Capitol Legislative Academy

By Scanews Staff

	On Saturday, May 3rd, the St. Louis chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), along with co-host, the Missouri Eagle Forum welcomed several political dignitaries to the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus for a Capitol Legislative Academy. Among the honored speakers to the campus were US Congressman, Todd Akin; State Representatives, Allen Icet and Jim Lembke, former State Representatives, Bill Linton and Bill Aulter; and St. Louis area directors for the offices of US Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent. While OCA-St. Louis has organized many voter registration drives geared toward teaching Asian American citizens, in particular, about the voting process and their right to vote; until now, there have been few opportunities to learn of the legislative process and ways to advocate your view, other than in a high school civics class.  

	"The purpose of this seminar was to equip leaders of our community the knowledge of the legislative protocol, thus enables us to participate in the legislative process", said Matthew Yu, the president of the Organization of Chinese Americans, St. Louis.
 
	Matthew opened the seminar by saying, "If money is your hope for independence you will never have it.  The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."  
 
	We had representatives from JACL, CAPA, and the Filipino American Association.  A total of 7 Missouri politicians attended the seminar.  "OCA, St. Louis will continue to provide quality programming to our community. The major event will be the continuation of the leadership developing program", said Matthew Yu. MasterCard, BJC, and the Monsanto Company will again sponsor the leadership development program.  Topics covered this year include effective communication skills, time management, negotiation skills, and effective presentation skills.  Detail training syllabus will be published in the next two weeks.  
 
	Matthew quoted Noah Webster of 1832, saying "If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the selfish or local purposes."  Matthew encourages our community to continue fighting for our rights and images and devoting our time and energy for the betterment of this country, our country.    

	The Capitol Legislative Academy is a program designed to introduce the legislative process to everyone by those very people who are ingrained in the process everyday... politicians, lobbyists, office directors, and campaign staff. While this particular session was a little heavier on the Republican slate, political parties were not the issue, instead teaching citizens their rights to advocacy and then showing them the tools to achieve, were the real heated topics of the day. Topics such as lobbying and legislative correspondence were introduced in an easy to understand manner and take home handouts, complete with Internet contact information were available. Getting to know who lobbies and why and how to get people to listen is a must for every citizen who wants to have their voice heard. Having you voice heard, is in itself, an issue that Asian Americans, in particular, have fought for a very long time. This program helped many understand that lobbying is not a negative idea but a positive one, that can be used at the local, neighborhood level or higher.  

	One volunteer lobbyist, Kerry Messer, President of Missouri Family Network said it well when he spoke of "...the power of one, the process of all, and the progress of some..." as inspiration to motivate attendees to be part of the progress and to learn the system.   While learning this system at this event was enjoyable it was noted by several participants that the struggle to educate yourself about the legislative process can be taxing, but well worth the final effort. 

	The informal, round-table discussion enabled everyone to get a chance to ask questions and partake in the highlight of the event, the wonderful mock-committee bill hearing, a whimsical adaptation, yet informal, realistic account of the inner workings of politics.  The entire event was a legislative education to all participants, including members from the St. Louis Filipino Organization, OCA-St. Louis, Youth OCA-St. Louis (YOCA) Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans (CAPA), UMSL International Studies, Missouri Family Network, and BJC.

 The purpose of the event for OCA President Matthew Yu was to" take away several key concepts:  	

1. Know your elected officials.
2. Work together in Asian-American coalitions and participate in the political process.
3. Take your knowledge back to your membership.
4. and...be sure to join OCA for their continuing programs in 2003: Leadership Training, BJC-Job Fair, Chinese Culture Days, and social event with Friends with Children From China (FCC)."

	As an end note, it was mentioned at the most recent OCA National Board meeting ..."that Asian Americans have not been accepted as citizens..."  An interesting statement, but easily adaptable, when citizens start speaking out for their own rights...the tools are out there.

Disclaimer: "It should be noted that OCA is non-partisan organization, that organized this event to educate Asian Americans and others about the political process, not to advocate specific political parties or candidates."