While we celebrate #MothersDay let’s also commit to keeping moms safe. I updated words I recently wrote about AAPI moms, many are victims of violence. Attackers target AAPI moms thinking they are vulnerable&weak. What they don’t know is that AAPImoms are strongest among us.THREAD
GRIT: I visited Atlanta last month to talk with children of spa shooting victims. They all said their moms were hardworking. Long hours, careful spending to save for family/retirement. One said mom “worked so hard to have it end that way.” Another said “She’s finally resting”2/10
ENDURANCE:Their powerful reflections hit me hard. When I was young, my mom worked night shift as hospital nurse so she could take care of sister and me during daytime. I asked her once when she had time to sleep. She said simply, “I don’t know.” Moms have superhuman strength.3/10
CARE: My mom told me about racist patients at the hospital who would yell hurtful words at her like “Go back to where you’re from!” Despite their hate, she would care for them. Bathe them, feed them, give them medicine, watch over them as they recovered.4/10
PROVIDER: Every time my mom comes over she has a large cooler full of food even when I tell her I don’t need anything. Fruits kimchi marinated KoreanBBQ. I thought about this when I saw this sign at shooting site saying one of victims, Hyun Jung Grant, made best kimchi stew.5/10
DEDICATION: Hyun Jung Grant was single mom survived by two boys who said she “dedicated her whole life to providing” for them. Said “She was “strongest influence on who we are today.” They buried her where she can “rest basking in a constant warmth of daylight.”6/10
RESILIENCE: Daughter of a Filipino woman attacked in NYC said mom has “always been a resilient role model.” She described heartbreaking moment when she heard her mom was brutally assaulted. She said she is hoping her mother makes full recovery.7/10
COURAGE: My mom told me funny story from when she moved to America. She grew up on a tiny farm in Korea and then found herself staring at NYC skyline. She worried about island sinking from sheer weight of big buildings. That sweet story shows how big of a change she endured.8/10
DRIVE: I actually cannot fathom what it was like for my mom to leave Korea 50 yrs ago for a continent where she knew not one soul. To go from remote farm to biggest of cities. She said she wanted to come because she dreamed of America. It represented something beautiful.9/10
Our moms raised a generation of tough AAPI children to stand up for our families. As we see the stabbing last week of two AAPI moms in San Francisco and the other acts of violence, that's exactly what we need to do. Stand up for our moms, all of our moms(END)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
When Lincoln was shot he wore a coat embroidered with “One Country, One Destiny.” I’ve turned to those 4 words to help me process this moment. This assassination attempt was one of the worst events I’ve seen in our democracy. It feels like we are a country unmoored…THREAD
I’ve never experienced a time more unpredictable yet with such generational consequence. So what does this particular moment mean? I remembered a passage in a book I read. “Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent.” 2/10
The deep unease we carry is in part the fact that we witnessed with the shooter one person trying to use the means of violence to impose their will upon a nation of 330 million and subvert the power of people that underlies our very democracy. 3/10
This month is 20 yrs since I started serving the country, first as an intern and now today I’m on the ballot to be the Dem nominee for Senate. I’ve been blessed to serve, working my way up from a desk in the photocopy room. But I always remembered my 1st lesson in service. THREAD
20 yrs ago, arriving at Union Station, I realized I didn’t know anyone else in the entire city of DC. I didn’t come from a political family or had any previous experience in DC except for a family trip or two. I was nervous. I felt out of place. I felt like I didn’t belong. 2/11
Who was I to think I could work in government? I am a son of immigrants, a public school kid. I made my way by metro lugging a big duffel to Foggy Bottom where I had a dorm room in George Washington University for the summer. 3/11
I first met @YaelBromberg, @bmpugach and Flavio Komuves just 5 months ago. While we talked, the gravity of what we were considering hit me. I asked them point blank, what’s our chance of winning a lawsuit against the political machine? Is this a Hail Mary or do we have a shot?🧵
The three of them didn’t flinch. They each took turns telling me why this was real. They embodied confidence yet humility. They were pragmatic and tactical while maintaining the hopefulness and courage one needs to take on NJ politics. 2/6
I explained to them how this would set off a massive firestorm. In some ways I wanted to make sure they were ready for it. But I realized when I talked that the three of them understood exactly what they were doing as they’ve been fighting this fight for years. 3/6
Politics in NJ is facing a real crossroads right now between elite control and power of people. The same leaders who gain political control through the county line on ballots are flexing to ram through a bill gutting OPRA and transparency. These problems are interconnected THREAD
Of all the things to fast track...leaders are spending time and capital reducing transparency. We have affordability, environmental, infrastructure challenges. It's a real prioritization problem to have a politics more interested in preserving/expanding their own control. 2/10
The actions yesterday of reportedly replacing a state Senator on a committee because he planned to vote against the bill shows how broken this process is. It gives the impression that individual lawmakers are irrelevant, and all that matters is what top leaders want. 3/10
The broken politics in New Jersey needs to end once and for all. Today I am filing suit and seeking an injunction to stop the corrupt county line system for this June 4 primary and to abolish it permanently going forward. 49 states use fair ballots; it’s time NJ does too. THREAD
Right now NJ allows a handful of party elites to give their handpicked candidates preferential placement on the ballot. This is a deeply unfair advantage that disenfranchises voters by applying undue influence and suppressing choice of candidates.
Voter disenfranchisement particularly harms candidates and voters of color. We’ve seen leaders from those communities - like NJ State Senators Shirley Turner and Troy Singleton - have the courage to take risk and come out to call for change. I’m grateful for their leadership.
Last week I was proud to be endorsed by College Democrats of NJ, but I found out the terrible backstory that shows how Jersey politics is broken. The college students were pressured and threatened to not endorse me. Good thing they recorded the call. Here’s what happened…THREAD
Prior to the endorsement announcement, someone who works for the state Democratic Party told student leaders that endorsing me could affect their future job prospects and their org’s funding. The student leaders felt threatened and recorded the call. 2/9 nytimes.com/2024/01/14/nyr…
I read the transcript of the call pressuring @NJCollegeDems to not endorse me. This line stood out to me:
“I also think there’s a very clear candidate here who should be representing the state. However, the powers that be do not want that candidate to be representing.”
3/9