Some quick takes on stories that have broken since Friday:
The Edwards Affair: The secret is out and what strikes this observer is the double-standard that exists in the political arena when it comes to sexual behavior. I’m not talking about the extra-curriculars of people like John McCain. Beyond the political tit-for-tat that may come out of Edwards, I was more curious about San Francisco’s Willie Brown. For all his romancing throughout his career, he was still married to his wife. And did it bother San Franciscans? No, Brown had a fairly illustrious career. This clearly is in the “he’s a scoundrel, but he’s our scoundrel” department. Perhaps it was tolerated because Brown and his wife had what was described to me as an “open” arrangement. Still, it’s hard for me to imagine his behavior playing beyond the 7×7. My advice to Edwards: run for Mayor of San Francisco.
Olympics Amok: The LA Times’ Mike Downey with a thoughtful piece on that random attack that claimed the life of an Olympic volleyball booster.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, naturally. Despite the “amok” moniker, I’m no advocate of random violence. But after the remembrances of the Bachman family, let us stop and pause to think about the man who brought this all on.
As Downey reported: A 47-year-old man identified as Tang Yongming was found dead, an apparent suicide, after an attack on two Minnesota tourists, Todd and Barbara Bachman, whose daughter is a former Olympic volleyball player from UCLA and is married to the coach of the U.S. men’s volleyball team.
For reasons unknown, Yongming is said to have come at the couple with a knife, killing Todd Bachman and severely wounding his wife, atop the ancient Drum Tower. Yongming then jumped to his death.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-olydowney10-2008aug10,0,117515,full.story
Why does any random act of violence take place? The victims may be random, but there is a very real reason for the action. Maybe Yongming had a tiff with his family? His boss? Maybe it was a larger issue? In a true case of amok, there is a feeling of anger so deep, that an amok is compelled to act, usually with a knife in an uncontrollable act of frenzied violence, which culminates in taking his own life.
My heart goes out to the Bachmans and to Yongming. Let’s not dismiss his life to find out why some in China are so close to the edge.
PISTAHAN FESTIVAL: It was great to be an emcee at the Pistahan, the annual San Francisco barrio festival. For me, it really was. My relatives still live and work around Yerba Buena Gardens. My cousin Aida, I’m proudest of. I met her for the first time when I covered Ninoy Aquino’s funeral in Manila in 1983. She has since immigrated to the U.S. and has become a key teacher in the Filipino American program at Bessie Carmichael. That’s American dream still works for the Filipino community.
I also met some emerging Filipino American celebrities, like the two of the three Filipino American Raiderettes! But even more exciting was meeting Geno Espinelli. That’s no pizza maker out in North Beach, that’s Geno as in Eugene Macalaglag Espinelli.
Yep, the dude’s Filipino. Root for No. 43, the lefty, coming out of the ‘pen.
But you know Geno isn’t the only Filipino on the team. No.55 Tim Lincecum is half as well, according to reports. I knew there was a reason I took a liking to that guy and it wasn’t just because of his SI cover, or his blazing fastball, or his heroism as a stopper this season.
It’s in the blood.
They call him names like the “The Franchise” and ” “The Freak.”
The dude is “The FIlipino.”
Check out this week’s printed column in AsianWeek: