Moving Mountains: A Southeast Asian American Equity Summit 10/12-14, 2017

SEARAC announced Moving Mountains: A Southeast Asian American Equity Summit for October 12 - 14, 2017 in Washington, DC. Details are pending, but they're promoting it as follows:

"Don't miss this opportunity to shape the community's fight for visibility, justice, and self-determination. Building a powerful community voice is more important than ever. SEARAC's first equity summit will bring together community leaders, advocates, grassroots activists, staff of community-based organizations, students, artists, and youth from the Southeast Asian American community to share ideas, learn from one another, and together build a collaborative equity agenda."

SEARAC will turn 40 years old in 2019. It is a national organization that "advances the interests of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans by empowering communities through advocacy, leadership development, and capacity building to create a socially just and equitable society." They "envision a socially, politically and economically just society for all communities to enjoy for all generations."

It will be interesting to see what they can do to engage all of these diverse communities, particularly as so many of our organizations that began the journey in the 1980s have suffered from epidemic collapse or malaise in many regions. The result among those who survive are heavily overextended organizations badly in need of re-energizing and a renewed engagement with their communities to serve their most at-risk constituents. There's a need for imagination, innovation, and inspiration.

We've seen a few legislative victories at a state level in California and Minnesota, in particular. But I think much more could be done. But how does one really move a mountain?

Well, that's one way...