Op-Ed: News during the ‘Dead Zone’ and Jon M. Chu’s ‘meet the moment’

by Emil Amok Guillermo

When it comes to news, December used to be known as the “dead zone.”

This year Donald Trump took it literally.

In the silence and solace of Christmas Day, Trump took military action against ISIS in Nigeria. Without any congressional approval. Then on social media, Trump declared victory for the Christians over the Muslims as if it were his and the country’s personal crusade.  

Did his round of golf end too early that day? Did he get angry watching the latest “South Park” episode?

Trump hasn’t learned the lesson of the holiday. Take a break. As the president and “leader of the free world,” he dictates the news, more so American policy. Maybe he was jealous that Pope Leo with Midnight mass and Christmas Mass and their accompanying homilies were the headlines of Christmas Day. 

Maybe he’s like the  comedian who hates silence and to coverup his bombing,  needs to just say anything.

To which we say, Mr. President, take the week off. 

Of course, he’s not listening. He talked about Ukraine with President Zelensky on Sunday. And there’s no breakthrough. Not when the U.S. is a cheerleader for Putin and not the cheerleader of an invaded sovereign nation. 

But all the Trump noise stories serve as a distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein story and the newly found million documents the Department of Justice has revealed it has in the files.

Trump admits he was best friends with Epstein during the most salacious moments of Epstein’s life. Trump’s best defense seems to be, he quit him before all the others. Trump likes to say he quit Epstein first, while all the others continued their friendships.

What good judgment he has! 

Trump’s declaring he’s the least bad of the worst.

That’s our president!

JON M.CHU

You didn’t see much on Nigeria or Ukraine on the Sunday morning shows this week. 

But journalists know news always happens when no one is watching. (Sort of like your best dance moments). 

And even when the Sunday political shows tire of regurgitating the latest political news, sometimes the most timely interviews are showcased during this “dead” period.

This week “Meet the Press” gave us the stuff that could make America better. Not lame good news. But interviews with people with insight on how to overcome those difficult moments that keep us from fulfilling our promise. 

If we know how to make ourselves better, we can make America better. That would be news worthy.

So instead of “Meet the Press,” we got “Meet the Moment.”

Kristen Welker featured four interviews that are worth watching. They featured  former “Today” host Hoda Kotb, podcaster Mel Robbins, and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson. But my favorite, of course, was Jon M. Chu, the son of a Bay Area restaurant owner who has become an Asian American cultural phenomenon.

Chu isn’t just the director of “Crazy Rich Asians.” He’s the master of the “Wicked” film franchise, and with the new “Wicked: For Good,” he’s arguably the most dominant Asian American cultural force in American society today. Or at least, on the short list. And I mean all of it. Hollywood, politics, academics, even tech.

Consider “Wicked” is the most profitable Broadway film adaptation of all time, nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. 

It’s been part of Chu’s transformation. 

“My whole life of trying to try to prove myself that I can be here, that I can be in this business, and I think I was always searching for that kind of validation,” Chu told Welker. “Many times (before “Wicked” ) I felt like I couldn’t go on. Many times I felt like maybe I don’t deserve to be here.”

Chu said he learned not to wait “validation” and to trust his talent.

But there were times he felt he was “a complete fake.”

 And then came Crazy Rich Asians.”

That’s when Chu said he learned to embrace his Asian-ness.

 “What is the movie that I can only make?” Chu asked himself. “What’s the thing that scares me the most? And the thing that scared me the most was my cultural identity crisis, talking about being an Asian American, because my whole life, even my parents, sort of was saying, make sure people don’t even think about that value, so that you fit in.”

He had to over the fear that people would stereotype him as an Asian director. But he realized “it was the thing I had to do.

Despite “Crazy..” Asian Americans are still underrepresented.

 “I think we just need more,” he said. “What’s great is it cracked a door open, or showed a path for the other people who needed to invest money in this…I think it was for everyone else to say, ‘Oh, these actors have value.” In my mind, that was just an avenue to open up what other people looked at us. Now it’s all of our turns. All right, let’s own our stories and tell every version of our story we could so that (we’re not) dependent on just one movie. And so I think we’re in that process. I think we have to be careful to expect too big of a change too quickly. Of course, we want that, but to change culture, it takes time. I cannot force people to do that. We can’t have a debate and just say everyone agrees with that. I’m sick of having a debate and conversation about it. Just do it and prove it.”

That’s a message from an Asian American you don’t usually get from “Meet the Press.” But it can and did happen during the “dead zone” of December.

Emil Amok Guillermo is a veteran journalist, commentator, and stage monologist. He has written weekly columns on race, culture and politics for more than 30 years in both the mainstream and ethnic media. 

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