The life you save . . .

The Asian Pacific Community in Action recently held a birthday party for the Affordable Care Act, which was passed on March 23, 2010. That same day, we stopped by Congressman Ed Pastor’s office to drop off a small birthday cake and express our community’s support of the ACA.

Both of these activities were atypical for us, as we are often focused on directly providing health education and clinical services to our populations of interest. However, this recent advocacy work is a taste of things to come. In the coming months, we will be exercising our right and obligation to speak up for the rights and interests of our communities. If we don’t, who will?

“In Germany they first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me – and by that time, no one was left to speak up.”

--Pastor Martin Niemoller

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director