3/20/2021

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I think you are at Camp David right now, but I’m not sure. If so, this first day of spring has the perfect weather for you to get out & explore the countryside. Please watch your step, though. I saw that you stumbled up the stairs of AF1 yesterday. We don’t want you falling & hurting yourself.

            As I read about how the shootings in Atlanta have affected the AAPI community, I learned about Vincent Chin’s murder in 1982. I don’t remember hearing about it before. Perhaps you will recall that he was a Chinese American young man who was chased down & beaten to death by a disgruntled, laid-off auto worker who thought he was Japanese. The murderer was fined $3000 and given probation. We had a similar tragedy at about that same time here in Davis, when a high school boy stabbed Thong Hy Huynh, a fellow student who had recently immigrated from Vietnam. The killing took place on the high school campus.

            We could go back further in history to see the mistreatment of AAPI folks in the USA so these are not isolated incidents, but part of the caste system that has trapped us all for the last 400 years. I think we should entertain the idea presented by the American Public Health Association & declare racism a public health issue. 185 public entities have already done so. Let’s make the federal government the next one.

            I am baffled that 14 GOP Reps voted against the House Resolution condemning the Burma coup. Rep Perry had particularly convoluted logic, calling it an “overt attempt to trap Republicans into condemning the claims of evidence of election fraud in Burma” while “perpetuating similar claims (in the Democrat’s views) of evidence in US elections.” I hope the folks of the 10th PA District find this troubling.

            BYBS,