Latest news with #FrancescaHong
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Community leaders reflect on 50 years since Hmong refugees first started resettling in Wisconsin
At the Wednesday press conference, organized by the Asian Legislative Caucus, Yang highlighted the work of several Hmong Dane County community members. (Photo courtesy of Rep. Francesca Hong) This year marks the 50th anniversary of the resettlement of Hmong refugees in Wisconsin. During a press conference Wednesday morning, Brenda Yang, the first Hmong person to serve on the Dane County Board of Supervisors, reflected on a complicated question: What does it mean to be Hmong? 'Is it one's genetics? Is it being born into a Hmong family? Is it about the values of the community and prioritizing collective needs over individual needs or is it about knowing how to speak the Hmong language?' Yang mused. 'As I reflect on the many ways that I am Hmong, I realize that every new generation among us has had to wrestle with what it means to be Hmong, and despite the challenges of extinction, we have endured and overcome them through reimagining and redefining what it means to be Hmong, wherever we reside.' In 1975, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Hmong families began resettling in the U.S., including in Wisconsin, aided by church organizations. According to the Hmong American Center, the U.S. government enlisted Hmong allies to assist with its 'secret war' — the covert military operations carried out in Laos during the Vietnam War against the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao. Hmong were persecuted by the Lao and Vietnamese governments as a result, forcing them to flee. The last group of Hmong refugee families came to the U.S. between June 2004 and May 2006. At the Wednesday press conference, organized by the Legislative Asian Caucus, Yang highlighted the work of several Hmong Dane County community members including Manila Kue, who is the founder and CEO of Grand Journey, an organization that provides support services for Hmong and Southeast Asian elders, and Nkauj Nou Vang-Vue, who is the the first school principal of Hmong descent in the Madison Metropolitan School District and also leads the only Hmong-English Language Immersion Program in Wisconsin. She said the leaders are prime examples of people working to embrace their cultural identity as a way to heal and reconcile with the past traumas endured by Hmong and Southeast Asian communities. 'I am reminded that to be Hmong is to be free. I come from a long line of deep history, rich culture and immense resilience,' Yang said. 'To be Hmong is to be free and to be free means to not only liberate ourselves but also to liberate others.' Tammie Xiong, the executive director of the Hmong American Women's Association, was born in the U.S. to Hmong refugees and she said she has 'made it my duty to never forget what happened and why.' Families including hers, she said, 'came as Hmong and Southeast Asian refugees uprooted from our homelands, resettled in a country whose language we did not speak, into a new context we would have to learn to live and build community in.' The state Assembly approved two resolutions this week, including one to celebrate 50 years of strength and resilience of the Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese people and another to commemorate Hmong-Lao Veterans Day and honor the Hmong-Lao veterans who served with U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War. Xiong said those resolutions are an important step in remembering history. 'The 50th year allows us to look back on where we have been, what we have been able to build here in the U.S.,' Xiong said. 'We have gone to school. Some of us have become entrepreneurs, adding to the U.S. economy. Many of us are teachers, mental health practitioners, carpenters, artists, community organizers, researchers, healers, scientists, caretakers. The list goes on and on and these are also positions that continue to nourish and support the community.' 'We must never forget and we will never forget,' Xiong said. Wisconsin is now the state with the third largest Hmong population in the U.S. with over 55,000 people. Xiong noted that they are 'a young community, where the median age is 26 years old, and many of us here in Wisconsin still live at or below the poverty level.' 'Our communities did not come here by choice,' Zon Moua, director of organizing for Dane County-based nonprofit Freedom Inc, said. 'We came here because of war, because of displacement, and because of U.S. foreign policy and when we arrived, we were given very little to rebuild our lives, and for five decades, southeast Asian people have worked tirelessly to survive, to heal and to build futures for ourselves and our families. Moua said the anniversary commemoration is also about looking forward and working to improve the lives of Hmong people in Wisconsin. 'What we need is our elected leaders to choose not only to stand with us today, but to act with us tomorrow,' Moua said. She called for fully funding culturally specific victim services, investing in housing and supporting leadership pathways for Southeast Asian youth, 'especially those who are trans and queer.' 'It means teaching our history in schools and making sure our communities are no longer an afterthought,' she said. 'We are here to build and we invite you to build with us.' Pheng Thao, who is the co-executive director of Southeast Asian Action and Southeast Asian Freedom Network, called attention to the challenges that some Hmong and Asian Americans are now facing from the Trump administration. A Hmong woman who was born in Thailand and has lived in the Milwaukee-area since she was eight months old, was recently swept up in the Trump administration's deportation efforts and sent to Laos — a country she had never been to and where she doesn't speak the language. 'Those who came here as refugees, my generation, are being detained and deported back to Laos, a country that they do not know or to Cambodia, a country that they've never seen or to Vietnam to a place that they do not know the language…,' Thao said. 'This is double punishment, and this is something that our families are forced to reconcile with again, and our community is forced to reconcile with forced family separation again.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New in the Legislature: Democrats' bill seeks to commit Wisconsin to clean emissions goal
MADISON - In new legislaton introduced this week, Democrats are proposing a measure they hope will bind the state Legislature to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% in the next five years. Here's what to know about the bill: The "Climate Accountability Act," introduced Tuesday, would not outline how the state should achieve that goal but would indicate that the Legislature is serious about climate change and the impacts it could have on the state. The proposed text of the bill is only five lines long and calls for a "viable plan" to reduce emissions by 52% by 2030, and another "viable plan" to achieve carbon neutral goals. The legislation was introduced by Democratic Representatives Supreme Moore Omokunde of Milwaukee, Angelito Tenorio of West Allis, Darrin Madison of Milwaukee, Francesca Hong of Madison, Angelina Cruz of Racine, Christian Phelps of Eau Claire and Margaret Arney of Wauwatosa. In addition, Democratic Senators Chris Larson of Milwaukee, Jodi Habush Sinykin of Whitefish Bay, Melissa Ratcliff of Cottage Grove and Tim Carpenter of Milwaukee were also involved in the drafting. Moore Omokunde talked about the "fierce urgency of now," a phrase once used by Martin Luther King Jr. "We must all decide what we will do on behalf of the planet that we love and that we live in," he said. "I say that this is a sense of urgency, because the best way to prevent runaway climate change is to cut our carbon emissions in half in the next five years, by 2030. We cannot continue to burn fossil fuels with no plans to seek alternatives." The first step would be to get the bill a hearing at the committee level. At least one legislator behind the bill acknowledged it's unlikely to receive much Republican support, and the GOP holds the majority in the Legislature. No Republicans were a part of crafting the bill, and Hong said during a press conference it is unlikely to receive much Republican support. "I predict that the majority party will be opposed to addressing the crisis," said Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison. But Moore Omokunde said he is holding out hope for bipartisan work on the issue. Recently, Republicans proposed legislation to study nuclear energy as a way to reduce the state's reliance on coal. "Right now, I'm seeing a lot of converging interests," he said. Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@ and on X @SchulteLaura. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrats' bill commits Wisconsin to clean emissions goal
