"Servitors of Empire" -Lenin Ono

Tony Tran

ASA2 Section 2

Week 10

                To try to break away from the easy Angry Little Asian Girl comics, I particularly skimmed the “Servitors of Empire” by Lenin Ono. And at first I was totally confused by the reading. I was questioning myself how an Asian women named Yoko Ono was related in any way with the Beatles. It was only after so many references of them and a guy named John Lennon that I looked up into this and knew that John and Yoko were a couple and John was part of the Beatles.

Now I felt an important part of this article was that it talked about after disbanding from the Beatles, the couple created songs that were about a world that was essentially utopian. They push for anti-war and peace ideals which was seemed unfavorable to the government which even resulted in the government attempting to deport John. And this was all because of President Nixon’s plan to stem dissidents to have political and public favor. But what I cannot believe is that they would resort to assassination to uphold a solid political standing. This was a blow to not only Yoko, but also soon towards the government which will have to re-explain the whole tragedy and see further scandals and problems created by Nixon’s government people. If such an American political figure like John Lennon cannot peacefully voice out ideals like peace, then how could Asian Americans like Yoko do it without fear of the government doing the same to her?

Question: Is it right for political parties to do away with people that have opposite ideals? Like if we were in their shoes, is it justified to eliminate potential “risks” just so you yourself is in a better standing?