Despite the past weekend was Chinese New Year, many Chinese parents still attended various Town Hall meetings across Seattle area to express their concerns about SB 6406 and the two other bills. A reporter and photographer from the Seattle Times were in attendance at the 41st LD Town Hall on Feb. 17, 2018. Given the obvious signs in the room, and the importance of the bill, you’d expect the reporter from Seattle Times to write up about SB6406 in his Town Hall meeting coverage.
Well, he did mentioned the bill -sort of, at very end of his report in two sentences. “Wellman was later cornered by constituents who were upset over her co-sponsorship of a bill to repeal an anti-affirmative action law enacted by state Initiative 200 in 1998. That bill isn’t advancing this session, the senator said.” Noticed that he on purposely left out name of the bill? And what did he call our Washington State Civil Rights Act? – an “anti-affirmative action law”. How misleading!
I have repeatedly requested Seattle Times to write an article to cover SB 6406, and have not seen one article from Seattle Times regarding SB 6406. It is not that Seattle Times is not interested in repeal I-200. Seattle Times Editorial Board published an article “Why Washington should repeal its affirmative-action ban” on December 28, 2015, and stated “Washington should reverse Initiative 200, a 1998 law that bans using race in college admissions and limits the ability of state colleges and universities to diversify student enrollment.” The fact that we only found out the bill few days prior to the bill deadline by sheer chance, I think it is fair to suspect that Seattle Times is conspired to cooperate with the bill sponsors to stay quiet about this bill till it passes without people noticing. Well we noticed, and we’ll make loud voices to let more people know about the bill.
BTW, I found a detailed coverage about the 41st LD Town Hall on Feb. 17, 2018 on a progressive liberal site.
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