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EK: But, just in the interest of time, I'm just going to go straight to the bigger impact questions. I'm gonna go directly through each question. And also, specifically, what I wanted to jump forward to is that, because I guess this is a good way to slowly close in on Elaine. But Elaine was just the biggest, I mean, from what I've researched so far, and hearing from you all, that she's just the biggest proponent on expanding, protecting human rights, civil liberties. And that seemed to be at the root of Elaine's work, and just her as an individual. But everyone has purpose and expanding their, their people have different philosophies and principles. I know, for me, it's, although I am very privileged enough to not have gone through anything significant. But I know that through reading other -- hearing and reading the stories, and for me, I feel like it's still a growing kind of philosophy. But I know that for me, I want to keep working on expanding or protecting human rights because of the idea of never again. Like, some things should just never happen in the first place and they should never happen again. And so, for me, that's kind of my principle going forward. And so I'm wondering, for Elaine, what do you think was really at the... what was her philosophy, her purpose, the principles that she carried as an individual who really took on this work as an activist, especially when -- fighting for human rights is not an easy thing to do, because unfortunately, there are just individuals who cannot understand what it means just to have equality and what it means to be just and fair to one another. So if anyone would like to share that. It's a very broad question. It's a heavy question, but yeah.
AL: I guess that probably just speaks to who Elaine is. And not everybody's gonna be like that. But that's what good leaders do, they kind of keep it going, or get it as far as they can, and then hopefully their message and their work kind of continues in a different way. But I think I feel fortunate that I was there at a time where she was there, I had the opportunity to know her, be her friend, and even know her through work a little bit. Because I think just... and we can't be like her, but we can certainly remember her and appreciate what she did and then kind of carry on in our own way through her. And I wish, because when I was really involved, I think I really enjoyed it. And I knew it was really important. And that's probably what kept me involved because I knew it was, even though we did a lot of... I remember when my parents were involved in like the casino nights and stuff like that, so it's very, I mean, I think that's how JACL started, more of a social thing. But my parents were also very kind of socially conscious, and my dad would always talk about the camps. Always. Always [Laughs]. And so that's ingrained in me, I think, is... and so I, that was, Elaine is like taking on... because back then it wasn't like the popular thing to do back then. Now it kind of is, but back then it was like, like a Japanese getting married to a Black person or something, it was like, she just did it because she knew it was right. And I don't know if we have that kind of... I don't know if we're like that anymore, it's kind of, we're kind of soft. But I got involved in some... like I remember walking for the Bakke, remember Allan Bakke? And we did a walk for that, the reverse discrimination thing and... so it really taught me a lot about, I think... and I know she, besides my parents, I think she just really, yeah, she was just quiet, but she was, had a loud voice. And that's kind of a good way to describe her -- you knew she was there. And even if she wasn't saying anything, she was listening to what you were saying. And she kind of, it's like she had ears everywhere because she was pretty smart, but didn't brag about it or anything and I think that's... she was kind of like stealth-like, I think, or something, but she really cared about way more than I think all of us put together. It has to be because she just did so much. Yeah. Now that I'm looking back on this, I really realize how much she did.
<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2022 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.