In Asian Journal’s previous issue, I wrote about Max’s & Lucy’s ensaymadas, co-owned by Don Sagarbarria and Mike Zuñiga, which had exponential growth during the pandemic, entitled: “Love-Leavened Small Business.”
“Love-Infused Fil-Am Small Business” is about Kuya Lord’s Pop-Up series, established by Lord Maynard Llera in 2020.
Tall, bearded, and with a ready smile, Llera had grown up in Lucena, Quezon, the resident colony of artisan artists in the Philippines. Four are now here in Los Angeles, pursuing their personal brand of artistry in photography, composing music, pastel painting, and culinary arts, whom I wrote features for Asian Journal. Llera is one of those four artists.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from San Sebastian College in Business Administration, Llera felt his life had no direction, compared to his peers who had already forged their own paths.
He looked up to his parents and their work ethic of traveling to each festival to sell their wares, and realized that they grew their business from carrying winnowing baskets, called bilao, to a cariton (wagon on wheels), to eight storefronts and a resort. He knew from their examples that success is largely built on hard work and diligence. But, he was not content to live off the fruits of their labor and wanted to design his own path.
Llera’s passion project has features of technique, years of patience to hone his skills, the humility of learning from his mentors, accepting failures, yet steadfast in his belief that “mediocrity does not exist, and if it’s only good, it’s not enough. If you do it, do it all the way, no half-builds.”
Andrew Marvell described time as a mode of transport, “But at my back I always hear, Time’s winged chariot hurrying near,” quoted by Mark Forsyth in The Elements of Eloquence.
Time feels blurry this 2020, given the world’s statistics of 63,098,003 Coronavirus cases and 1,465,111 deaths in 191 countries/regions, with the US leading with 13,500,315 cases and 267,635 deaths, tracked by Johns Hopkins’ dashboard. The latter is greater than American casualties of three wars: World War I, Vietnam, and the Korean wars.
California has 1,222,303 new cases and 19,152 deaths, with no outdoor dining and a night curfew from 10 pm to 6 am, for three weeks to reduce the surge of the pandemic. It is estimated that 1 in 145 will be infected in California. All we could do is wear a mask, stay socially distant, while dreams still come alive: a novel, a book, poetry, a gig, a CD, an app, and even a new business.
Lord Maynard Llera, former sous chef of Bestia, has a new role as owner/executive chef of Kuya Lord’s Popup Series.
It is akin to Peter Kaminsky’s descriptor of Romy Dorotan’s cooking, “clean tasting, the mark of a chef who could assemble a panoply of tastes without confusing them in a saucy jumble.”
Dorotan is my gold standard for a chef, who innovates by sourcing local fresh produce, preserving seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables into jams, pickles, and preserves; fresh abalone and seafood, heritage meats, and with a clear vision for the final dish.
My recalled memories of his delicately engineered black seafood paella served in a clay pot, bibingka, and palabok make me wish this pandemic is over, so I can travel to Purple Yam in Brooklyn. Dorotan is often mentioned by NY Times’ food critics who write about emerging chefs of Philippine descent.
Michelin Bib Gourmand listed Purple Yam, Dorotan’s restaurant, co-owned with Amy Besa, in their list for 2020, “sharing is key so you can sample a bit of everything…then linger over the universally loved pancit luglug or oxtail kare-kare, braised in sauce of peanut butter, onions, tomatoes and garlic.”
Love-Infused Details
Almond wood for smoking imparts a sweet, nutty flavor. The raw green wood needs seasoning for two years, and after, gives a steady hot flame, with very little ash residue.
A fit metaphor perhaps for Kuya Lord’s skills development, a strong hot flame moving about to working alongside the best chefs?
Llera graduated at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York then a career at The Green Room, a Forbes 4-star French fine dining restaurant. He moved to LA and worked with Chef Neal Fraser of Grace and Redbird and then, as Bestia’s sous chef, where he worked for nearly four years with Ori Menashe, an Israeli chef.
He credits Bestia’s Menashe with giving him incredible latitude to develop his skills. Llera recalls a valuable lesson learned when the kitchen crew burnt the truffle dish. Consequence – the entire dish was thrown away. From Menashe, he learned uncompromising excellence, one dish at a time. Bestia and Bavel, both owned by Menashe, continue to be at the top of the list of LA’s operating restaurants, with curbside pickup and deliveries.
In 2017, as Culinary Director of The h.wood Group, Llera was instrumental in opening seven restaurants in ten months: Mason Chicago, Mason Santa Monica, 40 Love, Slab, Alice Kitchen, Harriet’s, and Petite Taqueria. Llera developed the menus, hired the crew, and developed a culture of teamwork, where each member cares for the other, as a family and with that, special regard for their future. As each crew member was trained, he allowed them to also introduce their menu offerings to gain ownership of the restaurant, as he gradually receded in presence, to open up another restaurant.
In Voyage LA, he was quoted: “I oversaw all culinary consultations on food creations and development at The h.wood’s Group’s premier signature establishments – The NICE GUY and Delilah.”That success was not without consequences as he lost time to be with his young children.
In 2016, he floated Cubiertos (silverware), a pop-up event in Unit #120 in Chinatown, oversold 60 slots to become 80 diners, served with a 5 course meal for $68. Our favorites were dinuguan longanizza served with a light salad of scarlet frill, pickled fennel, frisee, mint, dill, and pine nuts. The dressing was made from red wine vinegar and fish sauce, a kitchen staple in Filipino and Thai homes, called patis. There was not a single pine nut left on our salad plate.
It was midnight then, when Llera got to sit down with us, to discuss his vision: ”What I have done is cook what I like to eat; others recreate their childhood, their own food. For all of us, we do pop-ups to invite others to know about us, to test the waters, for publicity, and also, to invite investors to help in getting my dream of opening up my own restaurant: casual, relaxing, where family, friends are enjoying the food, not too stiff, where everyone is enjoying food, drinks, and company.”
In May 2020, he acquired a commercial kitchen, with fully screened doors, and started cooking family packages.
Married to Gigi Llera, she became his sous chef and packages’ handler. Petite, with a ready smile, she is efficient in handling curbside packages. Lord credits his wife’s trained palate in developing new entrees, like goto, a Batangas delicacy of tripe, beef, and a tasty soup of noodles.
Kuya Lord’s value packages are shareable: grilled barramundi fish, lechon kawali, and gem salad. The fish was grilled to perfection over almond wood, clean, flavorful, infused with tomatoes and herbs, and plated over banana leaf, a half-grilled lemon, with pickled vegetables.
It was paired with lechon kawali, not greasy, crunchy skin, with a tender meaty texture. It was sourced fresh, as the meat was odorless. I ended eating up a few even before being served.
I love the gem salad, that I could not get enough of, with an herb dressing that eludes me for duplication. He paired it with his own creation of kesong puti, made from sheep’s milk, cane vinegar, salt, and lemon juice, a recipe in the Philippines, and topped it with anchovies. Without revealing his aged cheese recipe, just order it with fresh salads.
It is for his family that he works hard for, 17 hour-long working days, it is for them that he stays motivated for, to provide for a roof to live in, and to provide for their upkeep. He is already mentoring his daughter, Guiliana to enjoy her high brow palate by shaving truffles onto her Sunday’s scrambled eggs.
And it is families that rave about his value offerings:
“That barramundi is d’bomb (perfect match with that chili oil). And I don’t even like fish but I can make an exception for this.”
“I have to tell you – the pork belly was AMAZING. I can’t stop thinking about it. It was supposed to be the appetizer but it was the star of the show. Now I just need to figure out another excuse for ordering more food from you.”
“It was a hit, with so many people in my nuclear and extended family that doesn’t like pancit mostly the kids and the adult kids. Your pancit was super success.”
“I just wanted to let you know your food is delicious. My pinoy mom was hesitant about the pancit because her sister always used to make it and she didn’t really like it, but my mom said your pancit is the best she ever had! Thank you for making such amazing food and looking forward to doing another order in the future.”
Lord grew his culinary passion to include not just his wife, Gigi, and since October, Chef David Timoteo, executive chef at Netflix/LA Live Commissary by Wolfgang Puck Catering, has collaborated with Llera on chicken inasal, as part of his value offerings.
I still, remember how Llera served Pandan Panna Cotta with mango puree with peanut-coconut snap, lovingly topped with a spoon, wrapped in green leaf, over a cup of dessert. It was a lovely way of presenting his dessert, mimicking a gift, and presumably his message, ”from the heart of my home to yours.”
To cook for oneself is always boring in the end; to cook for others, or better still for one other, is certainly an act of faith and love. Believe me, there is no cuisine without love.
Minyong Ordoñez, a Filipino anthropologist, explains that the Filipino culture defines Filipino identity as: “the [Filipino] culture manifests goodness and virtues, creativity, and accomplishments in symmetry with the people’s material and spiritual faculties,” quoted by Fr. Aris Martin in his Santo Niño Christology dissertation chapter, which I got to read at his request, shortly after I interviewed two Fil-Am business owners.
It described the converging growth of Don Sagarbarria and Mike Zuñiga’s business, as owners of Max’s and Lucy’s Ensaymadas, (M &L) as well as Lord Meynard Llera, owner of Kuya-Lord Pop-Up Series and former sous chef of Bestia, the top restaurant in Los Angeles.
M & L offers ensaymadas, while Kuya Lord offers kamayan (meal sharing using hands) packages.
A customer posted on Facebook about the ensaymadas: “These were delicious. They were lighter, fluffier, and more perfectly petite than I grew up with, and the taste elicits a full body-sense memory! They really are a memory! Enough to make you miss your lola (grandmother) or hug her tight if she is still around! Really yummy. Sarap. Sarap (delicious).“
Customers likened M&L’s ensaymadas to Mary Grace’s, made with 100% real butter, eggs and topped with grated Edam cheese in the Philippines, at $13.70 for six pieces.
Comparatively, Max’s and Lucy’s in Los Angeles are $24/dozen in LA, Orange, San Bernardino, Koreatown, SFV and trunk sales in San Diego and Las Vegas.
Margarita Reyes, a distributor opened up new markets by joining a Facebook group, SoCal Pinoys with 21,000 members. 80% of orders for the Inland Empire, Orange, and San Bernardino is credited to this group. Her peak sales were 70 dozens a week in one county.
Ana Burog opened up new areas of distribution in San Diego, Las Vegas, and San Bernardino. She pushes to bring the products to as many customers who pre-order, eager to serve them. She is rewarded with favorable texts like: “finishing three before even getting home. This is so so good.” Burog posted on Facebook, the highest she sold that week: 100 dozens.
“100 dozens made it real for us”
First, the context, the grim circumstances of 2020 given Coronavirus, topped at 58, 456,049 confirmed cases, global deaths of 1,385, 163 and in the US, at 12,177,301 cases and 256,442 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins dashboard, on Nov. 22. Staggering US deaths exceeded the casualties incurred in World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War.
By mid-March 2020, commercial businesses had shut down, except banks, clinics, supermarkets, newspapers, pharmacies, and hospitals. Though restaurants had phased in openings, food was picked up on the curbside or delivered. On Nov. 21, 2020, businesses were ordered to close from 10 pm to 5 am until Dec. 21, to stop the third wave of surges.
UCLA’s Center for Neighborhood Knowledge (CNK) reported on Oct. 30, 2020, in “Covid-19 Impacts on Minority Businesses and Systemic Inequality, ” that steep declines occurred in ethnic neighborhoods’ businesses located in Chinatown, Boyle Heights, Leimert Park, as well as comparison neighborhoods of Larchmont Blvd., Venice, and Sherman Oaks that they researched. CNK surmised that lack of capital access, assistance, the decline in foot traffic, and tourists led to these grim conditions, as the shutdown orders.
Yet, Max’s and Lucy’s (M & L) Ensaymadas and Kuya Lord’s Pop-Up Series defied these trends. They grew during this challenging period. These businesses sustained support from the Fil-Am community and they grew largely in part from the high quality of their products, responsive customer service and perhaps, stress eating during this pandemic.
Exponential growth by word of mouth and Facebook group
For those familiar with baking, leavening agents such as baking soda, baking powder and yeast are used to make the bread rise, a foaming action that traps air bubbles, giving the final ensaymada (butter cheese brioche) its nice, airy, fluffy, light texture. It is a process called “proofing.”
Much like proofing, M & L’s sales grew from 30 dozens every two weeks to 50 dozens a week.
“Everybody is helping,” Sagarbarria, M& L’s co-owner and CFO said: “During Mother’s Day and Nurses’ Week, we had an explosive growth of 100 dozens in a day.”
It went from being a passion project of “simply wanting to preserve and promote the product that speaks so much of our Filipino culture and tradition, a “moral obligation” of sorts,” Mike Zuñiga, co-owner, and COO wrote in his email to me, to a serious viable business. The growth compelled them to rent a commercial kitchen, but with the new equipment, which already increased production capacity by tenfold, the production was still a week behind in satisfying demands.
The raves are heartfelt, as families would send boxes to their relatives in Northern California, Illinois, North Carolina, Boston, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, opting to pay for next day air shipment, just so they can share their enjoyment.
I myself sent boxes to family and friends in Texas, New Mexico, and Maryland.
As in any good business, much like cream rising from its milk base, it is marked by elements called the three P’s: people’s caring practices, product quality, and a process that is managed well through its details.
This personal observation, gained from regulating thousands of food manufacturers as a former public health regulatory professional of nearly 3 decades, matches the stated principles of Marcus Lemonis who is the star of “The Profit” on CNBC, CEO of Camping World, Good Sam, and two more businesses, with a net worth of $2 billion. Of the three “P”s, Lemonis said that the “people are the most important.” Without good people, good processes and good products only do so much,” he emphasized.
The product and process: 64 dozens trashed as below quality standards
How did it start in the first place?
Mom and Kay Sagarbarria had left some molds and proofer, from when they operated House of Silvanas in Los Angeles.
Zuñiga started to experiment with the recipe, just “wanting to share a family recipe that has been preserved by both tradition and love,” he wrote in his email to me.
He experimented with types of flour to use, given the varying protein content of available supplies, as well as finding the right source for the cheese used and butter for the brioche topping.
Then, the production molds became an issue; they barely had enough to meet the customers’ orders. They had to find a local source that could make the molds for them in the thousands.
The ensaymadas are baked fresh daily, six days a week by a dedicated crew of musicians, headed by co-owner, Zuñiga, whose shift starts at 330am and ends at 5 pm. His only day off is Monday yet, he still works another job, an 8-hour shift.
The production crew consists of musicians/friends, some had lost their full-time jobs during this pandemic. His mom, though retired, has become active in helping with production, and providing home-cooked meals to the crew.
In transitioning to the new commercial kitchen, 64 dozens were trashed, as the brioche was too dry and the convection oven temperature and times had to be adjusted. They simply did not meet the high-quality standards, set by the owners.
“Everyone is helping,” with love and respect for Zuñiga, the COO who heads the production, which includes Xave Avendaño, a junior in St. Genevieve High School. I asked him how long he works, and he responded: “I work as long as Tito Mike needs me.”
Xave clocks in at the last two hours of the production day, works with a smile, and looks forward to what to give his family for the holidays.
Like family, the production crew is treated well, including their distributors who are paid their commissions. Though others have offered to open up new markets to sell to grocery stores, the co-owners have paused, as they put a premium on the quality of their products, which are freshly baked and consumed right away. #trustovergains #peopleoverprofits are the lived principles of this small business. They also value the trust they have with their existing distributors, benefiting them first, before developing relationships with new distributors.
Sagarbarria, a co-owner with Zuñiga, delivers to customers in San Fernando Valley area, after working an eight-hour day in IT (information technology). He is the CFO, in charge of finding suppliers and applies for the necessary business and health permits.
Repeat customers include nurses, who are front liners in the caring of patients. Though registered nurses are 4% nationally in America, 3 out of 10 who have died from Coronavirus are reported as Filipinos. This is a grim statistic for our Fil-Am community and their survivors.
Yet their zest for life, the enjoyment of simple pleasures, goes on, much like a brioche that makes them recall a memory of a loved one cannot be thumped down, as they continue to order by the dozens.
I checked Venmo (similar to Paypal) one evening, and I counted 15 folks paying for their boxes of ensaymadas. One customer posted: ”You didn’t disappoint. It’s totally worth the hype. Thanks, Ana, for making it happen.”
M & L was founded initially to introduce a product familiar to the Filipino palate. “This is the closest to the ones I’ve tasted in Mallorca, Spain. Thanks, Don of Max’s and Lucy’s, I now taste memories from my childhood. My mother in Heaven would be shaking her head and laughing at my little luxury,” wrote Lu Sobredo, who is finishing her novel during this pandemic.
“How does a memory taste? Welcome back to the sweet taste of home. Our classic ensaymada is a lavish mix of butter, sugar, and cheese – a contrasting yet blended surprise of salty-sweet flavors. Soft and light brioche buns – a home-baked cloud of goodness with every bite,” M & L’s teaser page on Facebook accurately described its quality product and why it is “proofing” its business and love-leavened by the owners, the crew, the distributors, and the customers.
You know it is so good when one’s priest/friends take the time to say thank you, make a polite request to taste them again, and describes them as “heavenly bites of goodness.”
Even #princess2015la, my 5yo granddaughter dances to every bite when she gets it as her occasional snack treat.
It is simply a complete ecosystem of goodness, virtues, and creativity – all features of the Filipino culture, synergistically derived from the founders, owners, production crew members, distributors, and customers. I have never seen anything like it after regulating thousands of businesses in 3 decades.
“Never before in the history of American elections has the Filipino American community mobilized, strategized and organized to the degree I’ve seen. For at least the Filipino Americans for Biden/Harris affinity group, there were pockets of staunch and stellar state leaders in some 20+ states working efficiently and effectively to GOTV (Get Out The Vote) – phone banking, text banking, working at the direction of the National organizing committee and strategically (with precision) focusing on how to empower and enliven and ensure the Filipino American vote on ALL levels – national, state, and local. It’s something I have never witnessed in the decades since I’ve been voting.” – Ted Benito, Executive Producer of ‘Your Vote Matters 2 Me’ (Nov. 8, 2020)
“When viewpoints are expressed, we must each endeavor not to attack others for holding differing viewpoints or to ascribe such disagreements as being derived from less-than-noble intentions. Much like Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill and conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the United States Supreme Court, we must restore ourselves to living life according to the highest ideals of our best nature. Only through consistent efforts over an extended period may we truly appeal to the better angels within us all. The time for us to reset is now.” – Ollie Cantos, Esq., former associate director for domestic policy at the White House, under Pres. George W. Bush (Nov. 7, 2020)
“I have a firm belief in our shared humanity, regardless of political affiliation…I didn’t want to tailor the message specifically for the benefit of getting a specific party or individual elected. I opted to focus on encouraging people to think for themselves based on the issues that mattered to them and consequently, to all of us as people. There was a need to see ourselves presented in something that we could all be proud of with a message that, hopefully, resonated across partisan lines.” – Mark A.J.Nazal, Director of Your Vote Matters to Me (Nov. 8, 2020)
With these noble, patriotic, and bipartisan Filipino Americans, I was seeing daily messages all the month of October 2020 on why voting matters to us.
I wondered if it moved even one voter, and when A.J. Rafael, a musician, got one of his fans to vote, his first and tweeted to him, that was a victory for mobilizing our Filipino American community. Even just one who has not engaged before and is now voting is a success.
I was moved when Rev. Cisa Payuyo, whom I have known for three decades as an unassuming woman, gave this message: “We have a moral obligation to take care of this country and to take care of each other.”
It felt like the heavens opened up, a prelude of gloomy gray skies strong rains for ten minutes, and then, a beautiful rainbow and a sunny day on Nov. 7, a Saturday.
Cold winds came on Sunday followed by snow-dusted mountaintops, and thick white clouds on Monday. Blue skies greeted us on Veterans Day.
Appropriately, as when the ballots got counted, military soldiers overseas voted 4 to 1, in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, as reported by CNN.
Walter Talens, co-producer of Your Vote Matters 2 Me, a US Army veteran emailed me, “We spent so much effort telling locals in Afghanistan and Iraq the importance of voting despite their apathy and suspicion towards the process. The Afghans and Iraqi’s literally risked their lives to get the opportunity to vote, yet some of my fellow Americans take this right for granted.”
But, Talens can smile now as a record number of nearly 160 million Americans voted by mail and in-person, braved strong rains, long lines and even the existential threat to their lives, the coronavirus. As of Nov. 9, the virus has claimed the lives of 238,053 in the U.S and with 10,036, 282 new confirmed cases and California’s 3.7 positivity rate, second in new cases of 978,881 with 17, 985 deaths to Texas’ 997,258 new cases and 19,221 deaths.
Joe Arciaga, producer of Your Vote Matters 2 me, underscored the importance: “As a father, grandfather, U.S. Army veteran, immigrant person of color, healthcare frontliner, as someone who cared deeply about our community, civility, Truth, rule of law, Honor, science and the Common Good, I felt duty-bound to take action, to work for change and to contribute to the cause. I felt that if we didn’t act now, the America our progeny will inherit would not be the same America that has embodied freedom, justice, equality, prosperity – ideals that moved us and those who came before us to seek haven here.”
It was a definite blue America, Biden’s 74,446,452 votes, still growing a lead, as votes were counted transparently, using webcams, live streaming, which surpassed Trump’s 70,294,341 votes, according to CBS News, on Nov. 7. Trump exceeded Barack Obama’s 69,498,516 votes in 2008.
CNN reported 87% of Black Americans turned out to vote for Biden/Harris on Nov. 3 and 82% of young Asian Americans voted for Biden/Harris. Cuban Americans voted overwhelmingly for Trump, as did the southern states.
Memes of John Lewis, Kobe Bryant, Ruth Bader Ginsburg were illustrated as angels in conference with Alex Trebek, who died Sunday morning.
In 2018, Prof. Dawn Mabalon passed away, yet how prescient her tweets were.
When Prof. Dawn Mabalon met Joe Biden in 2018 in San Francisco, she tweeted Prof. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, her best friend, who tweeted back: “What did you say to him?”
“I leaned in and whispered,” you gotta read that Fire and Fury book. Ok, I whispered ‘You and Kamala, 2020.’ Ok but for real it was so quick. He was trying to leave and not cause a big ruckus. It was a smile and click and done,” Dawn shared.
In 2015, I met then-Vice President Joe Biden at West LA Community College, accompanied by Rep. Karen Bass. He spoke about protecting women and their vulnerabilities to sexual assault on campuses. He spoke of his compelling work on Violence against Women legislation. I witnessed how considerate he was to the students and thoughtfully responded to their questions.
Cathy Sanchez-Babao in a recent Facebook post recalled: “In 2017, [Biden] released a book entitled, ‘Promise Me, Dad.’ On page 201 he recalls one of the final moments in 2015 when Beau asked to speak to him in private. “I know no one in the whole world loves me as much as you do. I know that. But Dad, look at me. Look at me. I’m going to be okay no matter what happens. I’m going to be ok, Dad. I promise you. I was jolted by the realization that my son was beginning to make peace with his own death. Then he leaned across the table and put his hand on my arm. “But you’ve got to promise me, Dad, that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right. Promise me, Dad.”
“I’m going to be okay, Beau,” I said, but that wasn’t enough for him.
“No, Dad, he said. “Give me your word as a Biden. Give me your word, Dad. Promise me, Dad.” I promised, Joe Biden wrote.
Cathy Sanchez-Babao speculated: “Tonight, five years later I want to believe that as President-elect Joe Biden looked up at the skies in Wilmington, emblazoned with fireworks in red, white and blue, he was probably whispering to Beau in his heart, “See, son. I kept my promise. This is for you.”
With the promise Joe Biden made to Beau, also came Biden’s choice of Senator Kamala Harris, who had a close friendship with then Delaware Attorney General, Beau Biden, who was taking on the mortgage industry.
Harris became the first woman VP-elect, first of Jamaican and Indian descent, a graduate of HBCU, and one who sought justice from the reckless multi-billion mortgage lending done by the large banks who had securitized these loans, betting on getting paid, even if homeowners defaulted.
The banks were found to be squeezing monies on both ends, as mortgage payments by the homeowners and as paid securities when the securitized mortgages defaulted. It led to a national settlement of $20 billion, done against Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Bank (formerly GMAC), when she served as California Attorney General in 2012, arrived at by several states, the federal government, and the “American banks over the predatory mortgages that helped sink the economy, as reported by The Atlantic.com, Aug. 20, 2020.
With that promise to Beau, the first Sunday after the election, President-elect Joe Biden visited the grave of his late son with his grandson and daughter-in-law.
Promise kept to Beau meant a new purpose for Joe Biden: to heal America to value truth over thousands of lies, fairness in news media and governance over fiction, rule of law, integrity of public service over corruption and private gains, protect Mother Earth over climate change denials and to rebuild the ravaged economy from coronavirus and racial justice over white supremacy.
When Rep. James Clyburn took risks to say, “We know Joe and Joe knows us,” it gave permission for the states to Joe Biden as their presidential candidate.
From that, it seemed a new gate was opened by the heavens.
“I need to know whom you are voting for,” Mrs. Jannie Jones, a 76-year-old who wanted to know whom Clyburn would be voting for in the South Carolina primary. When she heard his response, she asked him to make that decision known.
“It wasn’t James Clyburn, it was Mrs. Jones who wanted me to stand up,” Rep. Clyburn told CNN, and he stood up. prompted by Mrs. Jones.
Sierra Club and Filipino Americans’ Get Out The Vote Campaigns
I was fortunate to have joined the Sierra Club’s Facebook live meeting moderated by Executive Director Michael Brune with their key political directors. I perked up knowing they had done so much mobilizing efforts via postcards, texts, letter writing, phone calls and deployed poll workers to help out.
Ted Benito convened a group, Your Vote Matters 2 Me, to answer the call for action to mobilize the votes. He is registered independent, raised by a mom who was a Democrat and a father who was a Republican.
He said, “I was struck by the outspoken brashness of Mark Nazal whose unique perspective was: ‘the strength of our message (whether it be to encourage people to register, to vote or for a specific candidate) was rooted in communicating the point that decisions from those elected to office affected everybody and messaging should focus on discussing issues important to the voters. I also produced a GOTV night of empowerment featuring Asian Pacific Islanders celebrities, elected officials and an appearance by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It featured Tamlyn Tomita, Tia Carrere, David Jenkins, Travis Atreo, AJ Rafael, Keiko Agemi and Lou Diamond Phillip’s hosted by MSNBC’s Richard Lui.”
Ballot counting was livestreamed via webcams and observers from both Republican and Democratic parties observed the process.
So when Trump announced filing lawsuits left and right, many television panelists wondered why, what is the legal issue being litigated, on what legal grounds, and the lawsuits were being dismissed.
ABC News reported that judges in Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan have rejected the Trump campaign’s efforts to halt the counting process and NY Times’ Peter Baker wrote that former President George W. Bush congratulated Pres.-Elect Joe Biden Jr.
“I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night,” Bush said and continued, “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.”
Two days ago, I requested a Republican friend, whom I highly respect, Ollie Cantos for quotes, read above.
Both of us exchanged our desires to find the common ground in everyone. “Nations will come to Your light and Kings to the brightness of Your dawn.”(Isaiah 60:3) and we exchanged I love you, my friend, by texts. Imagine that?
Never before in the history of American elections has the Filipino American community mobilized, strategized and organized to the degree I’ve seen. For at least the Filipino Americans for Biden/Harris affinity group, there were pockets of staunch and stellar state leaders in some 20+ states working efficiently and effectively to GOTV (Get Out The Vote) – phone banking, text banking, working at the direction of the National organizing committee and strategically (with precision) focusing on how to empower and enliven and ensure the Filipino American vote on ALL levels – national, state, and local. It’s something I have never witnessed in the decades since I’ve been voting.
When viewpoints are expressed, we must each endeavor not to attack others for holding differing viewpoints or to ascribe such disagreements as being derived from less-than-noble intentions. Much like Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill and conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the United States Supreme Court, we must restore ourselves to living life according to the highest ideals of our best nature. Only through consistent efforts over an extended period may we truly appeal to the better angels within us all. The time for us to reset is now.
Ollie Cantos, Esq., former associate director for domestic policy at the White House, under Pres. George W. Bush (Nov. 7, 2020)
I have a firm belief in our shared humanity, regardless of political affiliation…I didn’t want to tailor the message specifically for the benefit of getting a specific party or individual elected. I opted to focus on encouraging people to think for themselves based on the issues that mattered to them and consequently, to all of us as people. There was a need to see ourselves presented in something that we could all be proud of with a message that, hopefully, resonated across partisan lines.
Mark A.J.Nazal, Director of Your Vote Matters to Me (Nov. 8, 2020)
With these noble, patriotic, and bipartisan Filipino Americans, I was seeing daily messages all the month of October 2020 on why voting matters to us.
I wondered if it moved even one voter, and when A.J. Rafael, a musician, got one of his fans to vote, his first and tweeted to him, that was a victory for mobilizing our Filipino American community. Even just one who has not engaged before and is now voting is a success.
I was moved when Rev. Cisa Payuyo, whom I have known for three decades as an unassuming woman, gave this message: “We have a moral obligation to take care of this country and to take care of each other.”
It felt like the heavens opened up, a prelude of gloomy gray skies strong rains for ten minutes, and then, a beautiful rainbow and a sunny day on Nov. 7, a Saturday.
Cold winds came on Sunday followed by snow-dusted mountaintops, and thick white clouds on Monday. Blue skies greeted us on Veterans Day.
Appropriately, as when the ballots got counted, military soldiers overseas voted 4 to 1, in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, as reported by CNN.
Walter Talens, co-producer of Your Vote Matters 2 Me, a US Army veteran emailed me, “We spent so much effort telling locals in Afghanistan and Iraq the importance of voting despite their apathy and suspicion towards the process. The Afghans and Iraqi’s literally risked their lives to get the opportunity to vote, yet some of my fellow Americans take this right for granted.”
But, Talens can smile now as a record number of nearly 160 million Americans voted by mail and in-person, braved strong rains, long lines and even the existential threat to their lives, the coronavirus. As of Nov. 9, the virus has claimed the lives of 238,053 in the U.S and with 10,036, 282 new confirmed cases and California’s 3.7 positivity rate, second in new cases of 978,881 with 17, 985 deaths to Texas’ 997,258 new cases and 19,221 deaths.
Joe Arciaga, producer of Your Vote Matters 2 me, underscored the importance: “As a father, grandfather, U.S. Army veteran, immigrant person of color, healthcare frontliner, as someone who cared deeply about our community, civility, Truth, rule of law, Honor, science and the Common Good, I felt duty-bound to take action, to work for change and to contribute to the cause. I felt that if we didn’t act now, the America our progeny will inherit would not be the same America that has embodied freedom, justice, equality, prosperity – ideals that moved us and those who came before us to seek haven here.”
It was a definite blue America, Biden’s 74,446,452 votes, still growing a lead, as votes were counted transparently, using webcams, live streaming, which surpassed Trump’s 70,294,341 votes, according to CBS News, on Nov. 7. Trump exceeded Barack Obama’s 69,498,516 votes in 2008.
CNN reported 87% of Black Americans turned out to vote for Biden/Harris on Nov. 3 and 82% of young Asian Americans voted for Biden/Harris. Cuban Americans voted overwhelmingly for Trump, as did the southern states.
Memes of John Lewis, Kobe Bryant, Ruth Bader Ginsburg were illustrated as angels in conference with Alex Trebek, who died Sunday morning.
In 2018, Prof. Dawn Mabalon passed away, yet how prescient her tweets were. When Prof. Dawn Mabalon met Joe Biden in 2018 in San Francisco, she tweeted Prof. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, her best friend, who tweeted back: “What did you say to him?”
“I leaned in and whispered,” you gotta read that Fire and Fury book. Ok, I whispered ‘You and Kamala, 2020.’ Ok but for real it was so quick. He was trying to leave and not cause a big ruckus. It was a smile and click and done,” Dawn shared.
In 2015, I met then-Vice President Joe Biden at West LA Community College, accompanied by Rep. Karen Bass. He spoke about protecting women and their vulnerabilities to sexual assault on campuses. He spoke of his compelling work on Violence against Women legislation. I witnessed how considerate he was to the students and thoughtfully responded to their questions.
Cathy Sanchez-Babao in a recent Facebook post recalled: “In 2017, [Biden] released a book entitled, ‘Promise Me, Dad.’ On page 201 he recalls one of the final moments in 2015 when Beau asked to speak to him in private. “I know no one in the whole world loves me as much as you do. I know that. But Dad, look at me. Look at me. I’m going to be okay no matter what happens. I’m going to be ok, Dad. I promise you. I was jolted by the realization that my son was beginning to make peace with his own death. Then he leaned across the table and put his hand on my arm. “But you’ve got to promise me, Dad, that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right. Promise me, Dad.”
“I’m going to be okay, Beau,” I said, but that wasn’t enough for him.
“No, Dad, he said. “Give me your word as a Biden. Give me your word, Dad. Promise me, Dad.” I promised, Joe Biden wrote.
Cathy Sanchez-Babao speculated: “Tonight, five years later I want to believe that as President-elect Joe Biden looked up at the skies in Wilmington, emblazoned with fireworks in red, white and blue, he was probably whispering to Beau in his heart, “See, son. I kept my promise. This is for you.”
With the promise Joe Biden made to Beau, also came Biden’s choice of Senator Kamala Harris, who had a close friendship with then Delaware Attorney General, Beau Biden, who was taking on the mortgage industry.
Harris became the first woman VP-elect, first of Jamaican and Indian descent, a graduate of HBCU, and one who sought justice from the reckless multi-billion mortgage lending done by the large banks who had securitized these loans, betting on getting paid, even if homeowners defaulted.
The banks were found to be squeezing monies on both ends, as mortgage payments by the homeowners and as paid securities when the securitized mortgages defaulted. It led to a national settlement of $20 billion, done against Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Bank (formerly GMAC), when she served as California Attorney General in 2012, arrived at by several states, the federal government, and the “American banks over the predatory mortgages that helped sink the economy, as reported by The Atlantic.com, Aug. 20, 2020.
With that promise to Beau, the first Sunday after the election, President-elect Joe Biden visited the grave of his late son with his grandson and daughter-in-law.
Promise kept to Beau meant a new purpose for Joe Biden: to heal America to value truth over thousands of lies, fairness in news media and governance over fiction, rule of law, integrity of public service over corruption and private gains, protect Mother Earth over climate change denials and to rebuild the ravaged economy from coronavirus and racial justice over white supremacy.
When Rep. James Clyburn took risks to say, “We know Joe and Joe knows us,” it gave permission for the states to Joe Biden as their presidential candidate.
From that, it seemed a new gate was opened by the heavens.
“I need to know whom you are voting for,” Mrs. Jannie Jones, a 76-year-old who wanted to know whom Clyburn would be voting for in the South Carolina primary. When she heard his response, she asked him to make that decision known.
“It wasn’t James Clyburn, it was Mrs. Jones who wanted me to stand up,” Rep. Clyburn told CNN, and he stood up. prompted by Mrs. Jones.
Sierra Club and Filipino Americans’ Get Out The Vote Campaigns
I was fortunate to have joined the Sierra Club’s Facebook live meeting moderated by Executive Director Michael Brune with their key political directors. I perked up knowing they had done so much mobilizing efforts via postcards, texts, letter writing, phone calls and deployed poll workers to help out.
Ted Benito convened a group, Your Vote Matters 2 Me, to answer the call for action to mobilize the votes. He is registered independent, raised by a mom who was a Democrat and a father who was a Republican.
He said, “I was struck by the outspoken brashness of Mark Nazal whose unique perspective was: ‘the strength of our message (whether it be to encourage people to register, to vote or for a specific candidate) was rooted in communicating the point that decisions from those elected to office affected everybody and messaging should focus on discussing issues important to the voters. I also produced a GOTV night of empowerment featuring Asian Pacific Islanders celebrities, elected officials and an appearance by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It featured Tamlyn Tomita, Tia Carrere, David Jenkins, Travis Atreo, AJ Rafael, Keiko Agemi and Lou Diamond Phillip’s hosted by MSNBC’s Richard Lui.”
Ballot counting was livestreamed via webcams and observers from both Republican and Democratic parties observed the process.
So when Trump announced filing lawsuits left and right, many television panelists wondered why, what is the legal issue being litigated, on what legal grounds, and the lawsuits were being dismissed.
ABC News reported that judges in Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan have rejected the Trump campaign’s efforts to halt the counting process and NY Times’ Peter Baker wrote that former President George W. Bush congratulated Pres.-Elect Joe Biden Jr. “I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night,” Bush said and continued, “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.”
Two days ago, I requested a Republican friend, whom I highly respect, Ollie Cantos for quotes, read above.
Both of us exchanged our desires to find the common ground in everyone. “Nations will come to Your light and Kings to the brightness of Your dawn.”(Isaiah 60:3) and we exchanged I love you, my friend, by texts. Imagine that?
Terry Tempest Williams, as quoted by Parker J. Palmer, “The Politics of the Broken Hearted” (2005)
“This ‘one nation, indivisible’ is deeply divided along political, economic, racial, and religious lines. And despite our historic dream of being “a light unto the nations,” the gaps between our global neighbors and us continue to grow more deadly. The conflicts and contradictions of twenty-first century life are breaking the American heart and threatening to compromise our democratic values,” Parker Palmer wrote.
Writers are the guardians of democracy. When a country has good writers, public policies are uplifted, and so is democracy.
But a writer needs a pure heart or they write about the politics of the broken-hearted, recycling fears, negativities and they threaten the foundations of democracy in America. It quickly disintegrates into a hateful nation full of imaginary illusions that the end is near because the immigrants are coming.
America used to feel as if the safest country for immigrants, the so-called, city up in the hill serving as a beacon of hope. The early pioneer/citizens of America are the indigenous Native Americans.
Later, slave workers imported from Africa, the Irish, Italians, Greeks, Germans, British, Jews, Polish who fled Europe became immigrants to the U.S., and decades after, the immigrants from South America, Asia, and Africa.
America is a nation of immigrants, built by our immigrant ancestors as well. One might logically expect that our policies would be more embracing of immigrants, but not under 45th U.S. President Donald Trump. The hostility towards migrants has increased under his tenure. He even who would not denounce white supremacy groups, instead, told the Proud Boys, a domestic white supremacist group classified by the FBI, to “stand back and stand by,” further validating them.
We, the voters, need not stand back and stand by to evil and hatred A quick rundown of offensive happenings in 2018 to 2020 under this 45th U.S. President:
34 White House staffers and other contacts tested positive for the coronavirus after a White House event where over 200 folks attended with no masks and seated close to each other. The president and First Lady tested positive, as did Hope Hicks, Chris Christie, Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller, and heads of the military. Fourteen were first identified as positive, then, which then grew to 34 individuals.
Forced sterilizations of women under incarceration in 2020, who desire better futures for their children or risk starving to death, as crops no longer grow in their drought-stricken countries, a consequence of global warming.
Medical negligence of ICE agents in not providing care to sick children under detention.
Separating children from their families, some as young as infants and toddlers only to be given away to foster families, after the parents have been locked up. Trump was forced to sign an executive order in 2018 to stop the administration’s family separation policy.
Citizens resorted to fundraising and RAICES; a migrant support group in Texas got a deluge of donations of over $20 million.
Sexual abuse of women under incarceration and with no provisions for their personal hygiene.
Undocumented workers in the US paid $27 billion in federal taxes while in 2016, Pres. Trump paid $750 in federal taxes in 2016, the year he was elected, and paid zero in 10 out of 15 years.
218,097 Americans have died from Coronavirus and U.S. has 8,008,402 new confirmed cases as of October 16, 2020, per the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
Some might contend that Obama’s two terms between 2008-2016 were relatively organized and not chaotic. Yet, in 2008-2010, he too was attacked by immigrant advocacy groups. Newspapers then reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 800,000 undocumented immigrants in those two years.
In the first half of 2011, ICE‘s goal under Pres. Barack Obama was 411,000 deportations, exceeding prior years’ deportation metrics.
It was as if America has lost its direction, its moral compass, and its soul.
It took Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, to re-ignite the dialogue on immigration issues, when he shared his riveting personal story that he is undocumented.
Vargas recently shared in his Instagram post that “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen,” the book he wrote is now used as required reading in America’s high schools, changing the conversations about who is American and dispelling fear towards the undocumented.
“A Better Life” was a movie about a story of love between a gardener father who cuts trees in upscale LA neighborhoods and his teenage son who goes to an urban school in LA, challenged and terrorized by gangs in his school. Their lives were torn apart when the father was deported to Mexico.
During the film premiere, an octogenarian Hungarian dancer, M.W., stood up to compliment the producers. She said she identified with the characters and felt their fears, although she had nothing in common with them. Nonetheless, their fears felt like hers, during the Holocaust.
The same fears were depicted when I watched a documentary at the “Road to Freedom” exhibit in the Skirball Cultural Center. Rabbi Rachel Cowen described the civil rights movement as “a religion, a secular creed, a community, with values, its liturgy, its rituals, part of a larger narrative, with its high ideals that the world can improve, love would conquer, it would triumph.”
Dorothy Zellner spoke of her conviction, that when you see such inhumanity, there is a moral imperative to go: “thou shalt not stand idly by.”
Half of the white attorneys working in the South were Jews who felt a kinship with the injustice happening to the Black community. Rabbi Prinz shared “a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of their painful experience.” This mattered to him to take a stand: “will he allow these state troopers to kill in his name?”
Those were the dilemmas that they faced then, dilemmas that are ours now, confronted with the issue of immigration reform for 11 million undocumented individuals.
In 2011, I had a conversation with Fr. Alberto Carreon, 88, formerly the resident priest at Assumption Church, now residing at San Antonio de Padua Church. His special ministry then was to teach sobriety through faith. He was advocating for immigration reform, leading a 2,000 person strong rally in Nevada, and after, Senator Harry Reid’s staffers dialogued with him. His position was to revive the bracero program to give a legal path for permanent residency to those who want to work in the U.S. He believes that after three years of a consistent, law-abiding track record of employment, these workers have earned the right to apply for a green card.
Fr. Carreon cites the history of immigrants from Europe who fled to survive the holocaust unleashed by Nazi Germany. They were given their own paths to progress, facilitated by a change in their immigration status, legitimized by a humanitarian public policy. This public policy, he claimed, should also extend to those who fled their countries at the height of the civil war in El Salvador, and had some resettling in parts of Honduras and Mexico.
Note that the U.S. government propped up some of the dictators in these countries, causing citizens to leave, much like the exodus of Filipinos out of the Philippines, during the Marcos dictatorship.
By allowing those working in the harvest fields a path to legalization, backbreaking work that Americans shun, these immigrants can be legalized and fully contribute to this nation’s productivity and nation-building responsibilities.
Foreigners in innovation/manufacturing industries
A recent immigration panel organized by Coro Leadership estimated the U.S. economy could grow by a trillion, if immigration reform is enacted for the 11 million undocumented. In Silicon Valley, immigrants did most of the startups in technology. Slate cited that Andy Grove, Intel’s former chairman, and CEO, was born in Hungary in 1936 and immigrated to the United States in his 20s. Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo, was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to San Jose, CA, with his family as a child. Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google, came to the United States from his native Russia when he was 6 years old.
These aren’t special cases: foreigners founded about one-quarter of American tech companies in part or entirely. The proportion in Silicon Valley is even higher—a recent survey by Vivek Wadhwa distinguished fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Engineering at Silicon Valley and Fellow at Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School showed that more than 52% of Silicon Valley startups were founded or co-founded by people born outside of the United States. According to Wadhwa’s research, immigrant-founded firms produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005.
Since the mid-1980s, Silicon Hills has been set up in Western Austin, Texas led by Dell, followed by Hewlett Packard, Intel, Cisco, IBM, Apple, eBay, Oracle, and Facebook with established headquarters or offices in the area.
An updated report on the rate of immigrant entrepreneurship from 2006 to 2012 shows a decline of immigrant start-ups from 52.4% to 43.9%. While these innovation/manufacturing firms generated $63 billion in sales from 2006 to 2012, the immigration policies have resulted in an exodus of talents, and America’s loss has now become the world’s gains.
It became even more hostile, as foreign students are not allowed back into the United States if their classes are held online, a necessary learning pathway, given the highly contagious Coronavirus.
America is at a crossroads.
Should we consider opening our hearts to know the undocumented stories, and perhaps extend a hand to them? Or do we define who is American narrowly?
Or do we keep feeding the unconscious hatred in our hearts, nurtured by false news stories, enough to scare others to arm themselves with assault rifles, previously used in foreign wars by the military? How did these war weapons end up in the hands of right-wing groups and even some police agencies?
When we contemplate and reflect, we might find our hearts breaking open, purging the hatred and indifference to “others,” to allow “those different from us,” to come in.
Consider watching “Yellow Rose,” a film about an aspiring country singer and her undocumented family in Texas. Hollywood Reporter’s October issue described it as:
“Fifteen years in development, writer-director Diane Paragas’ ‘Yellow Rose’ arrives at a fraught point in the national immigration debate with its Texas-set story of an undocumented Filipina single mother and her teenage daughter struggling to remain in the U.S. ‘Miss Saigon’ Tony Award winner Lea Salonga’s name may be the most prominent in the cast, but rising star Eva Noblezada also earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the Broadway revival of the period musical, in the role originated by Salonga. Here Noblezada plays 17-year-old Rose Garcia, who lives at a tatty roadside motel on the outskirts of Austin, where her mother, Priscilla (Princess Punzalan), has worked cleaning rooms since the two arrived from the Philippines years earlier.”
Come November 3, 2020 — and even as early as October 5, 2020, when mail-in ballots started being sent out to California voters — please vote and mail them early. Or drop your completed ballots in secured ballot boxes.
It is time to set aside our fears and renew America to be: a nation indivisible, a true light upon the nations! We need to recapture the soul of America, once a beacon of hope for the entire world.
I voted for change and to assure a better future for my 5yo granddaughter #princess2015la. I am a 68 yo Filipina American immigrant, a grandmother now, who was naturalized as an American citizen 42 years ago. I have voted in every election since, and voted for Pres. Jimmy Carter, President Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama.
It was the 44th US President who helped actualize my love for America in my heart such that daily, since he announced his campaign to run for President in 2007, after a stint in the Oprah Winfrey show, I have been posting in social media. I daily posted what I was doing to organize for his campaign, and contributed few more than hundreds of dollars, which I have done only for Jackie Goldberg’s campaign. I did not believe in funding my chosen candidate, until Obama changed that for me. His messages resonated with me and converged with my aspirations and longings for a progressive soulful America in my heart.
I used my own funds to travel including door knocking in Vegas while the candidate Obama paid for three tour buses filled with volunteers from LA to go to Las Vegas, that was turning blue.
I used my funds to attend two inauguration events of Obama, covered Pope Francis’s visit to the White House garden (now the site of superspreading Coronavirus event announcing Trump’s appointee to succeed Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Today, I am at a high risk group for Coronavirus, just as other asthmatics are. I will not travel. But, the first thing I did today was research, fill up my ballot, but only after attending mass at Holy Family in Artesia via Facebook live, and deposited my completed ballot 29 days early. I was excited to complete my ballot.
Imagine this 68 year old grandmother excited to exercise her voting rights, an immigrant who came to this country, born in the Philippines where guns, goons, and gold and tampered machines were used to alter the election results by the nefarious elites.
I was at a gym in West Hollywood in 2007 when I was reading from Obama’s Audacity of Hope book. A white woman in her 40’s asked me why I was reading his book. I proudly said that he was my candidate and informed her that the last time America had 75% of its registered votes came to the polls, it was Kennedy’s time. When the majority votes, it reflects the true will of the people.
I told her that in my country, elections are a reflection of minority choices and blood of folks are spilled. She revealed that she has not voted, not even once, since she became eligible to vote. She was so ashamed as she was born in America. The following week, she informed me that she has registered and will vote for the candidate I passionately shared with her.
My 2020 vote, 29 days early, is for a hefty progressive vision of reversing climate change and reversing global warming; affirming competent Black women as leaders, more school funds investments but with more oversight and audits; protecting uber and lyft drivers.
I did not vote for self-interested candidates for State Assembly whose bio profile talked more about the two films he has produced. He is in the wrong ballot.
I voted for a non-incumbent candidate for the Board of Supervisors as she took the time to discuss her vision about foster children, gave concrete examples of neglected ones and she has a more forward vision.
I did not vote to encumber businesses as they need to recover from Coronavirus and when we don’t take that into account that they are small to medium businesses, we are the losers as they cannot provide decent wages to their employees. We need viable small to medium businesses to grow the economy, but not greedy huge corporations.
And last but not least, I voted for #TitoJoeBiden2020 as I want truth, honesty, genuine public service, decency and respect for WHO, NATO, and United Nations, while I also want to see less funding for the sheriffs, police, military and towards more civic projects.
Lastly, I want President-to-be Joe Biden address the #CoronaVirus pandemic with science-driven facts, common sense, and provide reasonable oversight for the swift distribution of the vaccines, preferably beyond the established HMOs and supporting clinics too with competent nurses and health professionals.
It is our future, America and we need to chart a new course of inclusion, including black and folks of color females in our national, state and local leadership and recapture the kind, compassionate, fair Soul of America. #lavotenetAsian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote)Joe Biden 2020Joe Biden
