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A Crime Against Any Community is a Crime Against Us All

Blakely Hall Highlands Council

A Message from Kimberly Kapustein, President, Highlands Council Board of Trustees

Kimberly Kapustein

Kimberly Kapustein

Since March 2020, over 3,800 racist incidents have been reported against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the group Stop AAPI Hate.

Some of those attacks have happened in our community. Our Asian American and Pacific Islander community members live in fear and experience great pain from these racist acts and rhetoric. We stand together in denouncing this behavior and are actively working to ensure that Issaquah Highlands is a place where everyone feels safe and welcome. These are the faces we see every day. They are our family, our friends, our teammates, and our loved ones.

Please stand with them, be angry with them, grieve with them, and protect them.

Enough is enough. It has never been acceptable to senselessly attack any people based on race or nationality, gender or creed, religion, sexual orientation, or anything else, whether there is a virus or layers of ignorance as reasons behind them. On this matter, Highland Council is speaking with one voice so there is no mistaking the meaning: Stop the bullying, harassment, and hate. Not in the times of COVID-19, not before and not after. We believe our community is more vital for its diversity, and we are stronger together in what we build as one.

I hope you will join our Issaquah Highlands Cross-Cultural Committee to help bring your culture to light.

#StopAsianHate #lovewhereulive

As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on March 16, 2021, in the Atlanta Metropolitan area, the president of the United States has ordered the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds through sunset, March 22, 2021. 

 Highlands Council’s mission is to foster the development of a vibrant and caring community that is committed to service, diversity, stewardship, and well-being.

Kimberly is the president of the Highlands Council Board of Trustees and a Dahlia Park resident.