VIGIL: Mourners decry pervasiveness of firearms, discrimination

Chia Ling Yau, 76; Wen Tau Yu, 64; Xiujuan Yu, 57; Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50; Jose Romero Perez; Aixiang Zhang, 74; Zhishen Liu, 73; Qizhong Cheng, 66; Jingzhi Lu, 64 Yetao Bing, 43; Mario Navarro.

Later on in the evening, UC Davis student Emma Tolliver shared the names and their stories as Kayla Garcia Pebdani lit a candle for each victim.

“My heart is broken tonight. I’m grieving for these folks from the Asian American Pacific Islander community, my community. Another mass shooting, and at this time, my kinfolk. The most recent victims could have easily been my sister, brother, uncle, auntie,” Lee-Jobe said.

The issues are twofold, LeeJobe said.

First, the stigma against receiving mental health support in the AAPI community. “There is a gentle side to the model minority myth that says as we age, we have a perfect loving family, high achieving children and beautiful home. Well, what if we don’t have those perfect lives? What if we’re feeling weak and enraged? Anxious? Marginalize? Disrespected? Who do we turn to that speaks Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Thai, or Hindi and is culturally competent? There needs to be more mental health workers with these qualifications.”

Second: gun control. “Neither of these angry men should have had guns,” Lee-Jobe said. “Where were the red flags? They both had wives and coworkers that knew of their anger.”

The accessibility of guns coupled with exacerbating conditions, like the substandard farmworker housing the shooter in Half Moon Bay lived in, or the squalid trailer park where the Monterey Park shooter lived, are not excuses, argued Anoosh Jorjorian, the director of Yolo Rainbow Families, a social and advocacy group for families with LGBTQIA members. But, she continued, “They are exacerbating conditions. And then, when guns are easily available, it just is too easy. It’s just too simple to take people’s lives.”

Eunbee Ham, associate pastor of Davis Community Church prayed that courage would carry the community through any fears, and when the time comes, “we jump into action.”

“Let us also resist this violence, grief, and hatred by mirroring the joy and life they had while dancing and celebrating,” she said.

Ham expressed that people in the AAPI community have persevered through incredible violence war, exclusion and generational trauma. “We are a resilient community, and our resilience has limitations. I grieve the 18 people