ah, the crazy clamor of local politics

The big story in the South Bay right now is the controversy over what to name an area of primarily Vietnamese businesses. Last summer the City Council approved the name "Vietnamese Business District", and the Vietnamese community went apeshit.

Crybaby

Okay, granted, that's a little bland and boring, although I still think their reaction was somewhat disproportional. They wanted to honor Saigon, the old capital of Vietnam, so the Council decided on "Saigon Business District".

The community--mostly older people who came as boat people fleeing communism after the fall of Saigon--prefer "Little Saigon", and they're reacting to being balked with all the rationality of a spoiled 4-year-old being told "No, you can't have another cookie". One guy has been on a hunger strike since the middle of February and says he's prepared to die if the Council doesn't agree to call it "Little Saigon".

For many in the Vietnamese community, "Little Saigon," symbolizes a powerful emotional connection to the former capital of South Vietnam before the 1975 communist takeover.

But "Saigon" is also part of the name that the Council is proposing! What is the controversy here?!

Look, I prefer Little Saigon, too. But it's not like the City Council is proposing calling it the "Ho Chi Minh Business District" or the "Ha Ha You Lost The Vietnam War Business District". And I don't want to sound like I'm picking on a bunch of elderly war refugees. It's just the whole thing strikes me as so bizarre. I guess you can't really relate unless you've lived their life.

Is this what living in Miami with all those rabid anti-Castro Cubans is like?