Pausing AAPI Spotlights - Grieving and Taking Action

Hello Mamas,

I will continuing celebrating AAPI Heritage Month with our incredible community of folks, and it may go into the month of June to give space for processing what has happened, and where we go from here.

Devastated, broken hearted, mad and sad. I haven't found the words to talk to my kids about the shooting because I'm at a loss for words. When we started at our beloved school 3 years ago with Max in Kindergarten, the tall bars/gates were added to close off the campus. And then a few weeks ago, I was in Max's class during their active shooter drill.

The fact that there are such drills is gut wrenching. I was in my daughter’s kindergarten class today looking at where they would hide. I was in the library and saw the roller shades, with a different thought of not just to keep room cool, but how it would be used in the most awful situation.

And now these drills are in preschools.

Preschools.

I found these 2 resources helpful

1) https://www.nasponline.org/.../talking-to-children-about...

2) https://akidsco.com/

Other things you can do if/when you have the bandwidth (this all took me 10 minutes)

1) I also found it comforting (in an odd way) to call my 2 senators regarding 2 bills that are a step in extending the cooling off period for purchasing as well as transferring. Yes, I know I'm in California but it doesn't hurt to give more support and use your voice. That is why we vote. Here is a script on how to do that, and https://www.instagram.com/p/CeAJXvVFzGg/ here's the link to get your phone numbers . I've never called a senators office in my life, and the aid I spoke too could not have been more kind, despite the massive influx of calls she was juggling. She says they tally the calls and concerns and present them daily . It will take a few minutes.

https://www.commoncause.org/find-your.../addr/...

2) Donate - we donated to Moms Demand Action https://momsdemandaction.org/ and Everytown https://www.everytown.org/

3) I also emailed the owner of the convention center where the NRA convention in Texas is this weekend and he has the power to cancel it. His name is David Mincberg (D) and his email is dmincberg@flagshipco.com

I'm not here to debate that we need radical change around gun responsibility. All parents have the right to send their child to school. My heart goes out to the families, the child survivors and adult survivors and all the teachers/staff on campus who witnessed this deadly act.

Thanks for being here.

Love,

Annie