Hundreds of people turned out Sunday to offer their support at a Stop Asian Hate rally, held in front of the State House in Concord.
The rally was in response to a national wave of violent attacks and incidents of bias against people of Asian descent that included the killing of eight people in Atlanta last week, six of them Asian women.
“I was so shocked when I heard about this,” said the Rev. Sandra Pontoh of the Maranatha Indonesian U.C.C. Church in Madbury, interviewed Sunday morning by phone. “My husband said – you have to be more careful now, even going to get the mail. It’s like another freedom has been taken from me. I hope nothing happens to our Asian communities here.”
The program, organized by the NH AAPI Democrats (New Hampshire Asian American and Pacific Islander Democrats) included a number of speakers, with several from the Seacoast region.
“We are sad, frustrated and angry,” said Cora Quisumbing-King, a Dover resident and co-chair of NH AAPI. “We are unique. We are different. We are all the same. We have chosen to be seen and heard, just as you do.”
To read the full story, go to seacoastonline.com.