NOW I'VE SEEN IT ALL . . .

Last night, my dad and I plopped onto the sofa to watch the 11 o'clock news on NBC, catch up on the progress of the war, view some Yankee game highlights, check out the upcoming weather. Then all of a sudden, Chuck Scarborough took us to a clip that just about brought us to our knees.

We watched as Marine Cpl. Edward Chin climbed a statue of Saddam Hussein in the middle of Baghdad and draped an American flag over his head. We watched as Chin's family back home in Bensonhurst, NY, was interviewed, expressing their glee at seeing their brother, son, fiancee on television. We watched as Chin's parents, in their familiarly stilted English, told us how proud they were of their son, that he is a hero. It wasn't so much the taking of Baghdad that enthralled us; instead, we turned to each other tearfully and simultaneously said, "Hey, he looks like us!"

No one emphasized the fact that Chin is Asian-American. No one gave us statistics about how many Asian-Americans are currently serving in the Armed Forces. No one made a big deal about interviewing an elderly Chinese-American couple whose English syntax was off just a touch, whose words were pronounced with just a bit of a curl. No one thought anything of any of it, apparently.

But for me and my dad, it was HUGE.

Asian-America, REPRESENT!