AKASIA and the November 23rd Rally

Hey everyone, my name is James and I'm a member of AKASIA and an intern at NAKASEC. AKASIA, Alliance of Korean American Students in Action, is a group of students who are all dedicated and invested in passing the DREAM act and CIR. Over the summer we worked on gathering postcards from thousands of community members, all of whom support our cause. With the help of KRC and NAKASEC as well as many others, we were able to collect over nine thousand postcards! We also attended many legislative visits to the offices of various Congress members to make sure that Congress heard our voice as well as those of all the other students who dream of passing DREAM.

This past November 23rd, I, along with a few other AKASIA members, joined hundreds of others in a rally and vigil in San Francisco. People young and old and of every ethnicity gathered in front of Speaker Pelosi's to shout our need for healthcare for ALL. After marching around the courtyard, we listened to many speakers who gave testimonies on how healthcare, or lack of, has affected their lives. Everything was translated in four different languages (!), showing the diversity of the people who support the cause. Later everyone joined together and lit candles to symbolize our passion and our solidarity. The rally was great. Over two hundred people came from all over California and NAKASEC, the organizers of the rally, and KRC gathered over 7,500 petitions from across the nation with the help of many other organizations. The rally revitalized the passion of those who attended and reminded everyone that, despite the unprecedented progress our nation has made towards healthcare reform, we still need to work so much more to have healthcare for ALL.

That's all for this post. I'll have pictures of the event up later!