New editor at Asian American Press

The Asian American Press has been a part of the Asian American community for over two decades, providing news and analysis and helping to build community in the Twin Cities and the surrounding Metro. The former editor of the AAP, Mr. Tom LaVenture, after six years of dedication and hard work, has decided to move on, and I am honored to pick up the editorial duties of these pages.

This newspaper is part of an ongoing conversation that is shaping the future of America and the world, and I am thrilled to be a part of that. As a global citizen and a student of international culture and politics, the task of learning and reporting about our diverse community is both a great opportunity and a challenge. We are all playing a role in the creation of new identities and relationships, bringing together old and new, the local and the global, resulting in the unprecedented present. Our cities are blessed to have brought together an incredibly diverse group of peoples. The tragedies that have resulted in refugees, the opportunities that bring entrepreneurs, all the struggles that have been endured to get here, all these have formed the complex community that the Asian American Press is a part of. Understanding this community and providing it with timely and meaningful information and analysis is, perhaps, a daunting task, but it is one that I look forward to undertaking. Mr. LaVenture has been a fantastic and patient mentor, but understanding a little shows me how much there is to learn.

I was raised in the small town of Perham, Minnesota, and moved to the Twin Cities to attend the University of Minnesota. My world continued to expand as I had the opportunity to study, work and travel on the other side of the world in South East Asia. I had the privilege to live and study in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Yunnan, China. I also worked with a human rights organization in Bangkok, Thailand, on immigration and refugee issues and on responding to the 2004 tsunami that caused so much devastation. I study Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Traveling in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, I learned about the issues of the region and its people and fell in love with each place’s culture, cuisine, and arts. I have contributed to the Asian American Press in the past and have published articles in Malaysia and Indonesia. Here in the Twin Cities, I have worked with the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program on the end Hmong grave desecration in Thailand campaign, I was an intern at KFAI Community Radio, and I have worked with other nonprofit organizations.

Communication, to me, is a great virtue, and I believe that the more we engage in two-way interaction the more successful we can all be. I look forward to engaging in conversation with the community and in striving to communicate as effectively as possible. Please send any comments, questions, suggestions, anything, to aapress@aapress.com.

Ted Meinhover
News Editor, Asian American Press