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Today is June 26th, 2020. And here we have Mr. Cecil Fong for the Houston Asian American Archive's special COVID-19 project.

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Welcome, Mr. Fong. Thank you for agreeing to do–take this interview with us. How are you doing today?

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Doing fine. Are you still in Houston? Yes, yes. Yeah. So I stay in Houston–Houston and staying home mostly, now, you know, and just doing some occasional takeout, you know, so staying–stay

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safe, you know. But it's yeah, it's good. It's fine. I've been–I've been doing a lot of stuff online or virtual. Hmm. Great.

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So as you know, since March, Harris County has issued a stay at home order. So I guess my first question is, in what ways have your, has the pandemic impacted you and your life? Ah, well, it's, uh, yeah, I think

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before that, I guess we know, we, we tend to eat out more, I guess, you know, so. So we cut back on, on the eating outs since the start of pandemic and, and then a lot of the–

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the, you know, the meetings, you know that I used to attend in person, now it's all, it's all virtual basically, you know. You get the, but you still get I think we still get the you know, business done, you know, but

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it's just that it's done virtually, so far, which. which actually, I think it's worked quite well actually in terms of getting the you know, getting the business done now virtually instead of in-person, you know, so

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I'm happy to see that. So how do you think the virtual experiences compared those of in person experiences? Ah, well, yeah, well guess with the in-person experiences now you don't–you get the, you get

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the personal connections and all that we have. So you missed that in the, in the virtual setting. Then I think virtually you also tend to be more—I

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think it can be more productive again in the sense that you know, everybody I'm all kind of to the point, you know and getting you know, getting us saying things they need to say. And, and also a good thing I like about the

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virtual session too is the, the chat capabilities know, you can basically, you know, you can still do some chat and express your thoughts and share ideas on chat box while other people talking.

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So it's kinda like, are you more productive that way you can kind of visit at the same time, you know, so there's this it's got its advantages, you know, with the virtual settings. Hmm cool.

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So besides having virtual meetings with others, were there any other activities that you engage more or less like than before? Ah, well, I definitely yeah. Well, that, you know, definitely then, you know, we stay home a

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lot more. So, unless there's something that, that needs require, in person experience, then no, we, we tend to stay home and then we yeah, we have, we kind of avoid any going to any, any place where

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there's a big crowd. So and then we—and now we try to do—well even when we go out, we try to limit our exposure to other people, you know, even like to go to the

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stores or the restaurants. We're a lot more careful about talking to people, and you will always sure, always make sure we wear the masks, course all the time nowadays.

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Mhm hmm. Definitely. Um, so do stay with your family now or like, your loved ones? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we, we, we would stay at home, you know, so my

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wife and I, we, we stay at home for the most part and then my—we have two, two sons. One, one—both in San Francisco area and remote working actually from home in the San Francisco area.

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And then one of the sons actually came back. He just— he came back for three weeks, two or three weeks to visit and, and work from home, from Houston instead.

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And so it was good to good to see him visiting and one of the purpose is visiting his because my brother came in from Thailand. So, so he's, uh, and so he's, uh, he's visiting

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from Thailand, and to get away from the, I guess the pandemic, you know, in Thailand, I guess the sense that they are pretty strict lockdown procedure in Thailand. So he was getting a little mental distress.

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So he decides come over here and see something, you know, so that so that he has a chance to see his family, you know, and other people, because entirely he was able to see and he, he was pretty restrict already, but

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you basically restrict your home, you're not allowed to go off time. So it's good. It's good. So we are able to my brother is here, my son's here for a few weeks so you know, keeping the family contact.

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That's nice. So do you think the pandemic has affected you, the relationship between you and your loved ones? How has that affected the relationship? Ah, well, yeah, they know it's, uh,

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it definitely you see, you see each other more often because of the pandemic and caused more opportunities to, to talk and, and, and I think makes more, I think that makes a lot closer in our relationships too.

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You know, because–it's a and i–it's good to you know, it's good to be with the family members too, because then you know, that's a lot of times that may be the only contact you have with–with other people because otherwise

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you–you're doing virtual, virtual meetings with everybody else, you know, you're doing practice and social distancing. So you're not really talking very much other people.

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And also by the only people you really talk to face to face is your family members. And so, I think that the, that the personal contact is important, you know, in terms of–in terms of

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everybody's mental health, you know, to make sure that we don't get too lonely and cut off. You know what people think that's you know effects more people. It effects people want some people more than

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others. And so, I think personal contact is important this time. Absolutely. So, um, how–have you experienced any like anxiety or depression during this period?

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Ah, I, I have rarely personally because I keep, you know, I keep pretty busy, you know, the different activities, you know, virtually, and,

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and, you know, and I still have, you know, if I'm by myself, I'll be I think, probably experienced that more but since my, my wife is with me, you know and you know, as I

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say my son's been here for a few weeks and my brother's here with me, you know. So I think all the family togetherness I think helped prevent any an-anxieties that I would experience otherwise.

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Like my bro-, like I said, my brother was living by himself in Thailand, you know, so he was, he was really experiencing anxiety, anxiety attacks, you know, in Thailand, living himself and limit exposures to

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other people. So coming here I think in order to help his mental well-being, to be with family members so. And I know you're active participant of Houston's Asian community, I'm wondering like, if you have

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involved in any response to the outbreak? Ah, yes, we are, we have uh—the main event– I will say the main activities I've been involved with is the effort called Asian Americans Salute Frontline

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Heroes is a ad-hoc organization coming together by different AAPI groups as well as individuals in Houston area to see how we can help our frontline heroes by providing meals and, and

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purchasing from struggling Asian restaurants. You know, mostly hard hit by the pandemic, you know, so we raised, we raised some money to purchase the over 10,000 meals for the

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frontline heroes that we, we have in different hospitals in the Houston area as well as the first responders, you know, and, and city and government workers. And, and that's, you know, that's been I think very

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gratifying, you know, to be able to on one hand you know, the help Asian restaurants in the Houston area, by their by business slow and then also of course, show appreciation for the, for the medical world, front

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line heroes that we have. It’s been really hard working during this time. And that's really the kind of the the main idea is to

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show kind of Asian community come together for a positive contribution that give back to the community during this hard hit times. In fact, in a way, just one of the efforts in the Houston area, maybe count

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all the different organizations in Houston area, you know, if we tally up the amount of donation they raise, I will say probably over 3 million total dollars in terms of PPE and, and

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supplies and meals and everything that's, you know, that's that we've given back to the broader community, which is really, you know, which is really great to see that that's, that shows we're part of a community.

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We care about a community, you know, and we want to do whatever we can help. And especially important because, you know, because of the you know the anti- Asian sentiments during these times because of a pandemic,

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you know, so, yeah, so that's um, so we want to with this on one hand, we want to show that we have positive contributions to, to the community. And the other hand that we want to combat this anti-Asian

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sentiments you know, and dispel the notion that, you know, basically, you need the Kung Flu, whatever they call it the “Kung Flu” or the “Chinese– Chinese virus” and all these rhetorics, you know, that's out there,

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that's raising the mistaken perception that the virus came from, you know, A-Asians or Asian Americans. And, and so the, you know, that's actually this, if I can

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elaborate on that too, because the, the we have, we have the another component of our effort is to, to, to see what we can do to eliminate racism, you know, against, against Asians, you know, so we–we actually,

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as part of this effort, we also put an ad in the Houston Chronicle saying—the headline says, "There has been over 2000 anti-Asian incidents since it the

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start of pandemic, dot, dot dot." And then our message is, there is no room for hate. We are all in this together and it’s co-signed by Asian American Salute Frontline

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Heroes and about 50 other advocacy groups in the Houston area including ADL, Urban League, and NAACP, LULAC, and the LGBT Caucus.

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So that–that our intention is really trying to get our the community to, to, to speak with one voice, saying that there is no room for hate in this time. And so, in the you know, the—that– that one, the

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ad came out in our just recently on the Houston Sunday Chronicle, June 21st. It's half-page ad. And then the following day were a couple of other activities to kind of wrap up our campaign and you

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know anti-hate. One is in the morning, you know, we had a recognition ceremony in Chinese Community Center to recognize a couple of Midland heroes

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who came to Houston. These 2 Midland heroes are the ones that intervene on behalf of Asian American family in a hate crime in Midland, you know. So they,

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they stopped the, they intervene and and held the perpetrator at bay and wait for the police to arrive, you know, so they stopped the perpetrator from, you know, inflicting further damage with a knife on a family

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of five, including three little kids, you know. So, so we really want to recognize the two heroes for their heroics. And we brought them to Houston, and we had a virtual ceremony in Chinese Community Center

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to recognize their selfless deeds. And then we—the whole ceremony was virtually broadcast that to everybody who wants to watch it online. And, and I mean, what's–what's up.

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I will say one more thing about the burn heroes and one of the Midland hero is Caucasian, you know, and the other one is Hispanic, you know, they came to the aid of an Asian American family, you know, so that's a, I think that's really

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significant in the sense that, you know, that it shows that our community can come together, to help each other and really show the, the kindness of the community, our community and the American people in general,

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you know, so it's very, it's very nice to see. So I'm glad we had the opportunity to, to, to recognize those heroes during this time,

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and, and, and virtually broadcast that out to the–to the public. And when we follow up that, follow that ceremony up in the evening with a webinar. An anti-hate webinar it’s titled "From Vincent Chin to George

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Floyd." Yeah and, and basically we had the panelists from ADL, from, from the Center of Healing Racism. And we also have for Helen Zia, who's an Asian

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American activist. We have Annie Tan, who's the niece of Vincent Chin, who is a young activist herself in the Asian American community.

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And, and we also have the Zach Owen, one one of the Midland heroes in the panel as well as Reagan Hognojos, he's a representative of , who is the victim's family in

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Midland, Texas. So we have a whole, a very strong set of panelists talk about how, how we can eliminate racism in the United States. And how can, and also how can we kind of help each other, how

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can help other groups, help each other, work together to eliminate racism in this country. And, and, and then this really kind of goes back to the message that I mentioned before

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that there's really, there's no room for hate, we should all stand together to, to see what we can do collectively to eliminate racism in the United States. So, so that's– that just, that happened a

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couple of, couple of days ago, you know, so we're kind of finishing up our campaign now. We've just been–I think we basically dispense all the meals that we want

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to dispense, you know, so we'll come into the end of the campaign, you know, but I think it’s been a—I mean there's still other campaigns going on, you know, to help the community, you know, so we'll get into help where we can but the main idea is what we wanted to

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really show what we can do as the Asian American community, to help the broader Houston community and, and, and also help us work together to eliminate racism.

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Yeah, that's so wonderful. We really appreciate your efforts in this pandemic. So I'm wondering like after so much involvement in these activities like how do you feel about Asian community or Asian

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American community in Houston or in the United States? Ah, I'm, you know, I'm very proud. Actually, I'm very proud of the Asian community, you know, how, how they really step up, you know, and do their

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part, you know, to help, whatever they can, you know, in either donation or, or working to–working to give out meals or visiting in hospitals, give out

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food to the–to the needy, you know, so, um, and, you know, I'm really, really glad to see, you know, the Asian community stepping up in, in this way. And I admit in that, like I mentioned, you know, that the

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total dollar amounts like over 3 million in the Houston area, which is, you know, which is really astounding, in my mind, that we donated so much money all together and show the generous nature of Asian Americans.

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And donate it to, to, to give back. And, you know, and then you know, it's and then so if people has been, you know, an Asian Americans been speaking up to, you know, in taking not just the,

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in taking the lead of these of these efforts and also speak up in terms of any they experience any anti- Asian incidents. You know, they've been speaking of it we've been kinda, there's a, there's a website

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national website where we kind of record obvious incidents, you know, so which is also good to see because one of the things that Asian American has always been reluctant to do is to, to speak up. And so,

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so I'm glad to you know that we are speaking up and also stepping out, you know, to help the community so I–I'm very proud That's great. So do you think this

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pandemic has amplified the racial conflicts? Because you mentioned– we mentioned the hate crimes against Asians, and also like, how African community or Latino community has been disproportionately affected by this pandemic, do you think

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this pandemic has like an unequal impact on different races or…? Yeah, sure. Oh, yeah.

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Yes. Yeah, definitely impacted the, the Asian American community, you know, and it's, it's very unfortunate, you know, that, you know, some people has attributed this virus, you

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know, as the Chinese virus, you know, and the words the actually a lot of the— most of the cases actually in the United States actually came from Europe, you know, great didn't come from China, you know, so

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it's really rather unfair to characterize that as the Chinese virus. And it also kind of give the impression that, you know, the, you know, Chinese and by association Chinese Americans and you know Asian

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Americans, you know, have them and they can pass them transmitted on to other people. And, you know, and that's the–that's–unfortunately that's the main–that's the main reason for the anti-Asian incidents that

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has occur, you know, because of these misconceptions about the virus itself. And, you know, I think it's a–it's a, it's–why in that course, it has, as you know, has affected the other

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groups you know, as well, especially the, and that may has affected the, you know, the lower socio- economic classes, you know, the more severely you know so. And and and also like we were referring

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that the higher proportion of African Americans has been affected with the virus and also. So and–and I think one of the now that's really unfortunate, and not only in our

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campaign Asian American Salute Campaign, we had intentionally tried to provide the meals to the Ben Taub and other hospitals which predominately serve African American communities to as a way to kind of

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make sure we take care of that population, you know, as well. And of course with African American community you know, the recent incidents with a George Floyd you know, that brought out

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the whole issue, you know, with a systemic racism with the African Americans and, and it was–this–it was good to see the population came out in support of the, support of George

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Floyd, against systemic racism. You know, I think that's good to see it's good to see diverse population coming out to support of George Floyd. Yeah, and so, what's a lot of yeah, a

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lot of, you know, the, I guess the racist incidents happened during this time. And, and also I think part of it too is the human nature, in the in the term, in the in times of turmoil, in terms of uncertainty, you know, then it kind of

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tends to bring out the worst in some people and, and that would cause, potentially cause racist incidents. And—Yeah, so I mean, we have so–we have, you know, the anti, you know, the, the racism against the Asian because the pandemic

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make it the racist incident against African Americans, you know, with the–with the–with the police, you know and so forth. So it's our, this is a the time—it's challenging

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times in a really challenging time for, for us all to come together to fight racism together and to, to see look at, to start from conversations, to see how we can eliminate the cause

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of the systemic racism against all groups, you know, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos, and of course, others as well. And so it's–so it's so the incidents are unfortunate but hopefully we can use this opportunity to come together

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and start a conversation and start addressing this deep root of cause of racism in United States. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so besides community work I'm wondering like what do you

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think individual we can do like in our everyday practice to combat this kind of racism? Ah, yeah, I think–I think that the probably a couple of things, you know, one is ready, one is ready to

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speak out. If you see any incidents, you know, a racist incidents, you know, speak out and bring, bring the attention to the matter. There's nothing like publicity, you know, to shame

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the perpetrators, and then there's a—I know the, in the Hollaback, which is a organization, national organization, they put out some free webinars on intervention training, you

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know, so you can take, you can–you can take this free one hour webinar, and–and see, you know the idea is really to how to de-escalate, you know, any–any

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potential incidents and the, the safely. I think that's the idea: how can we de-escalate a situation safely, without the, you know, anybody getting hurt. I think that's, that's the idea, you know, so, and that's

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the–so that's another thing that you know, the people can do is to, to look at, you know, how we can at least observe any incidents, how do you de-escalate situations, lower the tension you know and prevent

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from happening you know. So I think all of us you know can–can do that on a personal level you know we observe anybody say any racist remarks or making any

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racist gestures and it's uh we all should try to do point that out to see if we could address that you know in our everyday dealings you know. We all can you know we all can be courageous enough

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to speak up when we observe these incidents. I think that's a that's probably the most effective in trying to change the culture of overall, of overall of any any potential

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racism. Yeah, and I think those are probably the, the, the of course and then you know, and then on a on a group level, then you can always join, you know, the advocacy groups, you know, in, in like OCA or for

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Asian Americans in and now knowing the OCA, and OCA works with other advocacy groups of other communities to, to combat and racism you know, nationally you know. So so that's that's fine you know

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that's kind of the next step to, to see on national level. I know one of the things I forgot to mention actually you know, we actually as part of the in this, not as

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part of the campaign but a little separate from the–this campaign, we we we actually wrote a number of AAPI organization in Houston area. We wrote to DNC and RNC

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and all and, and, and and and ask them to to encourage their candidates not to race, use any racist rhetoric in their campaign. And as for example,

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there’s a candidate here in the Houston area would be using the anti-China platform as part of a campaign, you know. So we think that's, I think that's a, we think that's racist rhetoric.

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And, you know, we want all candidates regardless what party they belong to, to stop using any potential racist rhetoric as part of their campaign, for the campaign from now till the election season, you know, so, so that's another

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thing that we can kind of do to see anything, you know, that we find offensive, it's make sure we service that and get the–get to the right organization and ask them to address, address. Yeah, that's great.

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And I know—I think there's an idea that Asian community in the States tend not to be very active in political and social issues in the past. But now as you mentioned that you've seen so

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many Asians that start to stand out and speak up for these social injustice issue. So I'm wondering like, what do you think of this change?

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Like how do you see this will bring to the future of Asian community in the United States? Ah well, I'm ah, I'm ready, I guess encouraged by the, you know, by the activism

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of the–the young Asian Americans actually. So, because I'm seeing them, you know, the say the, the, say the second generation, you know, Asian Americans, you know, they–they actually

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they are more active than their parents, you know, and–and they, they feel the, the social, you know, injustice issue more deeply, and that they're more willing to get involved you now in.

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And I see a lot of, you know, the anti-hate hashtags, you know, the social media by the young Asian Americans. You know, I think that's, I think that's really great to see, you know, see the kind of the younger generation

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taking charge, you know, and making that the issues they willing to fight for. And it's, and I and the might, you know, I'm a, you know, I saw a recent article actually from, I

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think both Harvard and Yale students who wrote about the, the, I guess they took exception to their, the anti-black, anti-black feelings, I guess that parents have, and

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also they called, basically calling them out. So, you know, it's I think that's, you know, that's, that's good to see. Good to see because you really need the need the conversation and we need a conversation that

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between generations, you know, conversation within communities, conversation between communities, you know, and that's really the only way we can, you know, we can address that by–by having more dialogue, you

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know, instead of just shouting each other and with polarizing rhetoric. So, so–so I think that's, that's, uh, you know, that's one thing that I've found very encouraging from others, you know, is that the–the

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more, the more younger generation involvement, you know, and more dialogues, you know, that we're having, and–and I’ve seen a number of webinars in our town halls about this racism issue recently too, you know, so.

00:35:24.700 - 00:35:38.420

So all that is good, you know, I mean, all that fosters conversation, you know and improve understanding, you know, how can move forward on that. I guess you mentioned this a little bit, but since

00:35:38.420 - 00:35:54.800

you mentioned there seems to be a generation gap in the Asian community I'm wondering like, in what specific ways do you think we can bridge this gap between like the elder and the younger generation? Yeah, well, it's, I mean, that's uh, yeah, it's

00:35:55.360 - 00:36:10.050

a–it's a–it's a difficult issue. I think, the, you know, for the, for the, for the younger generation, they tend to, you know, they're, they tend to come without prejudices, I guess.

00:36:10.050 - 00:36:24.960

Right. So they, they tend to value everybody, you know, regardless what they look like and where they come from and what religions they pursue, you know, whereas the older generation,

00:36:24.960 - 00:36:39.180

you know, they come with a colored lens for the most part you know they from the country they come from, you know. And, you know, then culture you know, may, may have a, you know, systemic

00:36:41.860 - 00:36:57.300

racism against people of different color, or and for people who don't, don't don't look like them, you know. So, that's, that's a–that's more of a cultural. I think that was was a—it's more of a kind of a cultural stereotype,

00:36:57.300 - 00:37:15.440

I think in the sense. And then you know, it's a, it's a, it's a, it takes–it takes, takes the conversations, you know, between the, you know, the young and old, you know, to kind of

00:37:15.870 - 00:37:31.640

bridge, the bridge the gap. And, and also, I think it also helps to know what the, you know, for the older generation, you know, you–they, they are more willing, I guess to to,

00:37:31.640 - 00:37:48.010

to live, I guess, to live in a diverse neighborhood, diverse community, you know, and and I think that's, that also would, would help you know.

00:37:48.010 - 00:38:02.260

If you will even have, you know, have more friends, you know, who are different from you, you know, I've been a lot of the prejudices because the ignorance you know, on just, just the lack

00:38:02.260 - 00:38:18.840

of opportunity to interface with people who are different from you, you know, so the more, the more anyone can do, to reach out to the people who are different from me, either make friends with them, you know, or live

00:38:19.700 - 00:38:33.500

in their communities, you know, or, or interact with them, join groups that have people who are different from you, you know, so that’s, I think just, you know, you can encourage the, the older generation to,

00:38:34.010 - 00:38:51.090

to be willing to join association or groups that have a diverse population. I think that will help break down the, the, the prejudices and stereotypes against any particular group.

00:38:51.870 - 00:39:09.000

So that will be available I would suggest that's kind of a, you know, one step for the, for the older generation to become more accepting of people who are different. And then of course, you know, and then a lot of times they would, you know, their

00:39:09.000 - 00:39:25.930

kids about them, they're maybe the best ones to persuade them, you know, that the right and wrong of these–all these perceptions, you know, so I think yeah, it just, it's

00:39:27.490 - 00:39:46.190

a yeah, it's a, it's a, it's not that easy, obviously, you know, so it's gonna take time, but I think it’s people have to start trying, one at a time slowly. That's great. So what do you think the future of Houston community looks

00:39:46.190 - 00:39:59.250

like in terms of social interactions and returning back to normal? I guess, like, pandemic seems to be more severe here than before. So just wondering what do you think about this.

00:40:02.320 - 00:40:18.460

Yeah, I mean, it's a, I think this is the, the new normal, I guess, right. So you have to—I think something you have to get used to, you know I think this, it's

00:40:18.710 - 00:40:33.720

until we have the vaccine, you know, I think everybody's just have to be careful when you go out in public, you know, always make sure you wear masks, you know, and, and then practice social

00:40:34.340 - 00:40:49.560

distance. And then those are the most important I think everybody take care to, in a wear mask and social distance. I think we'll still have cases, you know, but I think the cases should be under control.

00:40:50.470 - 00:41:04.890

And, and then I think yeah, and then then for the most part, I will, I see people with the you know, it's probably do more business on virtually rather than in person, you know, until–until we have the vaccine.

00:41:07.620 - 00:41:26.140

And you have the and then there's a concern about the second wave, I guess in September, potentially in the flu, the flu season coming up, you know, so and is up to uh, I think just–I think we can still keep

00:41:28.750 - 00:41:42.780

open, keep open up the economy, keep the economy open, which is I think it's important. I think why don't keep the economy open to make sure that, the, the, the small

00:41:42.780 - 00:42:01.220

businesses and others you know, can still survive and employ people and, and keep the economy going. So everybody can is to have the livelihood you know, but we can do it safely. You know, practice social

00:42:01.260 - 00:42:16.850

distance and wearing masks. I think we can get through this, we can get through this. And then you know, and and hope the vaccine will come, you know, in a year or sooner,

00:42:17.380 - 00:42:34.420

you know that that's the, that'll bring us back to normal after that, hopefully. And so what will be like the direction of your future community service will you consider there will

00:42:34.420 - 00:42:52.410

be like a change of direction or yeah? Ah. No, I mean might, yeah, I don't think I want to change the direction, the big direction. I think the

00:42:52.460 - 00:43:09.810

big direction is still, you know, making sure the Asian Americans you know, are more engaged, you know, in our community, you know, it's, uh, you know, whether it's a, you know, whether it's civically or

00:43:09.950 - 00:43:24.670

politically, you know, or in or in business, you know. I mean, we, I think we just need more representation of Asian Americans, you know, we need to be at the table, whichever table that–that–that

00:43:26.320 - 00:43:41.770

you're at, and want to be at, you know, whether it's a you know, what, there is a corporate table, you know, when you know, we Asian American at the C suite levels, you know, we want to continue the push for Asian leadership positions, you know, in,

00:43:42.610 - 00:44:01.420

in private companies, you know, and of course, in in politically, you know, run for office, see more, we need more Asian American leaders, you know. And, and then it when in general you know we need

00:44:02.180 - 00:44:21.210

in more Asian American general is even more engaged, you know, in general and just make sure we make sure we participate you know in, in the, in different groups in the in community, you know, in the, in the Houston area,

00:44:21.440 - 00:44:36.200

make sure we are, make sure we are, we vote, you know, make sure we we engage and make sure we get the Asian Americans more visible, you know, overall in our, in our communities.

00:44:36.950 - 00:44:54.500

And, and, and, and then of course, the next getting more engaged, getting everybody more engaged is one, and then the other one is get more, you know, get more develop more Asian American leaders, you know, you know have

00:44:55.440 - 00:45:11.410

in either have, have courses, you know, all the some kind of leadership academy, you know, that's one of the things that we're looking at to see if we can have some kind of a leadership

00:45:12.090 - 00:45:27.730

academy to develop Asian American young leaders. That we have more leaders in the pipeline, you know, and we can potentially succeed in whatever field they choose to

00:45:27.730 - 00:45:45.040

do. You know, I think that's a that's kind of that goes hand in hand with trying to get them more engaged, you know, to make sure we have the other young leaders have the tools and skills, you know, they need

00:45:45.560 - 00:46:00.780

to, to do even more successful than we are now. Definitely. I guess my last question is if there are positive lessons out, learned out of this pandemic,

00:46:00.870 - 00:46:18.860

in your opinion, what are the important ones? Uh, yeah, I well, the positive lessons, you know, this, uh, you know, the go, I go back, you know, to, you know, what the my observations, you know, the, you know, the

00:46:19.690 - 00:46:35.720

two Midland heroes, you know, we have, you know, one, one is Caucasian and one is Hispanic and they came to aid of Asian American family, you know, and I just, that's, that's, that's just so important in terms for symbolic

00:46:35.720 - 00:46:54.290

importance that we are all Americans, you know, and then we, we will help each other, will help each other. Be kind to each other, you know, and, you know, we are definitely stronger if we all stand together, you know, as

00:46:54.440 - 00:47:10.500

Americans and and and no no biases, you know, against any particular one. You know, and that's what we are strongest as American, if all of us can kind of stand together.

00:47:12.310 - 00:47:25.520

Then that's, that's I think that's a, you know, that's, that's the, that's number one. And then of course goes along, goes along with that is the, in opportunity— we can use this opportunity to start

00:47:27.940 - 00:47:40.080

some conversations on how we can end racism in the United States. And that could be the silver lining. We can make some headway in

00:47:41.860 - 00:47:56.990

eliminating, eliminating racism in this country and make this a better place to live for everyone, regardless what we–wherever everyone comes from. So that's and then and then

00:47:57.680 - 00:48:13.340

the you know, the, the, the I think I was— there’s a the third item that I'm encouraged by is, is the fact that, you know, the Asian Americans have really step up,

00:48:13.710 - 00:48:31.810

you know, in helping the community overall during that pandemic, you know, by, by volunteering or giving money and, and helping, helping everybody you know, and not just ourselves.

00:48:33.100 - 00:48:52.970

That's, that's really the I think that's I think really encouraging trend because the Asian American has not, has not been known to really give back. We tend to be more

00:48:55.910 - 00:49:12.670

been a lot of times we tend to be kind of self- isolating, you know, so this is already a good sign. I think we're stepping out of our comfort zone, so to speak, and help others in the need, you know, yeah,

00:49:12.790 - 00:49:20.900

those are my observations. Cool. That's so wonderful. I guess this are my questions for today. Is there anything else you'd like to

00:49:20.900 - 00:49:37.060

add as final words? Ah, no, I think we cover a pretty wide range, you know, topics. Ah, yeah, I'm really glad that, you know, the you and Asian American Archive is doing this

00:49:37.060 - 00:49:54.630

work, to, to, to try to bring, bring attention, you know, to these matters that are important, you know, and make sure that we, everybody, you know, highlight people who do their part to help our community, you know, I mean, that's

00:49:54.630 - 00:50:09.680

important. You know just kind of as a way to record the things that the AAPI community has, has done and should be doing. I

00:50:09.680 - 00:50:22.290

mean, that's–that's all part of it. You know, I mean, we just, we need to kind of make sure will we do it and also make sure we, we record them and publicize them.

00:50:22.290 - 00:50:31.610

Yeah. I think that's, that's so, so, so important too. So thank you for your work. No problem. Thank you. Thank you to you for sharing your story today.

00:50:32.320 - 00:50:41.580

I really appreciate what you've done to our Houston community. Okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Bye. Talk to you later.

00:50:41.830 - 00:50:42.450

Okay, bye.