Amata's Pacific Notebook: ATTRACTING ATTENTION IN WASHINGTON
July 28, 2008

by Aumua Amata

Reprinted from Samoa News

July 23, 2008

Before writing anything else, please let me take this opportunity to greet all our visitors from around the region who are here for the Pacific Arts Festival the next two weeks. I will be working with the Organizing Committee's volunteers so if you spot me during the fest, please come up and say hello. I have a lot of friends from around the region who I hope to be able to see while they are here.

I just got back on island last night myself after a whirlwind week on the West Coast and in our Nation's capital. The primary purpose of my trip was to accept an award from the International Leadership Foundation (ILF) but since the trip is so expensive and not paid by ILF or the government, I could have stayed home and received the award in absentia. However, this award had less to do with me than it did with my lifelong efforts to continue to break down barriers for our people, especially our women.

So, since I was the first Samoan man or woman--being honored by the foundation, I felt I needed to be there to impress upon them the need to recognize more islanders in the future. Showing up for the award, especially from such a long distance, was meant to encourage them to do just that.

The timing of the gala could not have been better from my standpoint, because it came one day after the annual reception commemorating the World War II Battle of Saipan and the Liberation of Guam. Despite how significant these battles were, both over the years have received relatively less attention in the states than might otherwise have been the case if they had not followed so closely on the heels of D-Day. So, every time there is a key anniversary such as the 25th or 50th, national media attention gets focused on Europe. This observance helps to compensate for that.

So, I commend Guam Congressional Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo and Northern Marianas Representative Pedro A. Tenorio for continuing to honor a tradition established some years ago to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery to honor those who died in battle. Each year a distinguished Washington dignitary is invited to help the delegates lay the wreath. This year it was Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that was to do the honors.

Years ago after the ceremony, the guests would go back to Capitol Hill where the Guam delegate would hold a small reception in his office. However, this event has grown over the years to the point it is now one of the three biggest Pacific Island gatherings annually and is greeted with much anticipation. Therefore, the reception has moved from the delegate's office to the cavernous House Caucus Room, which can hold 500 more people and, since it is in the Cannon House Office Building, it is convenient to House members and their staffs. Underwritten now by Guam and CNMI businesses and government agencies, the reception features Chamorro specialty dishes and island entertainers flown in for this purpose.

The evening draws a bigger crowd every year and this year was no exception.

Members of Congress are introduced and are invited to say a few words to the crowd.

Those who took this opportunity included Sen. Dan Inouye (HI), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD), Rep. John Lewis (GA), a hero of the Civil Rights Movement, Jeff Flake (AZ), a senior member on the House Insular Subcommittee and, of course, our own delegate, Faleomavaega. Others spoke, too, and still others simply mingled in the crowd. Virtually all of them disappeared to other engagements after a brief time at the party, but that is fine. The main thing is for these important leaders to have exposure to their fellow Americans from the islands that will leave a lasting imprint.

Although I was tired from two straight overnights of air travel, I stayed for most of the reception because I wanted to have the opportunity to get a little additional exposure for American Samoa with as many Members of Congress, staff and administration officials as I could. We have a number of important issues being considered in Washington right now and with less than 30 legislative days to go before Congress is scheduled to adjourn it is important that we not be overlooked, as has periodically been the case in the past.

I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity because there usually are only three major social occasions on the Washington calendar for islanders: the Guam/CNMI commemoration in July, Pacific Night in the spring and a reception held when island governors are in Washington each February for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. We also have the ANZAC Day church service and reception but while island representatives do participate the focus of those events quite properly is on Australia and New Zealand.

With so much competition from so many other groups in Washington, these are the major social events that island representatives can attend at which U.S. government leaders can be expected to participate. Over the years I often have regretted that we have never had a Flag Day celebration in Washington but if elected this fall I am going to see about establishing one that might someday rival the Guam/CNMI event in size and enthusiasm. I know the other island representatives would welcome another social occasion to mix and mingle with Washington's elite.

Such observances are held in a number of Samoan communities on the Mainland and Hawaii and they are not necessarily held on April 17. More often they are in the summer. I feel we should have one in Washington and would want to schedule it so that it complements the others already established.

Thursday was the big day, with activities all day long for the ILF honorees. I begged offthe morning program, however, to take part in a breakfast meeting which also involved Senator Wayne Allard (CO), Congressman Joe Wilson (SC) and Congressman Robert Aderholt (AL). I knew Rep. Wilson from my days on the House conference staff, and Robert Aderholt and I go back even further to the days before he was in Congress when we first attended a campaigning conference together.

I will have more to say about this breakfast at another time.

From there I made a mad dash to the Basilica of the National Shrine, where much of official Washington was gathered for the sad funeral of Tony Snow, the former Fox Newsman and press secretary to President Bush. Because President Bush was leading the mourners, security was very tight and traffic was bumper, with major streets closed off. I had met Tony in the past on occasions at the White House and with the Republican National Committee and I wanted to pay this respect to him even though he was not a close friend.

After leaving the Basilica, I quickly rushed over the Hilton Hotel and joined up with the ILF group that was just arriving from their White House tour for lunch. The purpose of the luncheon was to bring together the honorees and the corporations that underwrite ILF in a setting more conductive to networking that would be during the giant gala in the evening. The lunch keynote speaker was former U.S. ambassador to the United Nation Sichan Siv, who was a 2006 ILF honoree.

Sichan was a Cambodian refugee who arrived in the U.S. with just two dollars to his name in 1976 and just 13 years later was a member George H.W. Bush's White House staff. That is when we first became friends and I was honored when he gave me an autographed copy of his autobiography: "Golden Bones - An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America," which just was published this month. On the inside flap, Sichan says "I was given the great advice that if I wanted to understand this country specifically its political system I had to get involved. And so I did."

Where else but America could an immigrant come here as a penniless refugee and retire as an ambassador thirty years later? I am looking forward to reading his book and am sure it will contain inspirational messages that would be useful for all of us. In addition to Sichan, I was given an opportunity to speak, thanked ILF for the honor of being the first Samoan whose leadership was being recognized by them and pledged to commit to involving more Samoans in the future in their summer Washington internship program, which is the centerpiece of their activities.

It was thrill not only to be the first Samoan to be honored but to be an honoree along with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). Others who spoke at the gala included former Transportation and Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta, ILF's honorary chairman, and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who was the keynote speaker.

Was it worth the trip in terms of gaining visibility for American Samoa? Well, when he saw me at the ILF gala the night after the Guam/CNMI reception (where he stayed on for more than an hour), he greeted me with a hearty "Talofa." So I felt I had achieved my purpose.