Every year since the kickoff year in 2011, I’ve tried to make the annual Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties & the Constitution in the Bay Area.
This year, I was particularly interested since after watching the movie The Post (about The Washington Post and its reporting of the Pentagon Papers, which was leaked by Daniel Ellsberg), the keynote speaker this year was was Daniel Ellsberg, who apparently lives in Northern California.
Ellsberg did not disappoint! Ellsberg’s keynote was I thought, very thought provoking, discussing that the Trump America we know today existed before Trump was elected. Ellsberg also thought that if there was another “9/11” event that there would be indeed Muslim concentration and deportation camps. Ellsberg said the events of Charlottesville with the white supremacist and Trump and Trump’s administrations’ racist attitudes and that a very large fraction of America is actually represented by Trump. Some may want just jobs, and not all are racists, homophobes, misogynists, etc… it is not 1% There are a lot of contradictions in American, like the first 11 out of 15 presidents of the United States owned slaves, 8 of them while they were president.
The whole program in the video includes:
- Welcome – Jane Katsuyama, Emcee
- Greeting – Office of Congresswoman Barbara Lee, 13th District of California
- Speech Contest Winner – Sarah Khan, Fred T. Korematsu Middle School
- Statement: Sanctuary State – Office of CA Assembly Rob Bonta, CA 18th Assembly District
- Guest Speaker – Reyna Grande
- Lion Dance – Leung’s White Crane and Dragon Group
- Film Clip: And Then They Came For Us – Abby Ginzberg, Director
- Fred Korematsu Speaks Up – Laura Atkins & Stan Yogi, Authors
- 50:45 – 1:21:50 – Keynote Speaker – Daniel Ellsberg
- Call to Action – Adena Ishii
- Public Service Announcement (PSA) – Fred Korematsu Day
- Tribute to Mayor Edwin M. Lee, Korematsu Institute Update – Karen Korematsu
