Resolution Recognizing the Contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May. Councilor Arroyo in the Chair. On motion of Councilor Flynn, the rules were suspended; the resolution was adopted.
05930593. Counsel of Flynn offer the following resolution Recognizing the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May. Thank you, Mr. Clarke. The chair now recognizes. Councilor Flynn. Councilor Flynn, you have the floor. Thank you. Thank you. Counsel. Royal counsel, royal counselor Fernando Fernandez Anderson as an original co-sponsor. Seeing no objection, she is now added. Thank you. Many, many know that I represent the largest AAPI community in Boston. Mostly in Chinatown, but also in the South End in itself, Boston as well. Outside of my district, we have a vibrant Vietnamese community that's in council, a baker's district. Um, and Councilor Braden also has a large Korean community as well. And council has a large AAPI community, as do other councilors. There's a large Cambodian community outside of Boston, up and up in Lowell. Um, over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend. The Asian Jade Banquet, which is a celebration of Asian police officers throughout New England. And they came together and talked about the important role of Asian and Asian-American police officers that play in our cities and towns. And they do an exceptional job. But I always come back to. A story that I have said several times. But when the Chinese community first came to the United States. They helped build the United States, literally with the transcontinental railroad. And Chinese laborers along with Irish laborers. Connected the East Coast and in the West Coast, and they connected up a bit outside of Salt Lake City. And there's this there's a famous photo of kind of a ribbon cutting ceremony completing completing the railroad. And there's about 200 people in one of these old photos. And of the 200 people, there's not one Asian person in the photo, even though they practically built and built the railroad. And after that, after completing the railroad, what did the U.S. government do? We enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. What Chip scored in Chinese from coming to the United States was the first time that the United States intentionally excluded an ethnic an ethnic group from coming in here. We also during the during World War Two, we imprisoned Japanese Americans, mostly out in the West Coast, in California, in some other some other states as well, even though they were born here. Um. During this pandemic. We actually held the first public town hall meeting on COVID 19 in the country. And there was a Josiah Quincy School, and there was a young woman. She was a student at the Boston Latin at Boston Latin Academy. And this was in January 2020. And. COVID really didn't hit this part of the United States yet. But we we knew it was coming. And this student got on the train heading to school when she got on the train. She walked into the train and all the other people on the train got off the train. Because they associated her with with COVID 19. She was a young kid, probably 16 to 17 years old, telling telling me that story at this at this town hall. And then I thought to myself, you know, we're going to see a lot of anti-Asian racism in this country. anti-Asian hate hate crimes. That have happened here in the city of Boston, not just with the AAPI community, with immigrants, with communities of color as well, LGBTQ as Council of Clarity, as I mentioned also, um, and these, these hate crimes against immigrants continue to this day. I was at a hearing the other night and an elderly Asian woman was visiting Boston. I think she lived in Somerville. She was probably 80 years old. She got punched in the head by a young guy, probably, probably 20 years old, just just because she was Asian. But what I but what I want to do as we celebrate AAPI. Certainly we have to deal with the discrimination and the hate crimes, but also to celebrate the important role the Asian community has played in the United States, the contributions and the sacrifices that they made for our city and for our country. So I'm proud to partner with Counselor Fernandez Anderson. But I also want to say to my colleagues, I know you, you have also supported the AAPI community, not just today or this month, but for all of the year. So I want to recognize my colleagues for the tremendous work they do in this field. And I also want to recognize our first mayor of the city of Boston, Mayor Malveaux, who with have partnered on this resolution many times before. But I just want to say thank you to the mayor for her important work as well. So thank you. Mr.. Thank you also for giving me the opportunity to speak. Thank you, Councilor Flynn. The Chair now recognizes Councilor Fernandez Anderson. Thank you. Uh, Councilor. Sorry, President Flynn, for filing this resolution. And I just wanted to take a moment to just, you know, sort of now go by the formalities and just express my sentiment around this. When I arrived to the United States and did not and I was looking for a job to save money so that I can bring my brother or sister. And I would save every little bit. And I didn't have a green card, so I would I found a way and there was a few friends in Cambridge that I met some Bengalis and and other Nepalese friends that had hooked me up with some jobs and we would all work together. And of course, the joke was that immigrants that we work two or three jobs and sometimes we're called, you know, people would say, are you Jamaican if you work more than three jobs, right. So we all share this culture of working hard and being disciplined and putting out, you know, a lot of work because of our, you know, ethics or work ethics in terms of being disciplined in putting out work. But I a lot of my friends also share the sentiment. And as you know, Muslims being highly Asian or Asian Pacific Islanders share this expression that or the sentiment that. Because where because they work very hard and because they are disciplined or humble in the way that they ask for recognition that they are not recognized as human beings for the work that they put out. And not to repeat everything that often has said. But I was really happy that you mentioned all of the different historic contributions to the United States and building this country, but also all of the hardships that people have gone through. And I think that a lot of the times we human as human beings, we're not very good with the unknown. So we wait for this paradigm shift to take us to, oh, wait, it's wrong to discriminate against LGBTQ. Ah, oh, wait, it's wrong to be. To discriminate against blacks. Oh, it's wrong to be this way or that way. So I think that we should try to get into the culture of being open and understanding that there are nuances. As and as Counselor Laura has mentioned, we're not a monolith. So that's not to any and that's to every group. Everybody. There's nuances and culture and differences and music and food and everybody's different. And I think what happens is we we tend to clump up people in one category or one bucket Asians, that's it. But there's so much beauty and diversity and language and culture that comes with the different type that different Asians and Asian Pacific Islanders . I'm so happy to partner with you in this and thank you so much, so much for your work. But not just because you're not just because you represent a lot of Asians, but because you're you are a very kind man. Castle Flynn. And I really just appreciate you for taking the time and not it's not about faults for you. It's like this. These are people I represent and I'm going to do that to the best of my ability with heart and passion. And I appreciate you for that. Thank you. Councilor Fernandez Anderson. Would anyone else like to speak? Seeing no one. Would anyone else like to add their name? Mr. Clarke. Please add. Councilor Baker. Councilor. Councilor Braden. Councilor Flaherty. Councilor Lara. Councilor. Legion. Councilor here. Councilor Murphy. Councilor Allen. Please add my name. Councilor Flynn seeks suspension of the rules and passage of docket 0593. All those in favor say I am opposed. Say the ayes have it. Docket 0593 has been adopted. Thank you. Thank you, Counsel Royal. Mr. Clarke, will you please read 20594 police. Numbers 059 for council and me here or for the following resolution in support of Senate 2671 An act relative to forfeiture reform and Senate 2105 enact relative to civil asset forfeiture data reporting.