Sunday, May 04, 2008

Happy APA Heritage Month!

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, everyone!

For those of you who haven't been following it, this year's theme is the clearly committee-designed theme of: "Leadership, Diversity and Harmony—Gateway to Success."

I know, I know. It's like they went to Successories and picked three random photos and said, "Here's our theme!"


Here's some of the lovely posters that have been designed to help us celebrate this year with immense energy and elan:



*Must... hold ...back... art criticism. Will... strong. Body... weak...*

ANYWAY:

This is to "honor the many contributions citizens of Asian and Pacific Island ancestry have made to America. Through their entrepreneurship and strong values of love and family, they have strengthened the economy and enriched communities across the nation."

And that's good.

Obviously, I think this year's theme is as generic and inoffensive as it gets, and doesn't make much of a statement. Clearly, more of us need to weigh in at the Federal Asian Pacific American Council and demand livelier themes in the future.

Doing my part here, this is a head's up that for the rest of the month I'm giving a shout out to those of us who trace our heritage back to Laos.

Since we've got enough stuffy academic approaches out there already, I'll keep the entries fun! :)

Laos, also known as the Kingdom of A Million Elephants, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic or Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao. Also formerly known as the kingdom of Lane Xang.

In the US, over 400,000 people with ties to Laos currently make their home here. What have we been up to? Stay tuned!

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