We Are Better Than This.
We are better than this.We are better than the fights. We are better than the shootings. We are better than the filming of these events. We are better than the numbness we have to tragedy. We are better than adding more hate into hatred acts.
This is certainly not who we are.
We are not the person, who valued shooting another at a national event that our people fought to establish.
We are not the individuals who chose a holiday weekend to display their worthiness through their fists.
This is certainly not who we are. And so many of us know it.
And we are begging you. Don't give up on us and believe us to be something we are not.
We have come too far for that.
These are decisions made by individuals, with no correlation as to "why we don't have a country" nor do we have the leaders we need.
Take this country that we already live in as evidence. This country who is the face of guns from the outside world, still exists. This is not why we don't have a country, because remember, we have been running all our lives from those who have desired to extinguish us.
And we have leaders. So many leaders, of many ages, many fields, doing their best each and every day to pave paths for those to come. Sometimes, the best leaders are just those without titles.
My Hmong people, are beautiful people. We are hardworking, we are hospitable; we manage to find each other and come together wherever we are in the world. When I see you and know you are Hmong in a place where there's only us, we take care of each other, we share, we protect. We are family.
This is not idealism--this is true. Because I have seen it, I have lived it, and I am living it.
So please remember, we are better than this. So much better, and so much more. And that this is not us.