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IM: So you, eventually the collective ends in 1976, you part ways with them and with Mo. And I guess you begin with LTPRO?

KM: I think I had been working, I think we had formed a, I want to say a Workers and Newcomers Committee in LTPRO. I don't know if it was about then.

IM: Yeah, I think so.

KM: I was also teaching, but I was working at Hollenbeck. So it's still going to Little Tokyo, trying to remember what I was doing. And still working with East L.A. Outreach Team or Young Spirits for a time until they graduated from high school. So I think it kind of ended when that group of young people graduated from high school. So it was still going on for a bit. And I was working with some people around education issues, because I was kind of into school, so we were working around, I think the bussing issue that was starting up about that time, and so working with some other TAs, teaching assistants, like Steve Nagano and other Latino teaching assistants that were part of a group that tried to do some education around the bussing issue. But I was still involved in Little Tokyo as well. And I'm not exactly sure when the Workers and Newcomers Committee formed, but we did form.

IM: Just to circle back to your time as a teacher's assistant, do you remember what you tried to teach people on about bussing at the time? What kind of, what was your political stance on that issue?

KM: Our stance was that it's fine... okay, it's fine to bus, believe in integration, but we didn't believe in forced bussing of minority kids. We felt that that should be a choice, if I recall correctly. So it was that we felt that they should determine whether or not they want to be fussed, meaning it should not be forced upon minority communities, that was our view.

IM: So how did you guys arrive at that?

KM: I don't remember. And I don't think it was... I don't know if we talked about the collective, but I feel like I talked about it with this group, this particular group that we were involved in. Again, it has to do with the self-determination and people of color, so we felt that we should always determine what we want.

IM: Was there pushback against what you guys were doing from administrators or parents?

KM: I don't remember that. We just put out a pamphlet, I don't know if we...

IM: Okay.

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