Pacific Grove, California, Walk of Remembrance

 Full Moon (Total Lunar Eclipse 9:11 p.m. PDT)

Yesterday was the 11th Annual Walk of Remembrance  in Pacific Grove honoring the residents of the historic Chinese fishing village which "mysteriously" burned down in 1906. The village was located at Point Alones, now the site of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station close to today's Cannery Row. There were several attempts by the U.S. government to remove Chinese immigrants in California and elsewhere prior to this local tragedy. The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History and the Pacific Grove Public Library are good places to start if you want to learn more. 

The Walk of Remembrance program began at the museum on Central Avenue where a crowd of about 300 people gathered to hear a handful of local and state officials speak about the importance of diversity and justice in society. The final speaker, a Pacific Grove councilman, read a proclamation by the city which formally apologized for the racist destruction of the Point Alones Fishing Village and the more recent anti-Chinese American hate speech associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. A few lighter moments were provided by the Monterey Bay Lion Dance Team. 

The Walk began after the speeches were over, proceeding down toward the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail a little less than a mile to the Hopkins Marine Station. Several members of the procession carried small posters which the museum provided that were photographs of the victims of the fire. 

At the village site, the crowd re-assembled to watch a traditional dance performed before a small group of descendants of the original villagers. The dance was followed by speakers from the Marine Station and a historian from Stanford University. 

Nobody can change history. Discrimination that happened in the 19th and 20th centuries forever changed the lives of people who were only doing their best to feed their families and to earn a hard living in a rapidly changing world. There is no valid excuse for what took place in 1906 and there is no valid reason for any of that to continue into modern times. I applaud the city of Pacific Grove for their efforts to mend the hurt that still haunts families of the 1906 victims. And I pledge responsibility for my own thoughts, speech, and actions in every human and natural encounter. 

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." 

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace, Love, and Remembrance,

Jim

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