October 2, 2020

My Asian immigrant mom doesn't understand why I'm so political. She doesn’t worry about policies. She worries I won’t find a nice boy to marry and take care of me. She doesn’t know her legislators and she definitely doesn’t want to talk to them. She is, however, upset that I don’t call her often enough.

But, my Asian immigrant mom knew how to raise four independent daughters and send us all to college. When I was growing up, my mom worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day. She still woke me up for breakfast and packed my lunch. Every day. Her reward for raising me, her youngest, to adulthood was losing her Medicaid health insurance. And as contracted labor she had no employer-sponsored health insurance, no matter the hours she worked.