A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Today’s Agenda

Communication between individuals who speak the same language is tough enough. Add different backgrounds and it becomes more difficult. But if they don’t share a language? Then it’s impossible.

Community activist and writer Earl Ofari Hutchinson has watched South-Central Los Angeles, once largely black, become increasingly Latino. In today’s Community Essay, he describes his efforts to learn the Spanish language and Latino culture and customs in order to be of greater help to the immigrants at his local community center. Once he showed his interest, Hutchinson writes, his students wanted to know more about him, and about African-Americans. And so the barriers fell. But how often does a member of the dominant culture want to make the effort to learn the immigrants’ culture? It’s a tough sell, though as Hutchinson is aware, there are substantial rewards in a black-Latino alliance.

Sure, it would make life smoother in Los Angeles if all of us spoke one language, but what exactly are the obligations of immigrants? In Platform, we hear some thought-provoking answers to that question. One of them comes from a woman whose Mexican grandmother watched the westward migration into what is now Arizona. She reminds us that Anglos were once the immigrants here, but most never cared to learn Spanish.

At least Spanish and English have similarities of structure and share an alphabet. And at least most Latino immigrants have had some exposure to U.S. culture when they come here. But the Vietnamese must struggle over much bigger language and cultural barriers.

That they’re starting to succeed is reflected in the election of a Vietnamese-American, Tony Lam, to the Westminster City Council. That the adjustment is taking a toll is reflected in rising Vietnamese gang crime. In the Neighborhood takes a look at the intergenerational struggles among Orange County’s Vietnamese.

Take a lifelong resident of Southern California, a retired Army colonel born in 1919, and ask about the state of the region. His answer might not be what you’d predict.

“I don’t feel there is any end to the California Dream,” says Bud Vandervort in Testimony. “I can’t think of any place that I would rather live.” Immigration is a good thing, the crime and violence are blown out of proportion and the weather is still the best in the world, he adds. His final word on the subject? “I love L.A.”

Not that it couldn’t stand a little improvement. In today’s Gripe and Modest Proposal, our readers tell us how.

And in the Youth column, Adam Kirsch, 16, warns us not to mess with something that works better than we think--the public schools. He’s adamantly against the idea of unrestricted school choice.

Finally, our apologies to readers who tried to call our automated line and didn’t leave a message because the tone doesn’t stop. Call again, (213) 237-7670, and the new instructions should explain it. If you have a problem, you can reach a live Voices editor at (213) 237-4301.