 Thank you all for coming on this incredibly beautiful day. It's good to see you. It's good to see you in an environment where we're moving in the right direction. We're going to have the speaker without his or her mask, but all three of us have been vaccinated, and I hope all of you have as well. It's a great feeling. What's not a great feeling is what has happened and exploded since COVID, and that is an escalating incidence across this country of Asian American Pacific Island hate crime. The attack on Asian Americans who are absolutely blameless for COVID has escalated and it's resulted in horrifying scenes for all of us to watch. The shootings in Atlanta where Asian Americans were targeted, the scene in New York of that older frail woman being attacked because she was an Asian American. The epithets that have been thrown towards Asian Americans is completely unacceptable. All of us owe each other respect and civility, and when disrespect is based on a person's ethnicity or national origin, it's all the more appalling, and it eats away at that fabric that is so essential for democracy, which is respect and mutual effort. So today I'm here, and I'm going to introduce you to the other speakers in a moment, to say that this week in Washington the House will be taking up the Asian American hate crime bill that was passed by a vote of 95 to 1 in the U.S. Senate. That's very, very important legislation. It's sponsored in the House by my colleague Grace Meng from New York City. Grace actually came up here to Vermont and spoke to a group and is someone I've worked closely with and have enormous admiration for. What this legislation would do is really straightforward. Number one, it's an acknowledgement by Congress that this hate that is directed indiscriminately towards Asian American Pacific Islanders is condemned by Congress. Number two, it establishes in the Attorney General's office a position that will be focused on addressing this practice of attacking people based on their nationality, their ethnic origin. And it will facilitate efforts in states that want to set up hotlines in order to make certain that people have an opportunity to report immediately when they are on the receiving end of this outrageous conduct. And third, and very importantly, it's really focusing on getting the data, the incidents of how much this is occurring and where it's occurring. It's very alarming that Asian American anti-Asian hate crimes reported to the police in 16 of our largest American cities rose 164% in the first quarter of 2021. We've got to stop that. Part of stopping it is naming it. Part of stopping it is documenting it. Part of stopping it is making certain that people who are victimized by this have a quick way to report. So my hope is that we will have a very strong and bipartisan vote in support of the passage of this legislation. We have to do everything we can to stop what has been an increasing level of violence directed towards Asian Americans. With that, I'd like to introduce as a speaker here, Mieko Ozeki, who is the co-founder of Womanpreneurs. Mieko, welcome. Thank you, Congressman Welch, for inviting Paula and I here and for supporting the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act with your vote. Please convey our gratitude to Senator Horano and Representative Meng for the leadership on this pressing legislation for the Asian American community. My name is Mieko Ozeki and I'm a fourth generation Chinese-Japanese American. I hold the history of my families who immigrated to this country over 125 years ago and whose stories coincide with past racist legislation and policies that impact their lives, namely the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Japanese American internment of World War II. Hate and violence towards Asian American community has precedent in this country but our collective memory is short, especially when these stories are not part of our history books. Let's remember the 1871 Chinese American Massacre in LA and the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin. Anti-Asian sentiment has been part of American history. When the pandemic happened in Wuhan, I worried for my Chinese-American mother in New York and my 100-year-old Japanese-American grandmother in Los Angeles. Though we were vigilant on keeping ourselves safe from the virus, the vitriol of the previous administration triggered fear of violence directed toward my family and I. At present, with close to 4,000 reported hate crimes and many unreported, the violence we see towards our elders, parents, workers of Asian descent are horrific and traumatizing. Bearing witness to the continuous attacks on the Asian American community, whether via news or social media amidst the pandemic, made me feel helpless to act and donating money to countless victims' GoFundMe campaigns felt like I was late to protecting others from such violence. So I became vigilant at reaching out to our non-Asian allies to bring awareness of what is happening in our communities. I learned that silence from the local media makes our pain and fear unseen. It is why I took part in the letter written by the Vermont, Asian and Pacific Islander Desi Americans for Black Lives one week after the Atlantic shootings. Sadly, when confronting one of the local media outlets, I was told that something has to drastically happen to one of us to be worthy of reporting on their platform. It should never come to that to be seen. In a relatively safe in Vermont, it is not far from our mind that horrific hate crimes can happen here, like in Atlanta, Indianapolis, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It just takes one person to cause harm. Microaggressions can appear innocent, like, where are you from? No, really, where are you from? And can evolve into verbal abuse on the street or result in deadly violence in a workplace. Hate is a virus. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is a first step toward tracking these crimes, but I hope it threads a needle through the silence of the unreported violence in our communities amidst and out of this pandemic. We know we are not the only communities of color impacted by racism, so we ask our lawmakers to push further with legislation to protect Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Desi Americans against hate crimes and apply the same lens of protection for all. We are Americans, too. Thank you again, Congressman Welch, for representing us on this important legislation. Thank you, Mieko. Thank you. Thank you, Mieko. And now Paul Yoon, who is Senior Advisor at UVM Provost Diversity and Equity Team. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Paul Seokhyun Yoon. He and his pronouns, and I'm a second-generation Korean American. Thank you, Representative Welch, for the invitation to join you and Mieko and for voting in favor of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act this week. Thank you, which is thank you in Korean. Before I start my remarks in earnest, I'd like to recognize that May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. And just like other Heritage and History Months, the AAPI Heritage Month is a way of building awareness, pride, and inclusion. But the inclusion of AAPI peoples and stories should not be confined to the month of May. So I hope you will find other ways to amplify the experiences and stories of AAPIs throughout the year. I'm honored to be here with all of you to reflect briefly on the increase of anti-Asian hate and how it has both impacted me and to share some of my thoughts on why I believe the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is so important. Last March, during a particularly tense and challenging period of the pandemic, when three members of an Asian American family, including a two-year-old and a six-year-old, were stabbed because the suspect thought the family was Chinese and infecting people with COVID-19, I was terrified. I was terrified that something like that would happen to my children who were five and nine at the time. When I saw the gruesome picture on social media, the picture that was too graphic for most news media outlets to carry, of the six-year-old's slashed face, the cut went from behind his ear to his eye. I couldn't get the image out of my head. For many days and nights afterwards, I would, without warning, see my children's faces cut that way. And as a parent, I constantly worried I wouldn't be able to stop something like that from happening. This March, as Representative Welch said, like millions of people around the world, I watched in horror that grainy video of Brandon Elliott kicking and stomping on the head of 65-year-old Vilma Curry. All I could think about was my 75-year-old mother, my three sisters, my aunt, my cousins, all who live and work in New York City. What if something like that happened to them? How could I protect them from something like this? I continued to fear for their safety and tell them to not only remain vigilant, but to also be ready to defend themselves if necessary. Legislation like the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is an answer to the millions of pleas from people like me who look to our nation's leaders for protection and to ensure that our policies have equitable outcomes. Make no mistake, right? This bill is neither going to eradicate racism nor is it going to bring a stop to all of the anti-Asian attacks occurring across our country. However, I believe it centers AAPI experiences and voices in a unique way, and it will do more to address the anti-Asian hate than any other piece of legislation that we've seen to date. I, too, believe everybody in our country deserves to feel safe, and I hope legislation like this brings us one step closer to that reality. I'd like to close today just by mentioning that Mieko and I are members of Vermona PETA for Black Lives. Because we believe our liberation is quote-unquote bound up with our Black neighbors, friends, and colleagues. We remain steadfast in our commitment to collective liberation and implore all of you to be active anti-racist and to fight systemic racism wherever it manifests. Thank you again, Representative Welch, for your leadership, your commitment to our community, and for asking us to stand here in solidarity with you today. Thank you, Paul. Thank you very much. Any questions for anyone? Yeah, one of the thoughts that went through my head when you were talking about the legislation is why wouldn't other hate crimes legislation really kind of work, and why aren't they working? But Paul just mentioned that the current legislation is centering on AAPI in a unique way. So can you kind of explain those two facets? Why the current hate crimes laws don't work and what's unique about this to make it work? There's two things. One is there is hate crimes legislation that does apply and could be invoked. But second, as Paul was saying, since COVID, there's been a directed attack on Asians. That's the fact. And as Paul mentioned, the former president called it the China virus. And it was a concerted effort to attribute blame for COVID on Asians. And that manifests itself with an expression of violence and hatred towards Asian-Americans. And that's unacceptable. So there's a recognition here that we are seeing in this country something that it's not unique. Mieko spoke about that with our history. But it is specifically accelerated by what happened with COVID and how the administration pointed the finger of blame at the Chinese for the virus. Just kind of a base question. Could we get the spelling of your name? Sure. Yeah, do you want to send it? I have a question for Paul and Mieko. Yeah, go ahead. It's for both of you. I was curious if either of you have directly experienced or have seen or heard about Asian-Americans in Vermont specifically experiencing discrimination or hate for the duration of COVID-19, COVID-19 specific discrimination or hate. Do you want to ask? Yeah. So it's a great question. And I think that in a way I guess I suppose I'm lucky I personally haven't been the direct target of it. I actually use this example with the media last week because there have been inferences that I've also had to make though. So for example, car right driving back saying something like, you know, go back to your country or something along those lines was that what reason exactly right did that kind of come from? I think that for some people, the origins of that type of an experience make them question whether it was their race or whether it was something else. So I actually put this question out to the group that we're a part of and several people did comment that they've been victims, if you will, of like road rage incidents. And again, people have just left their wondering like what was it that caused that other person to flip me off, drive past me really fast, honk their horn, et cetera. And so again, there is, again, things are happening. We've also heard examples where children have been, you know, told to stay away from other kids because they're Asian or Asian American or something along those lines. But again, all of these little things are anecdotal, at least the ones that we've heard of. So I hope that helps to answer your question. I was going to say, I think what I was trying to express is it's the buildup that we see. It's very subtle. It's language. It's behavior. And so like I personally haven't found it, although I am triggered by the fear of one in the previous administration. I really feared for my kid. I really was, I didn't know how it would be handled. It's also too, for me personally, my mother, the first thing when this virus came about, she called me and she goes, be prepared. We might be, you know, it's in our heads. We have a history. We might be wrangled. We might be taken out, excluded, whatever it may be. So that is in the back of my mind. I just, but I recently just got an email from a friend who basically in New York experienced being, you know, spat upon and being yelled at. So it's a buildup. And what we're fearful of is the extreme. And we've seen that. The Senate version of this bill passed with a level of support that is frankly unheard of for these things. Right. That's good. I think it's a good thing for the House to agree that today is Monday. And so that level of support, do you expect the same level of support of the House? Maybe not. But I think we'll get really solid support. But you know, the House is a strange place these days. I mean, I was in the oversight committee last week when one of my Republican colleagues was describing January 6th as an ordinary visit of tourists to take a look at the Capitol and do selfies. So it's a different, there's a lot of denial there. And actually it's a reason why I think it's so important and Paul and Mieko have talked about this. We've got to name it. You know, I think it's appalling to Vermonters to see any kind of discrimination. You know, and we're proud in Vermont that there's mutual respect. Okay. And it's just, we don't want this. You know, we want to welcome everybody for who they are. And that's not necessarily true all around. So my hope is we'll get very broad support in the House. But we've got definitely a group of folks who continue to deny that Joe Biden is the freely elected president in the United States who deny that January 6th in effect happened. And it's hard for me to understand what motivates them or how they see the world. But I am confident we're going to have broad bipartisan support for this. Thanks. Yeah. I'm just wondering how large the Asian-American population is here in Vermont that community. Do you know what Paul and Mieko are? We actually did. Yeah, I think we were doing this calculation. We believe I think looking at the census it's about 2% is where I think it lies. A little over 12,000 Vermonters identify as Asian-American or Pacific Island. Great, thank you. By the way though, that's really an important reason for this legislation. If you're in a very small minority and you don't have the numbers for mutual support and mutual solidarity, it's really important that all of us in the majority make it clear that we've got your back. Speaking about having your back, I've heard a lot lately about BIPOC, Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Are you getting a lot of support from the other BIPOC groups in Vermont as you, you know, express your fears and concerns? I think the short answer, Pat, is yes, we are. And I think, again, specifically given the orientation of our group has been, I think, important. Because as I said earlier, we believe, right, that our liberation is connected, right, in all of these different kind of ways. And so the community, right, relationships that we have, just the friendships that we forge, I think have been really helpful. And, right, we also recognize other right histories and the nuances within each right, different groups kind of struggles as well. But I would say, thankfully, on my end, yes, it's been nice to be able to have their support. And in fact, it was on the day that Vilma was attacked in New York City, it was primarily my black friends and colleagues who reached out to me first, just saying, I know how that feels, and I'm here if you need me. And I think Van Jones did an excellent piece showing that in historically black and Asian-American histories in supporting one another, especially around legislation and policies, you know, we have a combined history of supporting one another during the most roughest and challenging time. So I think that there's a lot of history and it's not just, it's not current of us supporting one another. Just do the press first. You know, I've got a plane, so any last questions?