BRAVERY DURING PROBLEM TIMES

Today, the national news is about the Texas floods. I’m not a big fan of Gale King, but I want to commend her for interviewing this family with two boys around 5 & 7 years of age who were successfully rescued. The kindergartener said, “No, I wasn’t scared.” And the mother talked about prayer and gratitude.

I may be too much of a Pollyanna, but I want to find the bravery in the situations we face daily. Therefore, there is no doubt that bad things and problems have to occur as part of life so “bravery” can be chosen!!

Yesterday was the first Sunday of the month of July 2025 and we had another session of STORIES AT THE PANAMA. Fourteen of us gathered and shared stories of our heritage and how various immigrants found refuge here in Seattle after escaping political difficulties in their heritage. Particularly impactful was the story from Justin and how his family escaping across the Mekong River in Laos. Another story was from Stephen whose family had to flee across Siberia. Raku told us about how at age 3-1/2 her house was bombed in Japan and she survived from underneath the rubble. Years later, here at the U of Washington, at a reception, she met the person who as an American pilot had potentially dropped that bomb in Kyushu at the end of WWII.

I am connecting with individuals like Hana Maruyama and her FUDEKO project in Connecticut. Today, I answered an email from Sandra Buscher, in Connecticut, who has developed a OUR DEBT OF GRATITUDE project with Margaret Mukai in New Jersey. They are seeking stories about individuals of non-Japanese Americans during the mass forced removal and incarceration of World War II and the nationwide denial of. Civil rights.

Locally, here in Seattle, I have blogged a few of our stories of COMPASSION AND KINDNESS and continue to seek more. It is important to me that as our stories are read by school children when our OMOIDE books are distributed to Washington State School libraries. I am counting on finding stories that inspire individual students to overcome their own difficulties and serve their communities - wherever they live out their lives with BRAVERY!