It Is Our Time To Take A Seat At the Table

By May Lor Xiong Candidate For Minnesota Congressional District Four

Our people, culture, values, and traditions to this day remain a mystery to the American people. Cubans came to this country fleeing communist rule under Fidel Castro and created a better life for themselves. Eastern Europeans escaped Stalin’s gulags in the Soviet bloc to bring safety to their families. And the Somalis came to a foreign land to escape war and famine. We, the Hmong, with a history dating back over 4,000 years, have our own story or resilience, bravery, resolve, fear, redemption, success, and opportunity. It is time the American people learn who we are, what our people have done and our love for this great country we now call home.

Hmong means “freedom” we strive to preserve it, teach it and we have proven we are willing to fight and die for it. Since the day our families answered the call to fight alongside the Americans during the Vietnam War to the very classroom, I have taught young children English for over 20 years, that value has always stayed with us and will not fade.

Since the war and our need to flee our land in Laos and seek refuge from the communist forces in the camps in Thailand, we never gave up hope seeking the freedom we earned and the rights we deserved. When we came to America, I was a young girl at the time, we quietly carved out our American Dreams of being farmers, small business owners, doctors, and lawyers. I saw my mother and father who gave up everything to start from nothing, achieve their American Dreams of owning a home, starting a business, and raising a family. Many of us who are first-generation immigrants, like many American first-generation immigrants, quietly take on each challenge that comes before us.

2020 changed everything. We saw our businesses destroyed from lawlessness or unchecked politicians. We have watched as our hard-earned money that many of us struggle to make it paycheck-to-paycheck now fail to make it to the next payday. Our dreams have eroded, and promises were upkept. We are being told that we can’t achieve our American Dreams because of the color of our skin or where we come from, my own experiences have told me that is simply a lie. We look to our elected government leaders during these historically turbulent times to be our voice and make good policy in St. Paul and Washington DC. Both have failed us. They stood silent or worse yet condone the failed policies that led us here simply for their power not to help the common good and protect our American Dreams.

I’ve had enough.

It is our time to take a seat at the table in Washington DC, to show this great country and our community we have and always will fight for freedom, opportunity, and our American Dreams. America has been divided between red and blue states and districts and I want us to be united under the values of the Red, White and Blue. It starts with listening. For far too long politicians tell us what they know versus working with us to tell them what is needed to let us continue to pursue our American Dreams. 2022 has been a year of broken promises, violence and destroyed dreams and our current Congresswoman has been in Washington since 2000 and 22 years later, we are worse off.

This is not a condemnation of the voters of Minnesota Congressional District Four, but rather a change of our place in history. Our Congresswoman has forgotten about the people of Ramsey and Washington County, she has forgotten about the Hmong people. The only solution they offer is to throw your taxpayer dollars at problems that trigger rising gas prices, grocery bags not as full and now I see so many become numb to the violence on our streets. The Congresswoman will proudly protest a pipeline three hours away in Northern Minnesota but won’t pick up a broom to help clean up a neighborhood where another rash of car break-ins occurs by people who do not respect the law or our neighbors.

We have not changed, but the politicians have. I want to serve our people and the people of Washington and Ramsey County in Washington DC because my only agenda is You. I am a humble proud mother of four amazing children, whom two followed the family tradition, and are currently serving our country in the armed forces. I am an immigrant that knows what communism and its cousin socialism does to people’s dreams. It puts the power in the hands of special interests and destroys those who get in its way. When elected to Congress, I know the history of our people will be with me every day during my service in my heart and in my head. I will never forget the many who sacrificed everything to make it to America, and we have embraced a nation that needs to know us as people. I ask for your support in these remaining months as we fight to November. Like so many things in this life, things change, and we need to change with it. Our situation has changed – with the rising cost of food and energy to the scarcity of food and medicine that has tested leaders, and our current Congresswoman has not risen to the challenge of our troubled times. Washington has changed her and it’s time we make a change in Washington.

I will fight for your American Dreams and America will know our culture, values, history, and our people when we take our seat at the table. Join me as we continue our fight for freedom like our fathers before us.

May Lor Xiong