THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Americans no longer are fighting mad against the Germans, Italians and Japanese, or even the Koreans or Vietnamese. And they all opposed us in wars.
So we can't understand why two groups of World War II veterans refused to march last week in a Virginia Beach Veterans Day parade with Filipinos - who fought with us in WWII and have had ties with us since the Spanish-American War, when the Philippines became an American possession.
The American Veterans and Pearl Harbor Survivors boycotted the parade, following the lead of Arthur W. Pearsall, immediate past commander of the local American Veterans chapter, Post 69, and immediate past eastern district commander for the state.
Pearsall, a former submariner who joined the Navy at age 16, said the groups wouldn't participate as long as Filipino-Americans marched in the parade under a Philippine flag.
Permission to carry that flag was granted at a meeting of the Hampton Roads Council of Veterans Organizations a few weeks ago, with Pearsall alone in opposition.
Romeo N. San Antonio of Norfolk, vice president of the Filipino-American group, said the flag request was made because it was the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. He said, ``I will fly both flags (in the parade) and show honor to both.''
Pearsall told staff writer Jack Dorsey the Filipino-American community is ``pushing and pushing and pushing and nobody will stand up against them. I am tired of them pushing and taking over and taking more and more of our American heritage and putting it to their own use.''
But the United States is the richest, most powerful nation in the world. It should in no way feel threatened or dishonored when people who fought with us fly a foreign flag alongside ours.
We would feel threatened and dishonored if we were a weak, tiny country and a bully nation insisted on flying its flag in our parades. But that is hardly the case.
At least 20,000 Filipino-Americans reside in Hampton Roads. No one knows how many Filipino civilians died during WWII, except that the number is huge. According to various reports, more than 100,000 civilians died during the battle of Manila alone. Surely so much bloodshed and suffering earns Filipino-Americans the right to fly the Philippine flag in an American parade. The Hampton Roads Council of Veterans Organizations thought so.
This nation was built on diversity, and we should take pride in it. by CNB