Between here and there.Trying to see with holistic views.
What is the cause and effect of this contingency?
In point of fact, over the past month, I have been compiling a 20-year memoir of a Japanese woman who was a student at Georgia State.
Originally, it was meant to be a post for the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 this year, but after many conversations with her, it turned into an epic 20-year memoir that relates to 9/11 in 2001, BLM, and the 2016 and 20-year presidential elections.
From the fears and anxieties of discrimination, gun violence, division, and trauma experienced by one individual, she becomes more and more liberated and steadily changes towards the light.
She is neither a journalist nor a writer, and the fact that her writing is like a letter of confession to a friend made the story even more real and poignant to me.
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Yesterday, I got a photo from her that is related to Georgia.
Then, I received a call from my mother in Japan asking me if I was okay with the discrimination against Asians in the US,which have been reported in Japanese media too.
I thoughtlessly replied that I was fine because I was in Portland.
A few hours later, the horrible accident of last night happened.
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I'm not in Georgia.
It's Portland.
So I'm okay?
No, that's not true.
I drowned out the words I had told my mother in my head.
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Whenever I'm faced with a big problem, I ponder what the people of Indigenes would do.
One of my favorite sayings is "All life is connected”.
People whose lives have been cruelly stripped from this world, their families and friends. I am truly sorry.
And the person who committed the crime. That is not something that should NEVER EVER be acceptable.
But the society that drove him to that point, or drove him crazy, is not somewhere far away, but is somehow connected to the society “White spremacy“ I live in as a Japanese, I have to admit.
If only he had a friend to stop his behavior. If only there were someone who could correct his thoughts with love. If only the entire community that supports him were his mentor, tolerant and equal to all races. If only I had someone like him next to me...?
The wave of attacks that had been coming for many times, for decades, for centuries,became bigger and bigger, and people's consciousness turned to the edge,
But.
I'm sure there is still unheard, unseen suffering going on.
Did America, the richest country in the world, really give free wealth to everyone?
I am learning and thinking about what I can do on an ongoing basis, without letting it be a transient awareness for a short period.
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APANO[Asian Pacific Network of Oregon] is the one of awesome Oregon local organizations represent the community and put all the informations about other community we can support on their wesite.
There are tons of informations and real voices from/about the Asian and Pacific islanders comunity I have kept in mind,which are too long to put together here.
But I wanted to pick a couple here here with you tonight.
THANK YOU Shannon at badasscrossstich
“America Loves to be a country that the symtoms and not the underlying conditions.
It does it with racism,misogyny,gun violence,mental illness”.
Trevor Noah from the Daily show.