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Today is May 9, 2020 and we are here with Mr. Keiji Asakura, who has very kindly offered us some time to speak with us about his experiences during COVID-19. And at this time we have

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just opened up Houston a week; and it was two weeks after— I mean two months after the initial start of the pandemic. Yeah. So a lot of things have changed.

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So, Mr. Asakura, what has changed for you in your daily life? Can you share with us? Um,

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well, I mean, I spend most of the time at the house. Yeah. Routine includes modest exercise, usually walk around the neighborhood.

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What special is about that is that I got to know some of the neighbors that I haven't seen. Little kids and, and teenagers even that I've never knew that they were,

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you know, they're in the neighborhood. So that's positive side. So because you know, when you’re in these modern times, it's hardly you hardly know your neighbors.

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And this time you begin to recognize your neighbors because they're also out walking around and riding bicycles and stuff like that. So that's– that's been a very interesting discovery

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for me. And my wife and I, we just the two of us, we spend a great deal of time thinking about what to eat. That's very important. It is important and in a way that because we

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decided not to shop often, because every time you go to the grocery store, it's a quite an ordeal just to get the mask on and put gloves on and things like that. So we...

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And it seems like staying in line to get into stores and it's getting a little crazy. So we try to limit ourselves going to stores; so we have to really plan ahead about what you might want to eat in a week or 10 days, so.

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So and yes spending more time with–with–with my wife, I think it's important. Another thing that changed as far as a routine wise is that I seem to work

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longer hours now. Because, well, first of all, I'm not used to spending so much time in front of the computer; and all of a sudden I am and I get to, I'm

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being invited to many of these Zoom meetings, one after another, sometimes two at same time; and, and so I have, uh, I have to make sure one is muted, and so on and so forth.

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It's– it's a learning opportunity. But also because of this, I learned that communit–communicating with oversea families and friends a little bit easier, because they're

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also used to getting on Zoom. So just a matter of adjusting the time. I have a daughter in England. So talking to her over Zoom, or actually

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we communicate on– on the little app called WhatsApp and then saw my friends and in other other places, so it is interesting. I wonder in the

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future, I think about how this experience will change how we– how we communicate. Yeah, those are some of the highlights of my– my daily routine experience in last couple of months.

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Sounds great. I do miss traveling however, I think, you know, going to places and seeing something. I– I kind of missed that part of it. I wish we could we could start doing that again.

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Yeah, it definitely changes a lot of our habits. We are forced to use some technology more, which we're not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. But yeah, and...

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I mean, thank you so much for responding to our survey in such details. I picked up that you mentioned you garden a lot these days.

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Oh, I forgot that. We do. Yeah, growing some vegetables out there. We're, we're making—

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we haven't gone to a garden store. I do have a long list once I feel up to it, I'll probably go to the garden store and get some material.

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But doing a lot of cleanup work, a lot of pruning. I find it very satisfying to do, prune here and there. And we do have a gardener that comes every

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Thursday and by the time he comes every Thursday, there's not a whole lot for him to do now. You picked up a new side job. And then because it's a springtime you have different things flowering.

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It is enjoyable. My morning routine is get a cup of coffee. I have a morning check in with the rest of my– my colleagues at the office.

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So I usually sit outside and open up a computer, and– and talk to them and it's really refreshing, to be able to do that outside, and be in the garden. Well, I felt like you must be the one

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with the coolest background in the garden. I wouldn't say that, I wouldn’t say that. But we're, you know, it's– it is still enjoyable to see some change, and flower.

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You know, we might be locked up in the house but seem like other– other species on earth, this earth is enjoying the spring and, you know, flowering and doing things that's really reassu— It's reassuring that

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nature happens around us regardless of what we're going through. Mhm. And so how are some of the habitual changes. You said, you definitely cook more,

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garden more, do some of the things that we used to outsource ourselves. Do you think these habits will stay in the longer run? I don't know. That's a good question.

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Would they stay? You know, I wish habit like walking the neighborhood and see our neighbors doing the same, I wish that will continue.

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You know, always this sort of the time of these hardships whether this—this Coronavirus or the time of like we had Harvey hurricane. There, there's something that happens around you in the neighborhood

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and the communities that's really reassuring like that. You know, people really care about each other. And I know it happened after 9/11. All these sort of things.

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I wish that will continue and then strengthen over time. But I know in the past when things got normal and everybody got busy and they get in the car and zip around everywhere; we tend to forget

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that again, but it, this is something that I wish that people would remember. And stay connected. I think it's really

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important. Though, that yeah, that's– that– that's something that I wish. Yeah. Definitely. Would… You mentioned about having the luxury of

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a garden, what would you feel, like that inspired you about the relationship human beings have with the nature, for example? Or let

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me rephrase this, for instance... Or, just thinking how the pandemic in general will reflect, I mean, reflect about our relationship with the nature.

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Well, there are a number of thoughts that I have about this. One I was just talking to a friend of mine this morning about— you know, this Coronavirus threat will be temporary or be

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gone and, and, and... but I said, "Well, I'm not really sure as we look at overall threat that we have, which is about the climate change and how the

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climate change changing rise of temperature globally, shifts the sort of the natural system where animals and plants are threatened." No, every– every single day we lose

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species— different, different species. That like since 1970s, the 30% of the bird population has declined in America, because of the

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loss of habitat, and largely to do with the human activity but also with the climate change. Come— the loss of habitat comes with changing behaviors and animal

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kingdom and such that we, the relationship between people and animal changes; and that's probably one of the reason there's transmission of the disease from the animal kingdom to us that caused

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this Coronavirus. And I would say that could happen more often because of climate change, temperature rise, the loss of habitat. So, I think

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that we have to be very cognizant about that. What would happen as you know thermal frost in– in the Siberia start to melt and other places and what happens to the

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unknown viruses and stuff like that, that's locked in those permafrost, as they– as they melt and, and then perhaps get transmitted? What are some of the dangers in that?

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I mean, I would imagine there are lots of unknowns about, about– about what we don't know about our relationship with nature today as the climate warms and– and changes.

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But still, you know, the nature, understanding the nature I think it's really been outside, and– and to know that, that there's nature all around although it's the pristine nature of,

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you know, big national parks or whatever. But even in urban area, there is trees and birds, and there's the nature around this. That it's a recognition

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that– that we are part of the nature; and that we're not apart from the nature. And then if we were, if we were harming the nature, in a way we're changing the nature, by,

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from carbon mission or, or– or taking, burning down the trees, or– or if we harm nature that– that is going to harm us; and that certainly is the case here.

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And understanding the sustainable sort of the way in which we can coexist within nature, I think it's really, really important. So, you know, I mean, a lot of thoughts about what's– what's going to be in the future when,

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when, in the last last 50 years or so, the trends bend that the population is being concentrated into the cities and urban areas; and now the urban areas are dangerous in the sense that these close

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relationships are, you know, with– with, with urban vitality still continue to be the way you want to be, or is that going to change? How's that dynamics of all that change?

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I mean, I wonder about, about our relationship with the, with our cities, and then also with nature. So obviously, I

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don't have an answer. It's a great answer. That's very revelational about many of the things that we should start thinking about like, the unfreezing of the, the, Antarctica, and the other continents— Tibetan

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was having some of the viruses in the frozen land that's been released. In any case... And then... Yeah. And then, so the between urban and rural relationship

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where everybody stays in where everybody came to urban areas in last 50 years, and where the economic growth was sort of important. What we learned through this Coronavirus, and our

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relationships, and then use of technology, the digital technology such as Internet, how would a rural area change in the political divide that happens in the United States or other areas between

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rural and urban... with this learned our behavior today, we change that dynamics. And that dynamics also exist all over the world, whether it's in China or in Japan

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or in Africa, sort of the rural and urban population, the... that widening gap of inequity and income and all that.

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Would this cause us to change where for the rural lives are uplifted; and urban life has changed and such that we still enjoyed urban life. But as we learn

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how to live in, in a closer kind of distance wise, but still stay safe. We don't know. We don't know. We, we want.

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We love our cities. We want some of the good things to continue, but maybe we learn something different and new behavior the same way the rural area, maybe we could spread the wealth. In such way that– that we

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recognize some of the good things about being in the rural area closer to nature. Who knows? Yeah, very good thinking. So would you think after this pandemic, would more rural and

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more spread-out cities like Houston or Texas in general, will become like... what kind of changes will we look forward to? Well, obviously, you know what we heard about New York City and

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Chicago and some of the denser cities and the issues with that. Even in Houston, we have— yeah, we have a probably greater distance in statistics wise and in relationship

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between people; but still, it's not a rural kind of a density. Would Texas be the better? I don't– I don't know what, what would make it safer for

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everybody? How we keep sort of the creating the dynamics of the city life and even in less congested area? What are options for transportation in a less crowded area?

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I mean, if we continue to rely on in each individual automobile, which is based on fossil fuel, well, that's not good. How can we save our

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investment in public transportation? How should the public transportation change and in a way, avoid close contact? I mean, all of those are big, big

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questions. We'd be able to change our behavior so that we, we respect other people's sort of the spaces? I don't know.

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I don't, I, I wouldn't. I would not say whether Texas is better than New York or New York City is better than Houston. I really can't say that.

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But I'm just hoping that there is a greater way and diversifying where we live and how we live. Maybe that's the answer.

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Because that, perhaps the... this technology like we're on the Zoom conference; and as we learn to be, be able to behave like we have in the past

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and the cities through virtual means maybe that would, that would really open up options for us to be in a different places, but not physically separated.

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But that, but we're still, you know, close together in ideas and thoughts. Maybe that's– that's the, that's the answer. And then therefore, spreading sort of the wealth distribution

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more equally through rural and urban areas. You know, a lot of—and that has to do with the farming and agricultural production

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and when you look at it, and those um, you know, we have a lot of issues about people who used to be able to make living in the rural areas, especially in South border like in Mexico or Central

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America or even in South America, how those people lost their jobs because the more industrialized farming that really reduces their income and they're no longer be competitive and

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they're forced to look for work and in urban areas in less than ideal environment; and some of course is subject to urban violence, and that's why they have to come to that the

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to make this long, dangerous trip to to the United States looking for jobs. All of that dynamics needs to be looked at as a– as a part of the overall, and how we, we

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can really you know, re-engineer our world in a way. It seems like to me with all this after this pandemic or the

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during this thing. All of the governments and central banks all over are eager to spend the money to re... you know,

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restart the economy and they're, you know, making sure that everybody's employed. Huge amount of money being spent. And then, and this is sort of the one time in our lifetime that this sort of global effort is to get the economy

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going. I just hope that with that money, we're not just spending money for the sake of spending money, but we spend the money to make sure that wealth is spread equally in a way we could, we could re-engineer our

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system in such that we, we, we provide a more sustainable world. Clean up our trash, so on and so forth. We've been talking about for all these years that maybe we could certainly apply

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our effort and money to do it right. And seem like, at least then I feel in– in that, this– this is it! We just need to do this.

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We may not have this chance ever again. And we should. In a world needs to get together, not just the United States, but in Europe and Asia and Africa and South America.

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We all have to kind of get together and find a way and... But then unfortunately, there's this sort of the trend of the nationalist ideas whether it's in the United States or Philippines or Hungary.

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I mean, all of that. I mean, those selfishness set aside and I wish the world would get together and find solutions that will move us forward, because we may not have a second chance.

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Well, that's very inspiring to get us— yeah, moving. Like I heard this saying a lot, that don't waste any— don't waste a single crisis. There's something that can reveal about us and get us

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to do something. And yeah, that's definitely... You also mentioned that the kind of uprising of Asian American xenophobia

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and racism, we should do something about it. What do you think? Right. It's this deep-seeded racial tension. It's really really sad, really sad.

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You know, on the one hand Asians are considered as a model immigrant; but at the same time as Asian could never be Americans; in other words, they

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always see us as a– as a foreigner. Although, you know, Asian history in America goes, you know, nearly

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150 close to 200 years of Asian history in America. No, actually maybe I don’t know, exactly 100 and you probably know better from– from the middle of 19th century to now.

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So, yeah, people consider us as a foreigner in many ways. And that's really, that's really sad. How do we move forward?

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You know, we need, we do need to move forward. We need to have a recognition that this America, this country is– is a country of immigrants that we have.

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We have all– all kinds of people; we have all races, all colors represented. You know, as they used to say that this is a melting pot, but now we know that this is more like a mixed salad.

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You know, it's... yeah. Melting pot means that everybody becomes a... but no! We're not, we're not the same.

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We're, we have individuals, we have individual cultures, and we all celebrate, and they're a mixed salad. Every bite of it is a tasty little thing, you know, and we need to, to kind of enjoy that, if that

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makes us very unique, unique country with this union of diverse culture and people and... how do we move forward with that?

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I.... On one hand I could be hopeful like when we– when I see people walking in our neighborhood, I see all kinds of people, and hopeful that the future is like that. I'm hopeful for my– my own

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daughters and their generations, and how– how– how they see each other. But still deep-seeded racism is troubling just like— just the most recently

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forgot which state it was that, this black man was jogging through the neighborhood and he was shot by these two guys. How do you deal with that? Or, or I know there was a Singaporean man in London

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who was attacked by mobs. I mean, how do you— how do you see that? You know, we're... I don't know, I'm not a religious man but gosh, we've been, you know, it—

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this sort of the way that people judge each other in differences, that– that goes all over the place. I mean, I see that kind of a judgmental way people look at other people all over the world.

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The ethnic fighting in, in, in, in Africa, to these balances in Europe, and the long history of kind of a— fights and

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disagreement in Asia. I mean, gosh, do we have— did we have enough of this already? Can we just— can we just call it, call it it? Just don't talk about, yes, knowing the history is important.

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But then don't hold any grudges. Let's start from, from today. I don't know. Do you think we can do that? Maybe not as

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human species we're just not... There's– there was an interesting documentary I saw this. In the Ethiopia there are two different types of monkeys.

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One, that they are one– one monkeys are vegetarians in large and they don't fight with each other at all; the other one, they fight constantly within the species.

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So which one do we get our DNA from, you know? Yeah, like it's talking about the habitual, we do see that people are having more

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preference on vegetarian food these days as well indeed. News talked about infections in meat factories. Well, you know, the industrial meat production is– is something that we also have

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to look at and said, Is this really sustainable? Is this something that we have to do? Is this about feeding or what? It's, you know,

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what are we eating? We, in the name of economy and efficiency, we just sacrifice certain aspect of the food that we eat. What, what it means to be part of the nature in

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terms of what we eat, what we need to thrive on. So maybe that– that is, that's something, that's something that, you know, we need to think about the... Yes, it's important that we, we can feed

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all the people in the world, but maybe we need to look at that, you know, we need to really think about what we eat, and how we, how we grow those things. So

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yeah, I'm all for more vegetables. That's, that's what my mother said, eat more vegetables. Right. Keeps you healthy and sane. Right, you were speaking about the

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more social justice in this crisis, at some... you also supported the homeless, in getting them, like the hygiene products and the food they need. Can you share with us more about that?

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So we are involved in a couple of organizations and we support them, both financially and different activities. So homelessness is

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something that we could do something about— whether about the affordable housing and economic wealth distribution; or about the men–mental illness in our society, then both of those areas is something that we really, really need

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to improve in our society. Just the way we build our cities and our homes and our systems; and then just– just to

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pure kind of our way we segregate or we– we shy away from this mental illness itself is not good. It's a disease just like cancer or anything else.

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The mental illness is something that we need to deal with. And then, and then affordable housing is something that I'm really passionate about how you provide affordable housing, but then root of all that is really

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about job security and, and income distribution and eliminating poverty. I think that, you know, it's really crazy that, that rich people

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have so much wealth in this country, in other countries as well and that seems to me that there is something went wrong, in– in– in the way we structured

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our society and way we envisioned our economy, economic growth and the way the stock market grow. Maybe that may be a good news but increasing number of homelessness and people

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on property that's not a good news. That's not good news at all. I mean, ever we have to somehow see everybody in our society has equal

00:34:03.440 - 00:34:21.640

opportunities to be able, to able to live, and in– in a secure way. Healthcare that's another thing that I don't understand the, this country why.

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There's so much resistance in, in people having the same access to healthcare. We spend more money per capita on healthcare; yet we're really

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way behind compared to other countries and providing secure their health, security, food security, all of that. As a small business owner, you know, the single most biggest expense in our business next

00:34:58.030 - 00:35:15.180

to payroll is providing for healthcare insurance. And when I know that our healthcare insurance cost is a lot higher than some of the bigger companies where they could really deal with a bigger pool of people.

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It... as much as we talk about how the small companies that provide jobs in this country, employ more people. Why? Why is it not an

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even playing field? If you are, if I were in a different country where the— where that sort of healthcare is provided in a different way, that's at least, that's one thing I don't have to worry

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about. I can concentrate on what I do as a businessman, or what I do as a professional rather than every year think about– about shop for the right insurance and provide for our employees.

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It's to me, it's crazy to me, because everybody needs good healthcare— everybody, not just– just people, that people it's not a choice. In a way, then it seems like to me just like a national

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security that the government provides the healthcare, guaranteeing healthcare is something the government should be able to do so. So that's true with securing— food security for all people and

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in the homes for, for everybody. And it seems like to me, it's a, it's a collective responsibility all of us. I, yes, we talk about

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individual freedom in this country and the freedom and we talk about freedom, and freedom, and freedom. But the other side of the freedom is this responsibility, the collective responsibility, you

00:36:59.560 - 00:37:15.560

know, in Asia, as a Confucian societies that we love the under in China or Korea or Japan. You know, emphasis is about collective responsibility, you know, we're all together. So it's a little bit

00:37:15.560 - 00:37:28.060

different. I wish maybe the blend of two is what is needed. We need to talk more about Collective Responsibilities. Responsibility among families, that's really, that's the

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respect for the others. That's what– what sort of the Asian philosophy is. And I wish maybe we need more of that here. Maybe that's our role as Asian American is to making sure that

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we our family values that— again, I'm just stereotyping that I, maybe that's not the right thing to do; but– but the all those are the ideas that as Asians kind of grow up, and

00:37:58.250 - 00:38:09.840

maybe those are some of the ideas that we should really talk about more, in– in this country. Maybe we should elect more Asian American politicians who could really talk about those issues

00:38:12.060 - 00:38:25.590

in Washington, DC or state legislature houses. Yeah, definitely. We see those countries like Singapore, Taiwan, with the more— and China too— the more collective mindset...

00:38:27.470 - 00:38:41.910

Yeah, yeah, it is more collective, you know, some more a lot of Americans that sees that as a stifling socially because, you know, there's too many, too, too much control. It's big brother

00:38:41.910 - 00:38:52.240

controlling everything. Well, that may be so. So we just have to strike a better balance between freedom of choice.

00:38:54.300 - 00:39:09.990

And, and but then we're also collective responsibility that really equals to some equality in happiness.

00:39:10.040 - 00:39:26.240

I think that's what it comes down to is to be happy as an individual. We have a ability like access, that's something that, we– we have to do as a citizen. We have to vote, those are responsibility that we fulfill.

00:39:26.890 - 00:39:39.740

And then we need to define more responsibility as we, as you know, in education, we need to, need to talk about that just like what JFK, John F.

00:39:39.770 - 00:39:55.960

Kennedy talked about. You know, he said, you know what he said is, of course, "Ask not what the government can do for you, but it's ask what you can do for government." Meaning, it's not all about handouts, but this is the

00:39:55.960 - 00:40:06.560

government is about us. It's, it's the ideal, that– that– that the people has to contribute.

00:40:07.130 - 00:40:22.020

And that is– that it's a little bit different than perhaps the Asian way of collective responsibilities, but nevertheless we need to all fulfill that maybe

00:40:22.020 - 00:40:40.780

that's how– how the society gets better. That's, that's the direction we're headed. So, coming back to the more kind of ma- micro relationships, how have the relationship

00:40:40.890 - 00:40:56.020

between yourself and the society has changed? Like during quarantine, we are forced to share space, like every moment, with our loved one. And you also mentioned that you have been

00:40:56.480 - 00:41:11.380

meeting your neighbors more than before. And we are also connected by tech- technology a bit more than before. So do you see that we're more connected as a human being, or you're… the

00:41:11.380 - 00:41:28.450

other way? Um… Well I don’t know that more, well-connected or better connected today than before. I don't know, that's a hard one to know.

00:41:29.480 - 00:41:43.850

It's certainly face-to-face. Seeing people, shaking their hands, hugging… To me all of that is so, part of the human nature, that necessity and how we

00:41:45.580 - 00:42:02.930

construct social togetherness. So definitely that's– that's missing, so that but maybe we learn to communicate. Okay, like I said, I know I've talked to my

00:42:02.930 - 00:42:21.100

friends overseas more now, and that says so maybe we learned something here that we, we are better connected in the sense. I do worry, however, that connected in what's that,

00:42:23.170 - 00:42:41.380

social media. And I hear a lot about what would cure a virus, or you should do or you shouldn't do; and this huge amount of the

00:42:41.380 - 00:42:56.370

misinformation that coming out, and read everyday, on the social media is really despair. Just like how social media has influenced that ideas about– about what's good and what's bad, and

00:42:56.400 - 00:43:12.780

how, how the– how our– how our own visions about who, who your neighbors are, who your friends are. It's, it's a really ugly side of that side of that social media and

00:43:12.780 - 00:43:26.650

connections that we made. I wish there was some better answers for that. Because it really brings the really bad side of human nature.

00:43:26.680 - 00:43:46.290

It's like hating each other, creating enemies out of some small little things, rather than seeing us as together. So that might be a outcome of Coronavirus.

00:43:46.700 - 00:43:57.250

After we have to deal with, are we– are we really together as a, as a community, or are we apart. Because of these misinformation.

00:44:00.670 - 00:44:12.440

So that would be it, I mean this is the election year I guess we'll, we'll hear about it a little bit more as a as a country open up in some of these. Some of these activities come up.

00:44:12.510 - 00:44:29.020

I mean you know you've seen those news where everybody's punching each other over whether you wear a mask or not. I mean how crazy is that it's just, you know, in Asia everybody wear masks.

00:44:29.190 - 00:44:48.060

You know, it's, it's, I've never seen any man fighting over that. Yeah, we have to wear a mask. We have a consideration for others and that's why we wear a mask. So, again, that may be that root cause of that is this for the individual freedom

00:44:48.060 - 00:45:07.490

versus what is collected responsibility, and that's that, each individual has to has to fulfill I, I don't know, in how the social media fits into it. And I'm really afraid that all the news that's coming out that

00:45:08.570 - 00:45:23.250

largely the victim of this Coronavirus bias. Really accentuates our, our deep-seeded social problems of poverty. People who are more affected by the virus, people are,

00:45:25.420 - 00:45:41.110

has to work in an environment that they are more exposed. And we need to ask big, big tough questions for ourselves. Is this really the society that we're, we're making

00:45:41.770 - 00:45:57.890

collectively as a, as a larger whole or people say, well, you know, my world is different where they're just subdividing, our world into small bits and pieces and said you know I don't care about what people do on that side

00:45:58.030 - 00:46:15.630

or this side. Again, going back to what I said about climate change and so that is that I think that coming out of this. This is only an actual like only

00:46:15.630 - 00:46:29.730

and last chance that we can make a– make a real big contribution to make it right. Kinda like what, what's her name out of Sweden. I forgot

00:46:29.730 - 00:46:44.980

her name all of a sudden. Yeah well, she’s not a little anymore. But, you know… She, um… Grunberg. Yeah, I forgot her first name.

00:46:46.330 - 00:47:05.320

Anyway, she says, "action is necessary." The right is necessary. We had enough to talk about. But we have to come together as a world. Yes. All the pettiness aside.

00:47:08.360 - 00:47:22.270

Yeah, just to piggyback on what you said regarding the fake news and misinformation from social media. It seems like what we are experiencing the information input, the feeding has kind

00:47:22.270 - 00:47:35.660

of been one-way through technology, and it's definitely sounding like one of the “Black Mirror” episodes that a lot of our mindset can be manipulated through tech- technology.

00:47:38.190 - 00:47:54.810

We are the victim of the technology, or we are going to use this technology to better our lives and, and become happier people. Yeah. So that's all of my questions, so

00:47:54.890 - 00:48:10.110

far. I was just wondering if you have anything you'd like to share that I haven't touched. As far as Asian Americans are concerned, I think that, yeah, we should be more confident

00:48:10.170 - 00:48:26.380

about our heritage. When I say confident, I don't mean that to force our heritage on others; but I think we should be proud of our heritage I say that, that's a better word.

00:48:30.820 - 00:48:44.270

You know, we should be, we should be, we should contribute more to our society. Let's make our country— United

00:48:44.330 - 00:49:03.360

States, this place our community— Houston, a better place. Let's, let's really contribute, in a way, we know how as a, as a Asian American has this really past learning

00:49:03.360 - 00:49:19.580

and culture, that could bring a better unity for people in our city in our country. I think that's our contribution that we can make. And we should assert that and say, you know,

00:49:20.310 - 00:49:34.520

this is how we see it. And, and I think we should have more dialogues about that, or dialogues for Asian American

00:49:34.520 - 00:49:52.400

who, who, you know, from, from “Chinese Exclusion Law” to “Japanese Americans Internment” in– in World War II, we have gone through lots of hardship about, we know something about

00:49:52.720 - 00:50:12.650

this. And we should, we should, we should really say that, there is as a group of people we stand for, the freedom of people and ideas; but at the same time we work hard to, to uphold our

00:50:12.650 - 00:50:33.670

collective responsibilities. I think we need to say that out loud. So that we need to stand against wall in the southern– southern border, we don't want exclude people; we are all

00:50:33.670 - 00:50:48.260

immigrants, we work very hard. And, you know, there were times when we were segregated because we carry disease, all of that sort of things.

00:50:49.790 - 00:51:05.590

And we need to stand up, and, and really voice our ideas that, that is not right. And I know that sometimes, we will in our communities

00:51:05.590 - 00:51:21.110

there are differences. Somehow we forget history about what we went through as a, as a group of people. And I think we need to really

00:51:23.690 - 00:51:44.770

stand together and make our voices heard. Definitely and thank you for your contribution to the Asian— Houston Asian American Archive, and your effort in helping the homeless fight the Coronavirus as one of your, your many

00:51:45.580 - 00:51:58.980

contributions. I'm just one person, you know. Yep. Yeah, we hope the society will be better with many people like yourself. Great. Thank you.

00:51:59.170 - 00:52:05.220

Say hi to Anne Chao. Definitely I will! Alright.