.
• 27:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we know that our community, a lot of people who have experienced PTSD in the trauma, they have not sought treatment, right, because there's a shame in there's a stigma with regards to mental health.
• 27:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's untreated, trauma is untreated PTSD.
• 27:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: I really want all the young people to hear what you just said and appreciate that you can basically give understanding to a whole group of like, older generation Vietnamese who are MAGA, who are conservative or deeply feeling, deeply feeling righteous about their perspectives politically, and you say,
• 27:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: I understand that PTSD can cause a lot of that to be a little fuzzy, you know, but I think that it's harder for that side to see, you know, the newer the progressive way of seeing things and there's no tolerance for any of it.
• 28:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know, it's just the black and white thing.
• 28:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if I think for the younger, more progressive people that are voting, we could see that there's damage psychologically to untreated war wounds.
• 28:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that we just have to be with the recognize that there has to be some cognizance of this happening.
• 28:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: But that all being said,
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: The mud slinging from that side still goes hard without a consideration in the world for younger people and the progressives.
• 28:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's the problem I sometimes have.
• 28:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, let's balance it out somehow.
• 28:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do think on that mud slinging side, it's actually just like, it's loud.
• 28:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It can be obnoxious in your face.
• 29:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do experience it to be a lot smaller than we think it is, right?
• 29:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when I go door-knocking, I've been door-knocking since May, since late May.
• 29:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I talked to older, you know, I doorknock in the morning, because I want to talk to the seniors, right?
• 29:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: The retirees.
• 29:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 29:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: also because they're kind of strong voters.
• 29:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: They consistently turn out to vote, right?
• 29:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so their voice is very strong in the political space.
• 29:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when I talk to them, you know, and first, they think I'm really young.
• 29:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: They think I'm like in my 20, like 20, early 30s.
• 29:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so they're like, why are you running?
• 29:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: What experience do you have?
• 29:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I can't just
• 29:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say, I don't know what they say
• 30:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: right and it's very clear right the moment I tell them who my opponents are they're like oh no you have my vote and it's not because of my values because we a lot of time we don't get to talk to our voters about like what our policies are and whatnot most voters actually don't really care much about those things right and like it's very surprising it's very the few
• 30:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: We at the small group that really are politically cautious and following the political situation, etc.
• 30:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: For the majority of the voters, they're not really informed.
• 30:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so they really care much more about like, oh, you're young.
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you want to do this.
• 30:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give you a chance.
• 30:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give you an opportunity, right across the board.
• 31:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't go into where there were Democrats or Republicans at the door, right?
• 31:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because it is a nonpartisan race when it comes up when the voters ask that's when we kind of get into more of a new ones conversation.
• 31:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: But.
• 31:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: For the most part, my experience had been that they really support young leaders to come up, right, to build up this younger leadership and younger elected officials.
• 31:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm very, like, I'm very, like,
• 31:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not surprised, but I'm very appreciate that a lot.
• 31:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: This experience has widened my perspective, because at some time, it's really easy for us to kind of just think there's two sides, and that side is not going to support me because I'm a Democrat or because of this, but I think sometimes people are more simple than that.
• 32:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, uh, bowing win was, uh, an openly gay mayor of Westminster, I don't know, was he openly gay at the time?
• 32:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Not when he ran.
• 32:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, so now he's not until later.
• 32:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: So you're an openly gay candidate.
• 32:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you feel that the community as your doorknocking or as your having conversation dialogue out there in the world in our community?
• 32:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you feel like you're being received by the conservative Vietnamese block of people?
• 32:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It must be something that they're not used to, right?
• 32:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think when I also something that the Vietnamese, the traditional little-cycane politics, politicians who run for office, is there's this mysteriousness to their campaigns.
• 32:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's really interesting.
• 32:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: My opponents, you can barely find an information.
• 33:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: They don't have a website, they, or if they have a website, it's one page with a memo.
• 33:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: No social media, you know, except for when they go to events, they take pictures or they do Facebook live.
• 33:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: There isn't a lot of updating of what's to their constituents, what's going on.
• 33:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right?
• 33:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: You see this younger generation of politician who are actively engaged, or actively trying to communicate what's happening are very open about their policies, very open about where their events are,
• 33:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: how many door knocks?
• 33:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've knocked, how many money we've fundraised?
• 33:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's different with kind of the younger generation, younger, kind of candidates.
• 33:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I post everything.
• 33:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm very open.
• 33:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: You see my website.
• 33:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have a picture of my husband, picture of us, because I know that if I wasn't open, right?
• 33:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even though they know I'm gay, because I fought for LGBTQ Vietnamese American inclusion in 2013 and 2014,
• 34:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I still very open because I don't want them to kind of use that as something that I'm ashamed of, right?
• 34:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And use that against me.
• 34:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it was a very conscious decision for me to be opened and not hide anything.
• 34:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's how I function, I operate in that way, I'm an open book, and I try to share as much as I can while still protect my privacy and the safety of my family.
• 34:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think what I learned 13, 14 years ago is that the point you were making earlier, like out Vietnamese communities, very hard and very tough, right?
• 34:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's what in the LGBTQ fight for inclusion.
• 35:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I initially went in with.
• 35:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, you know, the community is just the most part just mental and they're not accepting.
• 35:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was the narrative.
• 35:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know within a year we change the communities minds and hearts and within a year we were able to march, right?
• 35:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we've been marching for 14 years in the Lunar New Year that parade.
• 35:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what I learned was
• 35:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you're open, when you're genuine, when you're authentic, when you share with people about who you are, about what you do, about why you're doing it, and they can sense that.
• 35:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then I think people are more open to embracing you.
• 35:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of people have a very negative view of people that negative view of somebody's different than them, when they don't have the close relationship with somebody.
• 36:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: right when they don't know people's story and they just hear the negative side right or they just see the negative things that presented and so I know that when we went and shared our stories you know, our backgrounds who we were what we do and that we contribute to the community
• 36:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: A very quickly people, you know, start being like, okay, why can't they march in the parade, right?
• 36:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't understand it.
• 36:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't fully agree with their life and who they are, but I'm okay for them to march.
• 36:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if they, if they are so proud of their culture and they want to march in this, why not, right?
• 36:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we saw that shift very quickly.
• 36:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, they haven't brought it up for the last 15, 14 years.
• 36:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: Still, right?
• 36:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know,
• 36:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm going to touch upon what you just said.
• 36:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's really about knowing people inside like each, getting to really know each other.
• 37:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: My mother's a Catholic, my father's Catholic, and there's this big rule that the Catholic church does not approve of homosexuality.
• 37:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: And the big problem I always said to my mom and dad is, because you don't know anybody that's gay, because if you knew people that were gay, and that love each other, and that raised children together,
• 37:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: I promise you, you would drop this bullshit nonsense.
• 37:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not accepting.
• 37:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: But the problem is you don't know.
• 37:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: You don't know gay people.
• 37:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: You haven't partyed with gay people.
• 37:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: You haven't lived amongst the gay community.
• 37:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Giving all of what's happening.
• 37:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody has felt safe enough to come out to them.
• 37:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even though they know them, right?
• 37:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: They just don't know that they're gay.
• 37:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we see a lot of that right and so you know that but it goes back to the lesson I shared like to when marriage equality was you know we were fighting for marriage equality in 2008 here in California one of the biggest lessons we learned from that first time that we lost right was that we would just focusing on the the mind like giving statistics data
• 38:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know how many people are gay and how much they contribute to the economy.
• 38:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't until we changed the tactic of also changing people's hearts by telling people that our stories, our lived experiences, who we were, right?
• 38:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: What we want to do with our life and how we want, why we want to be married?
• 38:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't until we did that door by door, by door, by door, by door, that
• 38:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And remember, like really marriage equality in California and when that got passed, that changed a trajectory of the whole country when it came to LGBTQ rights, right, around marriage equality.
• 38:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's some Supreme Court soon after followed, right, in 2015 or so.
• 38:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: We had recognized marriage equality, but federal at the federal level, and it was the changing hearts.
• 38:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was the same.
• 39:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I did that work in college at UC Irvine.
• 39:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so when we did the work for the LGBTQ inclusion, that was really what I focused on in terms of changing hearts and minds with the emphasis of hearts and minds.
• 39:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: And when people get to know each other from across the aisle, they will have a strange appreciation that, oh man, they're just like me.
• 39:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because the other side, and was saying that we were,
• 39:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Calling me all kinds of name.
• 39:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this is an illness.
• 39:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a disease.
• 39:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was because of MTV, right?
• 39:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: This does not happen in the Vietnamese culture.
• 39:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have LGBTQ people.
• 39:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's because his parents didn't educate him well, right?
• 39:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so the more they were doing that and the more folks saw that I was
• 39:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know quote unquote just like any other Vietnamese American young person you know there's this there was a strong disconnect you know yeah I think it's there's value in telling people who we are are this value in relating people at a human level.
• 40:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's the beauty of this political process, I think in Orange County, especially is now that all these politicians are coming up in the Vietnamese and all stripes, I think the beauty of it is that everybody else in the world in America or in the surrounding cities are getting to know Vietnamese people a lot more, because if we're dominating the narrative, they're going to get to know us.
• 40:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're like, we're dirty.
• 40:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: fighters just like everybody else in the Mexican community and the black community we do the same things we're humans and our shades okay all shades and there's beauty to all of our stories and our narratives and I think the more we get to talk about this stuff on podcasts and you know town halls and and get down and debate
• 40:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: People could see it.
• 40:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: We are built on energy and I think the bottom line is, I think if we can understand each other a little bit more, we can really fight for what we like.
• 41:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that there's this idea, you know, if we can really understand the values of other people, then we can fight on that level.
• 41:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think fighting on that level is so much more important.
• 41:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, in fighting on the level of like really trying to improve people's lives and at the city level for me, like when I go back, go around talking to voters, it's about the roads is about the pot hold.
• 41:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why is it like in district four.
• 41:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, the main streets we have is Euclid and Brokers, and yet there's so much pot hole, so much cracks, and they don't see it changing, whether that's fat boy in office for eight years, Dina, who's Jodovin, one of my opponents, in that seat for eight years, and then now Jodovin, for the last four years, why hasn't that improved, right?
• 42:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, there's a genius in the Dino is going to come on the podcast and answer that.
• 42:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, one of the questions I'm going to ask her, she has come on the podcast.
• 42:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 42:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ask her, right?
• 42:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why is that has an improved?
• 42:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have a Vietnamese.
• 42:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: The district four is the little side on corridor.
• 42:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's a small district in Garden Grove.
• 42:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have six district and the mayor at large.
• 42:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: So district four is actually one of the main district for the Vietnamese community, right?
• 42:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have 60 or 56% Vietnamese voter here in district four, right?
• 42:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's supposed to be the Vietnamese representative district.
• 42:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why hasn't that those things improved?
• 42:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's about the fact that district four and we have a one-part
• 42:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is not a part, it's just a patch of green grass, right?
• 42:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: There isn't walkability, uh, walkable spaces for seniors, right?
• 42:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Exercise equipment for seniors, a playground that has been, you know, under construction for many, many months, right?
• 43:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it has been updates, talking of corner.
• 43:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: families with young children is afraid to have their children in the park because Both sides of the park is are are are main streets and there's no guardrails, right?
• 43:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so for me, but that's the thing that people care about like that's a thing at the sea of the level I want to fight for right so that people's quality of life is improved You know, one of the main issue in the neighborhood.
• 43:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just did an event last night several cats
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who would think that rises to people's things that they care about, right?
• 43:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I'll be at the knees.
• 43:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Neighbors love feeding cats left over food, right?
• 43:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But they don't want to take the responsibility of spading the cat, neutering the cat.
• 43:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: The city has to program, but people have to take time out of their schedule to bring the cats into the city to get neutered and spade and some basic medical care to get their fleas off of them, right?
• 44:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: But there's hundreds of cats roaming this neighborhood.
• 44:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, so those are the things that are for us, seems mundane, it's not sexy, but it's the things that people at the city at the local level see the most and experience the most.
• 44:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's why all politics go through the local level.
• 44:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, like that's where people's lives, they have to see it improving for them to get politically engaged, for them to care about the political process.
• 44:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, so good, all these points are so dynamic, you know?
• 44:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: But how much change can you really affect on the city council?
• 44:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: How much influence do you really have?
• 44:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: I never thought about this.
• 44:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I've never asked politicians because it's like, I've always had politicians who've won on the program, but as you're coming up, how much power do you imagine having?
• 45:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this is where the eagle, right?
• 45:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to recognize and put your eagle aside.
• 45:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know.
• 45:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: and people, I think sometimes oftentimes forget.
• 45:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: One person can't do much, and so you have to build coalition, whether that's in the non-profit space, you build coalition with other non-profits, or even on the board of directors of non-profits, right?
• 45:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: One or two members can't do much, you have to get the majority, right?
• 45:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And same thing at a federal level, you have to get the majority.
• 45:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's one vote in his one voice, and it's really about trying to build a coalition.
• 45:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So external coalition with other non-profits, other groups to push and the community to come and push for certain policies to come through, that's one.
• 46:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: right the inside outside strategy is really important and I would also say from the external side also have an inside strategy right not just work with people the city council member who is on your side but also how do you get the other vote so that it can become a majority.
• 46:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: From the inside, if once I get on the city council, it's really building a coalition of folks who are like-minded, who have the same values in terms of policies, in terms of what policies we want to push.
• 46:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's really important for me to get to the majority.
• 46:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we require four votes for to be the majority on the Garden Grove City Council.
• 46:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: So hopefully, I will be one of those votes,
• 46:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: push more policies that align with the community and the community needs and then I need three other votes.
• 47:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, however, I would say that even when I don't have the other vote, when there's a sense that I have to make a sense that I have to make, I will make that sense, even if I'm the lone person on that board making, on that city council making the stands.
• 47:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: For policies to be passed, I need to be other votes, and I think that's what sometimes people forget.
• 47:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's when sometimes I think people I find, I see, and I've witnessed people being very easy to blame, an easy to outcast somebody, or whatnot, when they don't vote the way, right?
• 47:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because the other thing that I've learned is that for the most part,
• 47:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Any board they know how they're going to vote already when the vote comes up whether that's on the diet or the board of directors right you know you get a sense of whether it's something is going to pass already so because
• 48:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of work happened behind the scene, right?
• 48:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of times when you see politicians saying, you know, that's hearing and all of that, that's all we, that's all, they know exactly what they're going to say.
• 48:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: They know exactly how things are going to play out, right?
• 48:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's the behind the scene work that's sort of important, that I think sometimes we forget to do.
• 48:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: when politicians are in the stage that you are in and trying to figure out if I'm going to win or not.
• 48:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you just said, you know, you have an idea of what, you know, things are going to pass or not pass, you know, how do you know how far ahead you are?
• 48:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Is it polls that you do?
• 48:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, how do you know how much more to fight?
• 48:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, is it worth the fight?
• 48:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: You got November 3rd.
• 48:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: And right now, it's October 2nd.
• 48:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: You got a month
• 49:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Do you really know about how this fight is going to turn out at the local level?
• 49:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, you don't know because there's no polling Right, but you know Kenneth you have a very well informed and Listeners if you want to donate to me my campaign so I can do a polling we can do that But for the most part we don't have to in polling
• 49:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I learned, I learned something from somebody who's very seasoned in running campaign, which is you always run like you one point behind.
• 49:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right?
• 49:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not like you're 10 point behind.
• 49:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: You run like you're one point behind, right?
• 49:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that kind of pushed you to go to that next door, right?
• 49:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm pushed you to make that next phone call.
• 49:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And what's the difference between running one point behind
• 49:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's just the motivation.
• 49:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, like, if I feel like I'm this close for me, that works for me, I feel like I'm this close.
• 50:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna work that much harder.
• 50:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I'm 10 point behind, you know, he was very stupid.
• 50:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: He was very stupid.
• 50:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's great.
• 50:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
• 50:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, it's like, if we make that works for me, I'm like, I'm one point behind.
• 50:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 50:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I need to talk to one more, one more voter need to make one more call.
• 50:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: What a cool analogy in life, period.
• 50:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you think about it, like just, you know, you're always one point behind.
• 50:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: You don't need to be five or ten points.
• 50:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because if you have ten points behind it, that that climb is really, uh, my dilemma.
• 50:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's very tiring to think about it.
• 50:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's harder.
• 50:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's harder.
• 50:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's easier for you to kind of give up.
• 50:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's easier for you to make excuses.
• 50:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 50:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: One point behind.
• 50:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go for it.
• 50:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to keep going and going.
• 50:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the other reason why it's really hard not only the pulling no pullings and stuff and it's.
• 50:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: My opponent runs very mysterious races, like it's really interesting.
• 51:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: The playbook is so well documented in terms of what they do, right?
• 51:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: They file very late.
• 51:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: They throw in a decoy, right?
• 51:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Somebody does, let's screw up the votes.
• 51:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: They, you know,
• 51:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: They they take down all of out their opponent signs, right?
• 51:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I put up 80 big banners on I was the one of the first one to put it out about more than 60% of them are taken down Right and it's not folks who are unhoused taking it down, right or destroying it or vandalizing We know because they typically only cut a corner and
• 51:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: so they can make their own sign, and I'm okay with that.
• 51:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: But these are like my signs taking down, and it's not only my sign, these are like voters voices, right?
• 51:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're silently seeing voters voices.
• 51:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are people's hard-earning money in this economy that have donated to me, right?
• 51:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's very interesting.
• 51:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: My signs are for the most part, a lot of them are down.
• 52:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: My opponent signs are still up.
• 52:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do not destroy, not take into account, so those tactics and not publicizing things, not communicating things through the voters, going knocking on my supporters, you know, my supporters who have lawn signs, telling them not to vote for me or other Democratic candidates because we're
• 52:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I find it very funny.
• 52:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I experienced this in 2014 when we fought for inclusion as well.
• 52:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now, also experiencing this, they read, they are against the communism.
• 52:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And yet, a lot of tactics are very, very interestingly aligned with that approach.
• 52:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: very questionable.
• 53:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hugh, is there anything that you want to leave us with?
• 53:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I, you know, I want to share where I come from and why I'm running.
• 53:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's very important for me.
• 53:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for your listener, I, my family and I immigrated to the US in 1993, like many, many families who immigrate from another country.
• 53:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: We depended on a public school system, we depended on the social safety net system that were lifelines for many of us, right?
• 53:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Many immigrants, whether that's medic medic cow, whether that's actually housing, whether that's fruit stems, or any other kind of social services, and to help my family be able to achieve the American dream that many families can
• 53:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: with our policies and so, you know, from that experience, I became a social worker because that was, I was not good in math and science, my mom wanted to me, my parents wanted me to become lawyers and, you know, doctors, all of that traditional,
• 54:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: and hopes and dreams of Vietnamese American parents had.
• 54:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I became a social worker and had been a social worker for like 20 years.
• 54:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: 20 years plus working with people with mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and those who are on-house, right?
• 54:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was an active, and you know, I was an amd to an activist and community organizer, you know, well, formed one of the first progressive enemies organization here in Orange County, Vietnam both Orange County, fighting for LGBTQ rights and to protect LGBTQ and people and their family, right?
• 54:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: We did the original film, where you wanted to film.
• 54:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we did the film.
• 54:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: We did the original film.
• 54:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: We did the original film.
• 54:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: We did the original film.
• 54:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: We did the original film.
• 54:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 54:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 54:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 54:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did the original film.
• 55:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then lastly, Kenna, another identity that was really important to me is I am a dad, I became a dad about two and a half years ago, and you know, my husband and I tried for about six years to become parents and
• 55:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: when you have that much time to think about parenthood, to think about bringing a child into this world, you also start thinking about what world am I bringing this child into, and what role do I play in this?
• 55:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's one of the reason why I decided to run, and so from kind of my lived experience as an immigrant, depending on the social safety net system, my experience as a social worker, working directly with people and understanding the struggle and understanding what it takes to overcome struggles, and then my experience working on human rights issues, LGBTQ rights issues, and then now as a parent.
• 56:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I do believe that all of those lift experiences and the professional experience now position me at a place where I can get back at this level, at the local level, right?
• 56:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I can give back not only by believing in this thing, but also doing things and coalition build, pushing the city forward.
• 56:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we don't feel stagnant all the time.
• 56:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: We feel stagnant right here in Garden Grove.
• 56:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And really, I do believe Garden Grove is that next hub where progressive policies, where communities are taking care of, where we can be like New York and filled our pot holes, timely and timely manner in a responsive manner.
• 57:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, I just hope that I get the folks support, you know, all of the candidates right now need people support.
• 57:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have like less we have about 30 days left.
• 57:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ballets are going to drop in about a week we're going to have.
• 57:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we want people to return the ballets.
• 57:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: We want people to show up on November 3rd to vote.
• 57:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of volunteering opportunities.
• 57:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: The best way to win a local election is door knocking.
• 57:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: come with a, you know, come out to a door knocking event with us, even if you can't come to the event, you can do it on your own.
• 57:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You just needed to let us know.
• 57:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: We assign you a turf and you can go any time.
• 57:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: This how technology has improved, um, voter engagement, right?
• 57:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, donate, donation is another important thing.
• 57:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can donate.
• 57:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Please donate, um, that's another way.
• 57:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then tell your families and friends to vote.
• 57:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 57:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's my message and I really appreciate the time with you and I know we we have a lot more to talk about and hopefully we can come back And yeah, my stream media will reach out to me for questions.
• 58:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was just going to say hopefully the next time we see each other on this political
• 58:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: platform or ecosystem is if you go up to debate some of your opponents.
• 58:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: I would I would definitely be I'm open to debating them.
• 58:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would love like do it on I would love to debate them and so I need to call Adina is that who we need to call out right now?
• 58:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: How has been Jodovin?
• 58:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jodoven and Fat Boy, who are my opponents, and I'd love to debate them in English, right?
• 58:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Fat Boy, Jodoven does not believe parents could teach their kids' Vietnamese because we live in America.
• 58:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I remember that clip.
• 58:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: That clip was wild.
• 58:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's a wild clip.
• 58:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Teaching our kids' Vietnamese is basically teaching them to support communism.
• 58:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jodovin also believed he's an emperor of a new Venomese American monarchy that he started, right?
• 59:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know Fat boy has been in the system forever, right?
• 59:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: He believes in democracy except for when it comes to his nonprofit his Venomese American nonprofit not having an election the last six years, right?
• 59:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because he still wants to be the chairman and so let's debate in English and let's let's
• 59:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.
• 59:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's go.
• 59:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's go.
• 59:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, Hugh, thank you so much for spending this time with me today and best of best of luck is not.
• 59:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know if that's the right best wish.
• 59:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's win it.
• 59:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's win it.
• 59:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.
• 59:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.
• 59:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I want to hear from the other side as well.
• 59:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: So there's that and I'd love to hear it from every side and probably every few years we're going to do this during the political races down
• 59:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, one thing I wanted to point out to you, like when, you know, when you say that a lot of people think like, oh, Kenneth is neutral, but listening to both side doesn't mean someone is neutral.
• 1:00:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 1:00:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 1:00:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's such an important nuance, and I just want to focus to know that, right?
• 1:00:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just because I'm willing to listen, you're willing to listen and have dialogue with people on both sides, on the spectrum, not even both side, but along this spectrum does not mean one neutral.
• 1:00:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: We still have our well-stands.
• 1:00:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: We can still stand firm and have clarity in our values.
• 1:00:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're claiming me to be a social democrat like you.
• 1:00:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
• 1:00:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm kidding.
• 1:00:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's going to use that in context.
• 1:00:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are not communist.
• 1:00:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you look weird or not.
• 1:00:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's think that's straight.
• 1:00:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: I said that very clear over and over and over.
• 1:00:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: We grew up here.
• 1:00:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: We believe in the democratic process.
• 1:00:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: So funny.
• 1:00:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
• 1:00:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Once again, it was such a pleasure to talk to you and again, best wishes, let's F and go.
• 1:01:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to The Vietnamese with Kenneth Winn.
• 1:01:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Winn, Katherine Winn, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie, and Crystal Tran.
• 1:01:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at The Vietnamese Podcast.