Thread by @christineychen

[LONG THREAD 🧵👇] I want to tell you about my grocery store, the King Soopers in Table Mesa that is less than a mile from my home in #Boulder. I walk there. I bike there. I drive there. I shop there.

It may be part of a large grocery store chain, but it's very much a neighborhood store. My husband was just there on Friday for our weekly food run. I popped in on Saturday. Yesterday, I biked with my 5 y.o. to the bagel place in the same shopping center to pick up breakfast.

It is impossible to leave my neighborhood without passing this store. It’s right at the intersection of several residential areas. In pre-covid times, I’d go several times a week. During covid, I go weekly. It’s where I get essentials: food for the family, and Rx for me.

Within two miles of this grocery store, there is a major university, #CUBoulder, two high schools, two middle schools, and four elementary schools, including a Montessori half a block away. There’s a senior living center across the street. A couple churches within a block.

I know at least 6 people who were in this grocery store sometime today. Families shop there. The elderly shop there. College students shop there.

People who head in and out of Boulder shop there -- because it’s the southernmost grocery store within city limits, it’s near to the highway to Denver, and right by the highway heading towards the big ski resorts in the mountains.

It’s impossible to go there without running into someone you know. I run into my neighbors. I run into my friends. I run into my brother, @eatbitter, and my sister-in-law. I sometimes run into my teenage nephew, who skateboards over there with his buddies to pick up snacks.

This King Soopers is a place that employs multiple people with developmental disabilities who help bag groceries and round up carts.

In a town where, as a person of color, you are often the “only”, it’s a place where I know I will see both workers and customers of multiple races every single time I go in.

It’s a place where I see all the workers treat each other and all customers with dignity and respect. These essential workers continue to show up every day and put their lives on the line during a pandemic so we can eat.

It’s a place where one of my best childhood friend’s dad worked for decades. An elderly acquaintance of my family still works there.

It’s the place where one of the pharmacists informed me, a couple weeks ago, that I was already eligible for a covid vaccine when I thought my turn wasn’t up yet. Because of her, I got my shot.

It’s the place where I went on Saturday morning to get a balloon for our 5 y.o. neighbor’s birthday. The kind young man at the registry for the florist cheerfully waited while I tried to make up my mind whether to get a gold mylar “5,” a silver mylar “5,” or five latex balloons.

It’s the place where I got cookies for free when I was a kid, and where my own kids get free cookies too -- or at least they used to, pre-pandemic. I used to ride the mechanical horses there for a penny when I was a child. And now my kids have, too.

The reason I’ve known this store for so long is I grew up in Boulder in the 80s. I left when I finished high school, and moved back a couple years ago.

I chose this neighborhood because my grandma and some cousins used to live here, two blocks from this store. My 4’9” Taiwanese immigrant grandma used to shop in this store.

I knew this could be a home for me, too. It was safe.

But it never really was safe, was it? Today a gunman with an assault weapon walked right in and murdered 10 people in cold blood.

Among the dead is a police officer, Eric Talley, with seven children ranging in ages from 7 to 20. May he rest in peace. We will learn more about the other nine people as their names are released. May they rest in peace.

I am afraid to hear the other names being released. This is not a big city. This is not a big town. This is not a big community.

My family is physically safe today. Ten families in this community cannot say the same. The devastation is unfathomable.

This King Soopers is right by my home, but I was not at home when these murders took place. I was 10 miles away, where I had brought my children to see my parents for a visit.

I wanted to tell my parents, face to face, that they needed to be more careful when they go out. As elderly Asians, it is not safe for them to be in their skin out in America right now. #StopAsianHate

My Black friends have “The Talk” with their kids. Today I had “The Talk” with my parents. #StopAsianHate

So I told my parents to be extra careful when they go to the grocery store. And then an hour later, I told my young children that something unsafe was happening at our grocery store. I told them I would keep them safe. I pray I can keep my promise.

It also doesn’t feel especially safe for me to be in my own skin in America right now either. Only six days ago, six Asian women were gunned down in Atlanta. Two mass shootings in a week.

The psychological and emotional burden that I, and most other Asian women I know, have been carrying around this past week is indescribable. #StopAsianHate

We finally drove home this evening after I’d heard the area had been secure, but I didn’t realize that the area would still be so locked down so widely.

From the car, we saw hundreds of officers and police cars. We saw SWAT vehicles, with multiple armed men hanging off the sides of trucks. In #Boulder.

My children saw this from the car. My 7 y.o. son said to me, “Mommy, I’m scared.” I think he was afraid we wouldn’t find our way home. My 5 y.o. daughter said, “It’s dangerous out there.”

I had to do gymnastics with my car around all kinds of residential streets to find a route around the blockade. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.

We made it home. I am physically safe. I’ve been hugging my family extra tight tonight.

But I am not OK. We are not OK. No one is OK. This is America. This is America.

@threadreaderapp please unroll.