Honoring a Leader
- Honoring a Community Uniting
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Mayor Johnson proclaims October 16th
Michael Yoshii Day
October 16, 2004 --
More than 230 people gathered for dinner at the O-Club in Alameda to
celebrate and honor Rev. Yoshii and his Buena Vista Methodist congregation
for years of successful commitment to the cause of human rights.
On July 4th weekend of this year the annual conference of the National Education Association honored Reverend Michael Yoshii of Alameda as a crusader for justice for all people. (Click here to read about the NEA award.)
Getchen Lipow who taught in the Alameda school system for 34 years felt that Rev. Yoshii's contribution should also be recognized locally. She organized a gala dinner at the O-Club to create a joyous and meaningful event she felt would give voice to the many groups that Rev. Yoshii and his church support in their struggles for social justice.
The O-Club dinner hall can host about 240 people
if a few eat in the cloak closet. Fortunately, no one was left out
as 230 people filled the main hall with
noisy chatter, greetings, speeches of recognition for work well done, and
round after round of hearty applause for a social champion, Rev. Michael
Yoshii. In accepting the honors, he deferred recognition and pointed to
members of his church, many in the audience, as the real award recipients.
The program for the evening said of Rev. Yoshii:
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A third-generation Japanese American (a Sansei), Rev. Yoshii has
organized and spoken out on a number of issues, such as housing for
the poor, racial diversity, and civil liberties violations.
Stressing the importance of people from different ethnic and racial
backgrounds getting to know each other, he initiated discussion
forums among Alameda's politicians, businesspersons, and citizens.
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Rev. Yoshii just might be a pragmatic idealist or an ideal
pragmatist. A catalyst in initiating school and community
programs, he also was instrumental in establishing the Alameda
MultiCultural Community Center. The center offers services to the
Alameda community ranging from yoga classes for the body and soul
to children's art classes, and it is a hub of activities for
Alameda's many ethnic cultures.
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Several years ago, Rev. Yoshii worked with community members in
lobbying the Alameda School District and the Alameda Board of
Education to conduct a diversity audit, which eventually led to the
establishment of new hiring goals to increase diversity among the
district's workforce. Rev. Yoshii also helped to establish the
Organization of Alameda Asians (OAA), which promotes voter
registration drives and forums for the Alameda community. He was
the convener for the Coalition of Alamedians for Racial Equality
(CARE), a community response to racial controversy with the Alameda
Police Department. CARE has evolved into a multicultural training
program for students to address issues surrounding identity,
culture, and racism. Through the Buena Vista Community Institute,
new youth projects serving the Asian Pacific population have been
developed under his guidance. These include the Asian Pacific
Youth Institute, the Asian Pacific Peer Counseling Project, and the
SPOT Youth Organization. Because of Rev. Yoshii, many citizens in
Alameda have developed a new appreciation for Asian culture, and
many Asian students have gained a friend to whom they can come for
advice and counsel-someone who can help them to navigate the shoals
of a different culture. At the same time, Rev. Yoshii has forged
new opportunities for multicultural relationships in a city rapidly
changing in its demographic makeup. Always, his message is the
same: If we're going to live together, we have to learn to
respect each other and appreciate our differences so that we can
create a better world together.
