Louisiana now has two distinctions in its voting record to its credit. Last year we became the first state to elect an Indian-American as its governor when Bobby Jindal won his seat easily.
Now we are privileged to put the first Vietnamese-American into the U. S. House of Representatives. Ahn “Joseph” Cao emerged victor over the incumbent black Congressman in District 2 where more than 60 percent of the registered voters are black.
True, the incumbent William Jefferson was handicapped with indictments on various charges. But it does show that skin color and ethnicity are not the overiding criteria in voting here.
We’re sure these instances of open-mindedness in our voting should impress people in other parts of the country. They have served as examples of the principles of democracy that candidates should be elected on their ability to serve, not on any similarity to our own physical appearance or heritage.
Meanwhile, the governor of Illinois has been arrested on corruption charges. Since he would appoint the successor of President-Elect Barrack Obama as senator from that state, the charges could even include his intention to sell that seat.
Maybe that will somewhat take the attention away from the Pelican State on Jefferson’s corruption charges and the fact that cour former governor, Edwin Edwards, is trying to get out of the penitentiary on his corruption conviction. After all, corruption is not solely a practice of Louisiana politicians. It is just one of the evils that our open democratic process is infected with.We will never get rid of it completely since it is not a perfect system, just the best that is available.
But we can now take solace in the fact that folks in other states can look at Louisiana and say how they wish their state could be as open minded as ours.
We are not limited by the color of a person’s skin or his ethnicity in the election of our officials. And we should use that freedom to make the most of selecting those who can best serve our government’s needs.
After all, that should be the underlying basis of service in our democratic system.
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