PETER’S PINOY PATTER — August 2024
BREAKING NEWS!!!
July 13 — Former president Trump was shot on his left ear by a bullet from an AR-15 when Secret Agents escorted him away from the Butler PA rally site. A spectator was killed and two others critically injured. A 20-year old man from a nearby community was killed by returning law enforcement fire……………… July 21 — President Joe Biden announced he will not be a candidate for president in 2024 and is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as president.
Bridge Generation News
(Today’s Bridge Generation — now in the 70s, 80s, and 90s — are a rapidly declining population. Over the years, most members of these American born children of the first wave of Filipino immigrants have passed away. To remember their contributions to the history of Filipinos in America, a deceased BG individual is a recurring feature of this column This month features national jazz authority and Bay Area deejay, Robert “Bob” Parlocha, April 18, 1938 — March 15, 2015.)
Eight years after his 2015 death from a heart attack, jazz aficionados across the country continue to miss Bob Parlocha who died at the age of 76. He was born and raised in Vallejo from a Filipino father and African American mother. I remember Bob at basketball tournaments rooting for his hometown Vallejo Filipino American Youth Club during the 1950-60s. Even then, he already was known for his extensive knowledge of jazz.. Blessed with a rich, elegant, and soothing voice, he went on to become perhaps the leading straight-ahead jazz deejay in the nation.
Bob learned about jazz during his formative years from his mother’s Count Basie and Duke Ellington record collection and listening to Pat Henry on KJAZ. At Vallejo High School Bob played tenor and soprano saxophones and the flute. After college he worked as a psychiatric nurse at University of California San Francisco for ten years. Since his performing days had considerably diminished, jazz was now essentially a hobby. Bob didn’t realize it at the time, but he used these years to develop interpersonal skills that later served him well in the music business. One day at the hospital, he responded to a Pat Henry employment announcement to submit audition tapes to KJAZ. Bob sent in his tape and was hired to fill a program slot on Saturday evenings. He proved to be a sensitive programmer, articulate spokesman for jazz, and astute analyst of the music scene. He became the voice of late night and very early morning jazz radio, during what he called “in the wee small hours.” Bob followed this up with his popular “Dinner Jazz.” For many straight ahead jazz fans “Dinner Jazz,” which aired Monday through Friday was a welcome diversion from a hard day at the office.
He worked for KJAZ-SF and later KCSM-San Mateo on the SF peninsula for more than forty years. After the demise of KJAZ, Bob began syndicating “Jazz with Bob Parlocha” through the new WFMT Jazz Network of Chicago. His program filled the late night airwaves in many cities across the U.S., bringing KJAZ nationwide.
On 2012 he received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award from the SF Filipino American Jazz Festival. (Acknowledgements: Peter’s Pinoy Patter 2015; Wikipedia; Carlos Zialicita, Facebook 3/14/24)
Happy August Birthdays:
Terry (Cataab) Bautista, Vangie (Canonizado) Buell, Beverley (Cabalar) DeToro, Herb Jamero, Mike Nisperos, Tony Ogilvie, Aurie (Omania) Kearns, Nemisio Paredes, Roni (Roslinda) Calibjo.
Pinakbet — News Across America
Filipino American Historical Tidbits:
1783 — In order to escape the cruelty of Spanish officers on galleons, Filipino sailors jumped ship on several islands off the shores of what today is Louisiana.
Did You Know:
Retired university dean Dr. Nina Cash, 57, was named co-winner in the Rookie Class of the Swimsuit Commemorative issue of Sports Illustrated Magazine’s 60th anniversary issue of May 2024. (Thanks to loyal reader, Lynda Montano, for the item.)…………… Pablo Torre has become a well-known personality in the sportscasting and podcasting worlds. He regularly appears on the air on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, ESPN, and his own podcast.
Musings
It has Always been about Persons of Color; Will Our American Democracy Persevere
(To focus on the November election, this section will be temporarily limited to the above topics. To assist readers on previously covered topics, following is a selected summary.)
August 2017: Williamsburg VA protest of White Supremacists/Nationalists — “We will not be replaced.”
August 2019: Trump’s tirade against four ethnic minority Congresswomen — all should “go back to their asshole countries.”
September 2019: In the wake of the recent mass shootings in Dayton OH and El Paso TX, “White Supremacy is alive and well in America.”
March 2020: The U.S. Senate acquitted Trump on impeachment charges of “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress.” Significance: Trump was not ruled innocent; acquittal only means the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
May 2020: Covid has had a disproportionate impact on POC, including Filipinos.
June 2020: Will Americans be more disciplined and follow science or be influenced by politics?
July 2020: Will America be content with the restoration of law and order (the symptom) and not tackle the basic reasons (the causes) for the country’s racism?
September 2020: Black and Brown people continue to die of Covid at nearly 50% more than White people.
November 2020: At a presidential debate, Trump announced to Proud Boys — a violent militia group — “Stand back and stand by.”
December 2020 : After the 2020 elections, America continues to be a deeply divided country racially, demographically, geographically, and politically. More Filipino Americans voted for Trump among Asian Americans — exceeded only by Vietnamese Americans.
January 2021: Trump’s efforts to overturn the election by falsely claiming voter fraud continued to embolden his base. Trump’s actions resulted in increased chaos and divisiveness — so divisive that officials and election workers have been subjected to death threats.
February 2021: We all witnessed the January 6 horrific mob insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in the failed coup to overthrow American democracy. “But why so many MAGA deniers?”
March 2021: Persons of color deemed “essential” continue to be by-passed for Covid vaccinations.
May 2021: Disregard disinformation and lies. The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol led by White Supremacists to overturn the presidential election was a rebellion.
June 2021: White fear of the “browning of America” and its “loss of power and privilege” are major factors behind the increasing violence against Persons of Color.
September 2021: The real targets of voter suppression bills are People of Color.
October/November 2021: Regarding the Administration’s handling of the Haitian refugee crisis at Del Rio TX, “Would it be different if the refugees were white?”
February 2022: Congress defeated the Freedom To Vote Act and its anti-voter suppression provisions.
April 2022: According to recent polls, Americans are more concerned about the pandemic, the price of gasoline, and the economy — not about threats to democracy.
May 2022: Does American indifference regarding threats to democracy mean the U.S. is destined to become an autocracy? Answer, Maybe. Will POC continue to be devalued? Answer, Yes.
July 2022: Sweden’s International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) added the United States to its list of 34 “backsliding democracies.”
August 2022: After watching the House Select Committee Hearings on the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on TV, American constitutional democracy came close to being forever lost.
October 2022: Delivering a fiery primetime speech to the nation President Biden said, “America is still the beacon to the world, an ideal to be realized, a promise to be kept.” He denounced MAGA Republicans as semi-fascists who.….. “do not respect the Constitution.”
November 2022: American democracy is seriously threatened. Some contributing factors: political violence, threats to Trump’s enemies, weaknesses in our governing structure, Senate’s filibuster rule, January 6 attack on U.S. Capitol.
December 2022: Significance of November elections: voters were more concerned about the threats to American democracy and threats to our rights and freedoms: abortion, civil, election, and privacy rights; the rights of freedom of religion, due process, and the rule of law.
January 2023: America was again beset by violence — not only political but also by mass gun attacks on some of the nation’s marginalized populations. The 2022 year’s count of murders by mass shootings totaled 610.
March 2023: America has most guns in the world. In a 2018 Small Arms Survey, the U.S. is estimated to have 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, while the next highest country is at 52.8 firearms.
May 2023: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, guns are also the number one cause of death of children in America — more than motor vehicles and cancer.
July 2023: Over the years common sense measures to quell gun violence have been suggested but virtually none have passed. Senseless mass shootings and gun violence continue unabated.
October 2023: California’s excellent record of gun control: ranked as the No. 1 site for gun safety, a 43% lower gun death rate than the rest of the U.S., and a gun homicide rate for youth nearly 50% lower in 2022 than 2006.
December 2023: Review of anti-Asian/especially Filipino violence.
February 2024: White Supremacy/Nationalism had its genesis following Columbus “discovery of America” in 1492.
April 2024: Today — rule of law being ignored; Constitution being questioned; and freedoms of speech, press, religion being weakened.
May 2024: If elected Trump promises to: (1) fire or destroy his enemies, (2) “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
June 2024: Supreme Court Justices’ misconduct allowed to continue. Result: Supreme Court losing people’s confidence.
VOTE ON NOVEMBER 5
##########