Barry Chang訪談錄(一)
張昭富（Barry Chang)生於台灣，於1977來美國，就讀辛辛那提大學獲土木工程碩士學位。 1985年開始定居灣區。接下來一直居住在庫布蒂諾市。是三個孩子的父親。三個孩子先後從加州州立（UC）係統畢業。
張昭富社會價值的主張是維護民權、婦女參政權、身體障礙者權益以及各人種權益的平等和保護。在財政上張昭富堅持保守理財，捍衛民眾稅款不被濫用或者 補貼特殊利益，堅持市州政府項目必須有效益。在環境問題上張昭富堅持維護灣區的環境不被非法汙染。張昭富長期在教育努力，在有限的教育經費下幫助庫布蒂諾 成為加州最好的公立學區之一，而且堅持了浸入式中文的教育機會，讓很多華裔和非華裔孩子從中受益。
張昭富堅定地反對加州SCA5的新歧視。支持促成庫布蒂諾市議會投票成為加州第一個宣布反SCA5歧視的市。為反SCA5他也不斷繼續奔走努力。
張昭富1995年開始成功競選公職。從1985年到1997年是共和黨。此後和許多人一樣選擇了民主黨。張昭富不介入黨派之爭或按黨派路線投票。他 說“我從不按黨派投票，因為這是對民主的濫用。 我一貫捍衛人人平等的權利和良好的經濟政策， 這不是一個黨派專有的，了解堅持各派的優點實際上有助於我更好地和大家一起工作為社區服務”。我會對28區的居民和加州負責，把事做好，隻要需要我會不斷 向我的同事表達訴求，無論他們是民主黨、共和黨還是黨派獨立人士。
由於訪談錄篇幅較長，我們將分幾次登出。下麵是Barry Chang訪談錄的第一部分：
April 17, 2014
1. Introduction, Social Value and Parties
LY: Barry, could you please introduce a bit about yourself too as a person?
Barry: I have been married for 32 years and I’m proud father of three. My wife and I came to Cupertino in 1985 and raised all our children here. They all went through Lincoln Elementary, Kennedy Middle and Monta Vista High school. Two of them graduated from UCLA and the youngest graduated from UC San Diego.
More information on our family can be found at http://www.barry4ca.com/about
Here are pictures of us, then and more recently.
(Barry on the far right with father, younger brother and sister)
(Aileen’s graduation from UC Berkeley, School of Optometry
From left, wife, Sue, Barry, Mom, son, Howard, daughters, Aileen and Alice)
LY: How’s your social view, a “conservative” or rather a “liberal”?
Barry: Although a family man with lots of good personal friends as social conservatives (laugh), I’m not really a Christian. However I do study and like the Diamond Sutra (Jin Gang Jing, 金剛經) and other Buddhism literatures. The wisdom in Buddhism does help me to better understand religions, humanity, sacrifice, and tolerance of differences in people.
I’d call myself on the socially progressive side. I believe in Civil Rights, Women’s Suffrage, Disabilities’ rights and equal protection for LGBT. Government shouldn’t get in the business of perpetuating institutional discrimination or dictating choices of individuals as well as families. All forms of discrimination are simply wrong.
LY: How do you feel about “Bathroom Bill”?
Barry: It is wrong. Boys go to girls’ bathroom or girls into boys’ bathroom? It is very awkward even for the ones self-identified as the other gender. Above all, it is against the interests of equal protection of all. There are other far better solutions like gender neutral personal or family rest room we see in airplanes, airports and other public places and every home!
We cannot sacrifice everyone’s best interests to score a political stunt.
LY: Rumor has it that you were a Republican before?
Barry: Yes. I’m still very conservative in fiscal matters even though I don’t think it has to be exclusive of Republican. All of us should have fiscal responsibility. I became a citizen in 1985 and followed the party of Reagan. In 1995 I ran and won a seat on the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) Board of Trustees. Like a lot of people, I eventually chose the Democratic Party after mid-1998. The main reason is the minority rights and representation issue in the Republican Party at that time. It started to improve now as we started to see Chinese Americans like George Yang being noted. At that time though, being minorities, especially the first generation immigrant means that you are more or less automatically excluded from various considerations.
Learning from the best ideas of the two parties, I am also able to see merits in both parties and work with everyone for the community I represent. For example, I do champion for civil rights, better education and better environment for everyone besides the ideas of maintaining better fiscal planning and better environment for business. I’m against special interests.
LY: How do you feel party line voting and Democratic Party?
Barry: I have never and will not (be interested in party line voting). It is an abuse of our democracy. I see the values and extremes in both parties. I will be responsible for AD28 residents and California. I really care about getting the job done. Whenever needed, I do appeal to my colleagues, Democratic, Republican or independent.
Creating more jobs, reforming education, protecting the environment, security matters, and tax are all difficult issues that need bi-partisanship. I would like to get people together to improve on and fix all those issues. I wish we would all set aside party line differences and stand with the people, just like we set aside our skin colors, ethnicity and national origin differences, etc. I fully understand, if we stay with our party lines, then those special interest groups would heavily influence us and we won’t solve the problems with the right solutions.
I chose Democratic Party and I like its focus on Civil Rights, Women’s Suffrage, Minorities representation, education as well as environment. I don’t regret being a Republican before or my fiscal conservativeness. When I see the partisan politics that’s wrong, I speak out and work with everyone to help stop them.
