Bao Vang

I think that there is the question of if social networking does or does not work.  I’m not sure if it works or not, but I do know that I’m glad that there are social networking sites.  Early on Sunday morning, I used Facebook to see if some old high school friends has created a profile.  Lo and behold, I’ve discovered 2 old high school friends and one of them is working out of the house that I used to live in.  She actually works out of my old room.  How crazy is that?  To find out that 16 years after I left the small town of Houghton, NY, that the old house that I grew up in is still standing and it’s being put to good use!! What makes this story even funnier is that I was playing poker on Facebook and chatted with someone who was going to Houghton College and he was able to tell me that my old house was now the beauty salon.  It’s amazing how small the world suddenly became and I truly believe that you can find out anything or get to someone through six degrees of separation.

My daughter, Isabelle, is two years old today.  I wanted to publicly say Happy Birthday to her.  She’s the apple of my eye and one of the lights of my life.  Becoming a parent truly is a life changing experience and I am truly blessed.

 After I found out that my birthdate did not match up with the birthdate in the Social Security Administration database, I decided to go to the Social Security Administration to try to resolve my issue.  If you have never been there before, you need to be prepared to wait for an hour if you haven’t arranged to have an appointment.  The earliest appointment wasn’t until March 11 and I didn’t want to wait that long to resolve this issue. 

I need to go on a tangent for a second.  If you haven’t been to the Social Security Administration building in downtown St. Paul, then you might not know that it is currently going through a renovation.  So I decided to take some time off of work to go to the Social Security Administration.  I left early because I wanted to be there early so if I had to wait in line, I wouldn’t have to wait too long.  I get to the federal building in downtown St. Paul and there are these signs that say that due to renovation, the SSA is now located in some building near Mears Park, 180 Fifth Street.  I knew where Mears Park was so I drove over there and saw 175 Fifth Street which is Galtier Plaza. I couldn’t find 180 Fifth Street or the SSA because there were no signs directing you.  I had to ask a nice woman in Mears Park Place who said it was a block south of where I was.  Finally after walking through the skyway system, I finally found a sign directing me to the SSA.  Upon getting to the SSA, I had to get a number and sit in the lobby which was overflowing.  When I finally got called, here is what my conversation went:

Me: I’m trying to resolve an issue about my date of birth.  My federal tax return got rejected.  Can you help me?

SSA: Yes, what is your Social Security number?

Me: XXX-XX-XXXX

SSA: Do you have any identification?

Me: I have my MN Drivers License with this birthdate: JXXX XX, XX7X and a copy of my naturalization paperwork.

SSA: I can’t make changes to the database with a copy.  I need the orginal and that’s birthdate is not what we have in the database.  It is JXXX, XX, XXX3.  Also, you are still listed as a RESIDENT ALIEN. 

ME: WHAT!?!?  I’m still listed as a RESIDENT ALIEN!! I’ve been a naturalized citizen for 10 years!  Didn’t INS let the SSA know that I became an AMERICAN CITIZEN?!?!

SSA: You have to come in with your ORGINAL paperwork and tell us that you have changed your status then we can change it and it will take overnight to make that change.

Me: Why do I need to come in to tell you my status has changed from RESIDENT ALIEN to AMERICAN CITIZEN if you (INS, IRS, and SSA) are all working off of the same database?

SSA: You have to come in so we can verify who you are. 

Me: When I became an AMERICAN CITIZEN, INS already verified who I am.  I had to get pictures taken, have my fingerprints taken, and take a [stupid] test about my knowledge of American history.  INS already verified who I am! 

SSA:  Bring in your orginal documents and we can make the change in the database.

Me: I thought the database was shared between all the agencies and technology finally caught up.  This is ridiculous!

As you can see, I’m still a RESIDENT ALIEN and the government agencies don’t all share the same database.  Needless to say though, I do know my age that is listed with the SSA.  I’m one year older but my problem with them is still not resolved.  So, I’ll need to find time to go down to the SSA again to make some corrections.  I also think that a resolution needs to happen to help these agencies share information better.  I thought that my tax dollars were going towards good government. 

As America moves forward into the technological future, you would think that the bureaucracies that make up our government would have kept up as well.  Little did I know that the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.  Last week, I e-filed my taxes and my federal return was REJECTED!  The reason was because the birthday that I used did not match the birthday that was in the Social Security Administration database.  WHAT!?!?  I’ve been using the same birthday since I can remember, i.e. when I renewed my green card when I was 14, when I became an American Citizen when I was 24, my 2006 tax returns that were e-filed. 

So I got on the phone and called the Social Security Administration to find out what birthday they do have on file for me.  My conversation went like this:

Me: Hi. I’d like to know what birthdate you have on record for me because my federal tax returns got rejected because the birthdate I use doesn’t match what is in your database.

SSA: Please give me your Social Security number.

Me: XXX-XX-XXXX

SSA: What birthday do you currently use?

Me: JuXX XX, XX74

SSA: That’s not the birthdate that we have on record for you.  You will need to go to the SSA’s office with proper identification in order to get the birthdate that is on record for you. Or you can fill out Form XXX and we’ll send you a new SS number.  It can take up to 4 -6 weeks to fix this problem.

Me: 4 -6 weeks?  How come you (SSA and IRS) didn’t catch this problem before?  I e-filed my taxes last year and they were ok and when I became an American Citizen, you guys didn’t say anything about my birthdate that was listed on my documents. 

SSA:  This year the technology allows us to match up SS #’s and birthdates between the IRS and the SSA, so this problem won’t happen in the future. 

Me: So can you tell me what the birthdate is that you (the SSA) have on file for me?  I’d like to resolve my tax return issue. 

SSA: You’ll need to go to the SSA’s office to resolve this issue because how do I know if you are who you say you are.  I can’t verify that you’re the person that you claim to be over the phone.  Thank you. Goodbye.

Anyways, as you can see, it was very frustrating for me!  Does this mean that before this year, the SSA and the IRS have never done any checks to see if people’s Social Security numbers and birth dates don’t match up?  Is this why people get audited?  Am I going to get audited for this?  In my next blog, I will tell you the conversation that I had at the SSA’s office which was even more frustrating.  Do I find out my birthdate that is in their database?    

On Friday night, I was watching 20/20.  On 20/20, the feature story was about a Chinese couple. the He’s, who had temporarily given their daughter, Anna Mae, away to an American couple, the Bakers, and the long struggle of the He’s to get custody back of their first born.  There are many ethical and social issues that arise watching this story which carry a lot of emotion.  I see parralels of this story with my life.  My parents sent me to live with my sponsor in Houghton, NY when I was eight years old.  I knew when I finished with high-school that I was going back to go live with my parents.  Ten years afterwards, I moved back to Michigan as an 18 year old.  I had and have a very difficult time adjusting to living with my family.  I went from living as an “American” teenager to being a Hmong daughter.  My world changed overnight and even to this day I struggle with my cultural duality.  Read Anna Mae’s story and tell me what you think.

There was a great story on Kare 11 last night that featured a story about a soldier who received some funds from the Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund.  Eugene Sit, chairman of MMAF, was also featured on the story.  The reason why I wanted to mention this story is because Mr. Sit is an active philanthropist and he is of Asian descent.  By seeing Mr. Sit on the newscast really gave me inspiration that Asian American’s are ready to give to causes.  Mr. Sit also was selected in 2007 as one of Kare 11’s Eleven who Care.  What a great distinction for someone from the Asian Pacific Islander community.  Thank you Mr. Sit for inspiring me to give back to my community!

I was amazed at last night’s precinct caucus.  Traffic was backed up on 80th Street and the lines of cars trying to get into the high school parking lot was backed up to the highway and the participants had started to park on the surface streets surrounding the school.  The police had to come out to direct traffic because it was so backed up.  I was pleased that in my precinct, there was about 300% growth from when I went last went to caucus in 2004.  Turnout in Minnesota was historic! I hope that this enthusiam will carry through to November 4, 2008. 

I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday, but I had to put something in my blog today about the Super Bowl.  The biggest upset in sports history that ended the flawless season.  97.5 million people watched that game and watched the New York Giants Defensive Line control Tom Brady at the line of scrimmage.  I personally thought that the MVP  should have gone to the whole Defensive Line, if not to Osi Umenyora.  This only proves that an underdog can win the biggest game in football against the team that everyone thought was undefeatable. 

Today is Super Tuesday.  Please go to your precinct caucuses.  If you’re having trouble finding where you are supposed to go, all of the political parties have links on their webpages as well as the Secretary of State.  Even the news channels like Kare 11 and WCCO have links on their pages to help you with finding your precinct caucus location.  I feel like this election year will be a Super Bowl of sorts.  This year, CHANGE represent the underdogs and STATUS QUO is represented as the favored winner.  The difference between the Super Bowl and Elections is that with the Super Bowl, the American People are just spectators who wait and watch to see the outcome.  With the elections, the American People are the participants and  can dictate who will win by participating and standing up for the candidate that they believe best embodies the values and ideals that represent them.  Like the New York Giants showed the world on Sunday,  never give up until the last second ticks off the clock.  We, the American People, will have to be diligent as players in this election until the last vote is counted.

I’ve been extremely busy this week.  It was a short work week and I out one day for a meeting in Two Harbors, MN.  This past week, I was watching TPT and there was a great show called “Growing Up Online“.  The stories were amazing of the kids that are so internet savvy and so addicted to being “wired in” all the time.  If you have children and they have access to the internet, then you should watch this show.  On other news, I received an email from SEARAC (Southeast Asian Resource Action Center) about how the United States has signed an agreement with Vietnam to “repatriate” Vietnamese born refugees.    I’m going to attach the copy of the community update that was included in the email.  This distresses me because I wonder how much longer will Laos hold out before the Laotian government decides to sign an agreement like this.  I know of many Hmong families that will be torn apart if an agreement like that were to be signed.

U.S. Signs Repatriation Agreement with Vietnam

On Friday, January 11, 2008, twenty four Strategic Connector’s graduated from the Nonprofit Leadership Institute.  I’m taking some time in this blog to celebrate the fact that MCN (and myself) have one full year of nonprofit leadership programming under our belt.  Already though, I’m gearing up for the 2008 year.  The Senior Manager’s application deadline is coming up.  I hope that this year we get a good number of applicants.  If you are interested in learning more about the 2008 Senior Manager Leadership Institute, please feel free to contact me or all of the information is on the website.   I do want to share one great new report that was issued last month about the leadership challenge in the nonprofit sector.  The Building Movement Project out of DEMOS produced a great report about the change in leadership in the nonprofit sector.  The report is called “NEXT SHIFT“.  Let me know what you think about it.