Now. Okay, so we're going to start one, two, three, four and five. Welcome, Alameda. Welcome to the Island City Beat podcast. I'm your host, Angie Watson, and today I will be joining in conversation with the Reverend Michael Yoshii.
Angie:Reverend Yoshi is a well known member of our Alameda community. He served as pastor of the Buena Vista Methodist Church from 1988 until his retirement in 2020. Reverend Yoshi has made social and racial justice a foundation of his work in the world, whether it's been fighting for the rights of low income tenants, members of the LGBTQ plus community, or the protection and safety of our immigrant families, both here locally and internationally. He has been a huge, huge force, a huge voice for social change. And I'll talk to him about his three decades of social activism and what he continues to do to bring peace and justice to our world.
Angie:Reverend Michael Yoshi, welcome to the Island City Beat podcast.
Rev. Yoshii:Thank you, Angie.
Angie:Thank you for being here. You know, we go way back. I met you actually back in the, I think, early 90s. We were doing some local access TV work here.
Rev. Yoshii:Yeah.
Angie:Remember, I met you and your wife and your girls. They were like in elementary school at that time. Now you're a grandfather. So time has definitely flown by. Let's go back to 1988, when you first became minister of the Buena Vista Methodist Church.
Angie:What was life like thirty five years ago here in Alameda? From what you can remember, what were some of the, I guess, the issues that the city was grappling with at that time?
Rev. Yoshii:So I was appointed, our Methodist Church does appointments from July to June each year, so I was appointed in July of nineteen eighty eight, and I don't know if you remember the Regis and Reparations Movement for Japanese Americans, but in August, on my birthday, August 10, in fact 1988, the Civil Liberties Act was passed by Congress apologizing to Japanese Americans for the wartime incarceration, and also it approved the monetary regress that didn't get allocated until 1990. But I remember us as a church talking about our need to celebrate the victory. As people may not know Buena Vista is a historically Japanese American congregation that started in 1898 with, first immigrants from Japan to the island city. And so it's got a long, long, rich history and the congregation had, you know, its members, its first generation members had gone through the storms of of anti Asian exclusion acts 1924, a lot of the anti Asian sentiment that was accompanying that, and then of course the wartime incarceration in 1942. So forty years some odd later, congress here apologizes to Japanese Americans.
Rev. Yoshii:And I went with one of our members to one of the city council members and said, you know, we need to do a public recognition of this. And that member, whose name I won't share here said, oh, I'm sorry, we don't do that kind of thing in Alameda. Oh, really? I was just shocked that and I said, what do you mean that kind of thing? And he said, well, maybe maybe that's kind of thing you would do in Berkeley, but not here in Alameda.
Rev. Yoshii:And that was a kind of an introduction to the the context of the culture and the social norms of of the city, which, you know, I began to understand had a rich history of race issues that was, under the surface of a quaint nice little town. Right. And from that moment we went and we ended up doing our own community celebration of the of the victory of redress, but it wasn't, we didn't have any official participation from city leadership, and from that moment, I was engaged in what I call civil liberties theology. You know as a church we it's important that we always are engaged in doing theological interpretation, understanding of the events that are taking place around us and what's going on in the world. And the civil liberties act when it apologized to Japanese Americans said that the reasons why it took place, was because of lack of political leadership, for one, preexisting racism against Japanese Americans, and thirdly, the wartime hysteria that had people not thinking correctly.
Rev. Yoshii:And so that toxic triangle was something that I began to write about and preach about quite often to say that, you know, that apology to us was not just for us, but was for all American people, that we needed to ensure from our community that nothing like that was to take place again to any other people, in our country. And, you know, it was very important that we could own that and understand theologically that spiritually we were a place that would protect the civil liberties of others as well and the human rights and civil rights of others. And it was very important for us to acknowledge that our victory of the Civil Liberties Act would not have happened for except for the historical work of civil rights movement that was led by black community, but was also always very clear that they were fighting for black rights, but it was also for the rights for everybody, that there was the indivisibility of justice for all communities that was at stake and why civil rights movement, you know, was a universal message. It was specific to our black community friends, but it was also universal in the way that it spoke to everyone.
Rev. Yoshii:And that's that's the the interpretation I began to understand for our victory of civil liberties that it was for us specifically, but it's for everybody, and so we need to embody that in all that we do. I began to see that Alameda had this under layer of racial separation and, racism, you know, that was there, but wasn't talked about a whole lot.
Angie:Yeah, my parents, they have shared with me that back in the 60s, they tried to buy a house here in Alameda, and they wouldn't even show my parents a home. They ended up buying their first home in 1969 in Oakland, So, we do have this history here in our wonderful city.
Rev. Yoshii:Yeah, I remember one of our members who had moved from San Francisco in the 60s bought a home on the Gold Coast on Grand Avenue. And as they began to age, the husband passed away and the widow was still there. But she said that the realtor who sold her the house happened to come by, and she didn't know it was him. He was sitting across the street from her home, and she was wondering what this guy was doing sitting across from a street from her home. She went over there and says, excuse me, sir.
Rev. Yoshii:I noticed you've been sitting here. What are you doing? And she says, don't recognize me. I'm the realtor that sold you the home. And she says, no kidding.
Rev. Yoshii:Oh, yeah. And then she said, I remember you. And she says, well, what are you doing? She says, I just retired, and, I'm going back to places where I remember significant things that happened. She says, well, why are you coming back here?
Rev. Yoshii:And she says, well, I don't know if you knew this, but, most of us were barred from selling homes to, people of color. And when things began to open up because of the laws changing, that was still the case, and I sold the home to you and your husband at a personal risk, and I was barred from selling in Alameda, and I had to move on to San Leandro Hayward area, but it was a significant decision I made, and I just as I'm retiring, I'm coming back to places where, I did certain things. And so she invited him in for coffee, and they had a great conversation. Wow, what was Years later, I think that was maybe in the eighties or so that he had come back to to remember that act and she she didn't know the risk that he took and so she was very thankful to him for what he had done.
Angie:Yeah. He was definitely courageous and a brave person to do that. Wow. So your church, because I've been in Alameda for many, many years, I know that your former church, the Buenos Aires Methodist Church, you guys have been very active, really in the forefront of a lot of social change and getting involved with different communities and really trying to put your stamp on helping to move us forward. And I'm just curious, when you first took leadership of the church back in 1988, was it your intention that this is going to be an activist church?
Angie:We're going to be out there in community. We're going to be fighting for social change. Or did that activism just kind of come kind of organically? Was it kind of intentional or it just came from people who say, hey, we want to get involved?
Rev. Yoshii:I think personally I had a bent toward social justice already, so I would, no matter where I went in serving the, a local church, I would bring that perspective to to the circle of the con whatever congregation I served. But I think that circumstances and events that took place in Alameda just opened up things for us to be engaged. And one of them was the controversy that took place in 1990 over at the Amelia Earhart School with Neil Tam, who was then an administrative intern. And there was a misunderstanding and confusion going on because people thought he was the principal, but he was actually taking the place of the principal who was on pregnancy leave. But there, the number of Asians was increasing so much in Harbor Bay, but across the community as well, and when it was decided that he was going to move on somewhere else, people came out in droves to say, keep Neil there, because he was a beloved administrator, and it kind of became a lightning rod for the lack of representation in the district for Asian, both Asian teachers and administrators as well, and he took the brunt of it for being in the center of that storm because he was told that he will never get an administrative position, he'll have to go elsewhere to do that, but he he endured and he ended up eventually becoming a vice principal at Wood School and then later principal at Miller and then Washington, which he helped move through a racial crisis there, to rename it Myo Lynn, and, then later on he, when he retired, he ran for a school board because he wanted to he wanted to continue to share the message of the need for understanding around diversity and equity in in the school district and parallel to that you may remember was the racial crisis with the police department and the NAACP was organizing protests every Friday and I joined those protests and then out of that I began to work with folks in the community on a multiracial coalition that we call coalition of Alamedians for racial equality or care was our acronym.
Rev. Yoshii:And we were monitoring the situation with the police. We were organizing forums in the community and and we ended up gravitating toward trying to develop youth leadership multiculturally as we partnered with the new superintendent of the school district for an after school program for multicultural leadership training, which we did for several years, and you may so you know Vicki Smith, who was one of our original care members, and then eventually with funding she was staffing that program for many years, and then it morphed into the McKinney Vento program where she was prioritizing support for unsheltered kids in the district. So those events, like in 1990, really became kind of openings for our engagement and also bringing our perspective of the history of the congregation and of the Japanese immigrants to Alameda as well as our perspective theologically as I speak of civil liberties theology you know, were bringing that perspective to the discourse taking place in the public at that particular time, and that led to a number of other things, including our work with the support of LGBTQ community that was under fire because of religious right, which is part of a national movement to try to curb any LGBTQ rights locally.
Rev. Yoshii:I think It
Angie:would be happening again now. It's rising up again
Rev. Yoshii:happening again yeah happening now again and this was I remember Larry Schultz at the First Congregational Church he and I were the only two pastors willing to come to the support of LGBT community when they were under fire during that period and that that was a precursor to Laura Rose being called to First Congregational Church, you know, with an intentionality of her bringing LGBTQ leadership from the pulpit and so I'm very proud of us being at the table and us being able to articulate the things that we felt were important for the community. And it's important for us too as a congregation because the issues going on in the community are mirrored in what we're dealing with inside the congregation as well. And then later on, of course, you know, we got involved in affordable housing advocacy because of the the crisis that was was triggered by the closing of the navy navy base and land speculation and development and all of that. And that was a that was a precursor to the formation of renewed hope, which which is still around. Those guys are still still at it monitoring things and trying to make sure that policy is at its optimum for affordable housing in the community.
Rev. Yoshii:And then renters' rights as well was important important issue. As we were hearing from people in the community, what are the things that that are important for organizing? And for us as a Methodist Church, we were part of something called the Community Developers Program that was started actually the year that Martin Luther King Junior was killed, and they created an organizing project for small churches to be engaged in their own way in advancing civil rights for the community. So we were part of that national network, and that was our organizing model for the congregation. And we still have connections to that program now today.
Rev. Yoshii:The current pastor I wanna give a shout out to is pastor Vatna Kang, and he is Cambodian. He really brings a rich, personal history to the community, and he invited me to come back just last year to be pastor Meredith. So in my retirement, I now have a, a special hat to wear as pastor Meredith.
Angie:Oh, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. You know, just thinking about, you know, your career as a pastor there at the Methodist Church, you were there for over thirty years, and that's unusual because I understand that for the most part Methodist ministers are moved around quite a bit. Don't stay in one church very long. How do you not stay in for like thirty two years?
Rev. Yoshii:Well, technically we are under appointment year by year, so we have a process in our system in which every year you have an evaluation of how you're doing, and as a pastor you're asked do you feel it's time to move on or would you like to stay? The congregation also has a committee where they evaluate things and they decide we'd like a change and maybe have a new pastor or we'd like to keep the pastor we have.
Angie:Guess they really liked you, I guess they liked you. Well,
Rev. Yoshii:But I think you know, the the number of years people stay in particular churches may depend on a number of factors, including the condition of the the church, the needs of that pastor in other places for the we call them the gifts and graces or the skill sets that people bring, know, and the Bishop presides over our conference for Northern California, Nevada, along with superintendents who supervise different areas, regions of of our conference, and they're always in, you know, they've been in consultation with people to to decide, you know, what's what's the best use of your time and skills and and where can you be used? And so, technically, every year we're always reviewing that, And, you know, I would find myself often because we were doing a lot of organizing that I'm in the middle of something that maybe next year when I finish this, I'll be ready to move on, you know, so that's that would be that, that, that became sort of a mantra because I was always doing something new. And I had superintendents who were organizers actually, one who was doing organizing in San Francisco before he became a superintendent and the other who was inclined toward that and they both thought that staying in a community longer is a good thing when you're doing organizing because it takes time to build relationships, it takes time for people to trust you and to know who you are and so that antithetical to the idea of moving you around more often, they said they they think that, you know, staying there is fine as long as what you're doing is productive, as long as what you're doing is bearing fruit, and that was the main thing that they said and there were a few times where I thought I was going to be moved or I was ready to move and it just didn't happen and then I ended up you know staying there until I retired.
Angie:That's amazing. Wow. I know that part of the work too that you've been very much focused on and passionate about is the work in supporting the Palestinian people. I wanted to talk to you about that work that you're doing. I know you went to Palestine back in January, and I'd love to hear, first of all, what inspired you to pick up the mantle doing this work, and what are you doing right Yeah.
Rev. Yoshii:Well, there are, I can go back to 02/2006 when I first went to Palestine for the first time, and the Methodist Church has a liaison in the region that works with Palestinians and Israelis, and she was calling Methodists to the region for a conference in Bethlehem, and that was in 02/2006, and there were about 50 of us that came from across the country from Methodist backgrounds to meet with her and that was also the year after the BDS movement got launched. BDS is the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement that was launched by civil society in 02/2005, modeling after what was going on in South Africa in the 1980s, where there was a big divestment movement going on around the world, but particularly in The U. S. As well. And so she was wanting us to organize and that year I came back and began to work with a friend to initiate a task force in our conference in Northern California, Nevada.
Rev. Yoshii:And then that was a building block for what became UMKR or United Methodist Kairos Response, which was started in 2010. Kairos Response, the name of that comes from something called the Kairos Palestine document, and it's the word to the world by Palestinian Christians about the conditions and the reality that they're living under and why, they were endorsing the support for economic measures, both as a nonviolent response to a violent reality, but also as a strategic, movement for, the liberation of Palestinians. And, so the task force in California, worked with task forces across the country, places like in Ohio, New York, Chicago, to create what we call UMKR. And I was involved in that from 02/2010, and that was really working with our, global denomination on divesting, from profiting from the occupation of Palestinians. And the BDS movement was very clear in their focus that they wanted equal rights for all, including people that live within the 48 borders of Israel, Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, because they don't have equal rights, and then they wanted the end to the occupation, and they wanted the right of return for all the refugees that have been displaced around the world.
Rev. Yoshii:That and that comes from the 1948 not what they call the Nakba or the catastrophe of the destruction of many Palestinian homes and villages where people fled, the country. So they're very clear on what their goals were, and I was involved in organizing with our United Methodist Church, on a national level there. But at the same time in our congregation, one of our members in 02/2007 went to Bethlehem and he went to the place of, the birth of Jesus, the Church of Nativity. I don't know if you've ever been there. No.
Rev. Yoshii:But he played, like many people, they stand in long, long lines to get into the Church of Nativity. They stand in long, long lines to kneel at the site of where Jesus was born, and when he knelt there he received a vision that our congregation be involved in ministry with Palestinians, with the emphasis of with, with Palestinians, and he brought that back to the committee that he chaired, which was our justice committee in 02/2007, and it took us actually a year and a half or so to really move through a process of discussion and discernment when we finally decided at the end of 02/2008 that we would move forward with a partnership, but we didn't know what that partnership would look like, and so we brought out our liaison who succeeded the previous liaison that I had met with in 02/2006, and she suggested a partnership with this little tiny village called Wadi Fukin, which just happened to have been a place I stayed at on a homestay when I went in 02/2006. And so her encouragement to partner with this village became something that seemed to fit because I had already known some of the people there.
Rev. Yoshii:And so the congregation agreed to form this partnership with a small village. And that was in 02/2009, spring of '2 thousand and '9 when we made that decision. And we there are three things that our partnership focused on, and one was to support community development projects in the village. Secondly, to commit to taking people there to take a holy land pilgrimage, but also intentionally meet and hear the stories of Palestinians from the North Part of Israel to down into the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Southern Part Of Hebron, and then thirdly to provide advocacy where the village requested that of us. And so those are the three areas of focus that we started with.
Rev. Yoshii:And we started very modestly in 02/2009 supporting a beehive project, which was just raising money. It wasn't a whole lot of money, but raising money to support beehives in the village as an alternative economic activity for families to engage in. And then every
Angie:year beehives, how would that work? They would just
Rev. Yoshii:So they would they would take the beehives and raise honey, cultivate honey and that would honey would be used for families for their own personal use but also to sell it as a as a commodity for income. And every year, we would seem to do a new project year by year, and and then our biggest project, was a soccer field that we helped them construct on land that was vulnerable to confiscation because in 2014 there was a thousand acre annexation order that was announced in the West Bank and a third of that land was in Modi Fukin and then one of the farmers had 1,300 of their fruit trees demolished and they said we need to do something creative and they asked us to help them build a soccer field on land that would be subjected to confiscation, and it would also show international partnership. And we, by that time, had realized they were Muslim village and we were Methodist Christians and so we had an interfaith partnership brewing, which was significant in a way because there are many stereotypes about Muslims, know, in different places of the world, but we know what that's been like here too with Islamophobia following nine eleven and also in the previous administration of of Trump, his desire to put a Muslim ban.
Rev. Yoshii:So our work with the community there had some religious elements as well, and, but that soccer field was built in 2015 and is still standing.
Angie:I was gonna ask you if it's still there.
Rev. Yoshii:I was able to visit with people on our last trip and our advocacy work has taken us to DC where we've had people advocating for the village against the confiscation of land. Congresswoman Barbara Lee has been very helpful for us in the last couple of years, in 2021 there was a there was an announcement that there would be land taken to build a road to support the settlement of Bataar Elite and settlements are illegal by international law and Batar Alit has been taking land from Wadi Fukim ever since 1985 and incrementally growing way beyond the boundaries of what should be happening. They have 60,000 population now compared to the 1,500 population of Wadi Fukuin and they're taking land on the hillsides of of the village and so this this road that would be built would be to serve these segregated roads that are part of the settlements and also the settlement infrastructure throughout the West Bank and it's an indication of taking over land for the Palestinians but Congresswoman Lee's office was very helpful to us in getting colleagues to write a letter to the State Department to pose the road and also prompted a visit from the State Department to the village.
Rev. Yoshii:And then more lately in the last year we've worked with Senator Peter Welch's office from Vermont and they've taken a very proactive role with us as well to advocate for the village and we all know that Congressman Lee has ended her tenure in Congress. So, but we appreciate it of her and also of Senator Welch as well. And we're still in that process of dealing with the land confiscations.
Angie:Do you plan to reach out to the successor of Barbara Lee, Latifah Simon, and
Rev. Yoshii:Absolutely, now that she's in office, we will reach out to her as well, And there's just a lot of moving parts, things that are going on. On our recent trip, the reason why we took our trip, we called it a protective presence trip, and we call it protective presence because there are a number of organizations that are doing protective presence trips in the West Bank, particularly because there's been a there's always been things going on in the West Bank in terms of demolitions of homes and properties and confiscation of land, but it's been accelerating since October seventh of twenty twenty three, and this is something that many people don't know. They don't realize that there's been this acceleration of of intimidation and violence and military incursion, And that was happening in Guadalupe, and we were feeling like we needed to do something and bring people there to provide a protective presence, an international presence for their safety and support. And so we decided in in contrast to other trips that we do, we'll have a pilgrimage that goes around all the different sites in the West Bank and the holy sites and visit different places.
Rev. Yoshii:We decided to focus on the village and they arranged for us to do home stays for five days and five nights and so that was the was the model for our trip January and our intention to be there was to interview and listen to people who had been experiencing some of these draconian experiences taking place and to document things so we can bring it back to the senator's office in Vermont, Welsh's office, and then figure out how we can continue to help support the village and be a presence for them. So we went, we had gatherings where we listened to a young man who had his home raided twice and he was threatened also to stop his activism. He, we became aware that, so there are checkpoints that are up in the entrance of the village going in and out and that he's on their radar screen and so he's very vulnerable, to be scrutinized and be under surveillance. And so not only did his home get raided and ransacked, you know, he's been threatened to to to not be active in what he's doing. They arranged for us to meet with a couple of men who had their homes demolished.
Rev. Yoshii:This was actually 11/16/2023, about a month after the October 7 events, and this is again something that people don't realize, their homes were demolished and they told us their stories about what had happened and what was going on. And we went to walk over to where the rubble of their home still exists and to see on on their properties, their home just totally demolished. And then then from there, we can see on the hillside the development of the settlement of Batar elite and how they're expanding and and growing the settlement housing there. Very, very sad to hear and sad to see, and and just the the whole reality is very bizarre. It's to me, it's like a science fiction movie that you wouldn't believe is happening in the world today.
Rev. Yoshii:We met also with the Imam of the of the of the village who runs the mosque and his business was vandalized by the military, so he had to move everything out because there was a demolition order that he received for that. And then also his brother was arrested and they had not seen him for a few months because they they they not allowed to have any contact with his brother. And we understand that his brother may have posted something on Facebook that was considered to be a criminal activity because it was critical of the government and critical of the occupation, and that's what's happening with many people in the West Bank, the criminalization of dissent, much like what's going on here in our country too, the attempts to criminalize those who support Palestinians and you know it's happening on college campuses, it's happening in different community spaces to intimidate people who are speaking out for Palestinian liberation and it's it's parallel to what's going on in in Palestine itself. Of course, it's much more problematic for the Palestinians there than it is for here, but it's nonetheless a problem here for people who choose to take the side of justice for Palestinians.
Rev. Yoshii:We also had a chance to go see the soccer field that we helped build in 2015 and we got a chance to meet the soccer coach and they now have a robust program and we were when we were there they had practices for many of the teams from kindergarten up to I think even high school age and it was just really one of the joys for us to see and we also had done some fundraising at the end of last year, so we were able to bring some funds for them to purchase you know equipment and jerseys and things of that nature, so it was really good.
Angie:Curious to know that you were saying that one of the things that you did during this last visit was really talk to people about their stories and about their lives and so forth. I'm just wondering, I mean, I can imagine, like just living under the conditions that these folks are living under. Do you sense that there's still hope that the Palestinian people have? And what is their spirit like? Are they telling you about their hopes and dreams for the future?
Angie:Do they even dream anymore? I mean, what is sort of the kind of just the the mental space that the people
Rev. Yoshii:You know, one of the things for the Palestinians is they're very known for their hospitality. If you ask anybody who's traveled to Palestine how hospitable Palestinians are, especially under the circumstances under which they're living. How can they be so hospitable when they're undergoing so much suffering? And I think that's part of the culture and part of the ethos of of their perspective on life, and there's a deep resilience that people have too, and I think we gain hope from them because they have hopes that, you know, their lives will endure and that they will be able to move forward with all that they're doing. And so we take our cue from them.
Rev. Yoshii:Like in our partnership, we don't move forward with things unless it's something they want us to do because we have to follow their lead. There could be things we do which could have unintentional consequences for them negatively. For example, when we went to DC, it was good in one sense because it shined a light on them, but it also drew attention to the village, So there were some repercussions that they experienced as a result of our, you know, exposing things up on Capitol Hill, but it's an ongoing conversation we have with them about what's the risk involved in different things that we may do and what's what's the benefit for different things that happen and and I think we just continue to partner and work with them the best we can according to what they would like us to to do And like I say, I think we get our inspiration from them. We get our hope from from their hope, and and then hopefully there's synergy around that. So we'll see what happens.
Rev. Yoshii:I would say too, the sheikh of the village, Youssef Menasha, who passed away in 02/2017, he gave his blessings to our our partnership back in 02/2014 in a very profound way, and that was important for us, and I think it was important for our partners there, because one of the things he had told us, he was a very devout Muslim, as well as being kind of an elder in the village, but he had told us, you know, always follow God in what you do, whether it's big or small. Even if it's small, it's okay. If you're following God, you're on the right path. And that was always a word of comfort for me as both as a pastor, but also as an advocate from here, because we want to do so much because we feel so responsible because The US has been in complicity with the Palestinian suffering, and for him to say, do what you can, just make sure you're on the right path, I think has been a great comfort to me because it means that he's blessing the things that we do, even if they seem small. And that's important, I think, because it stays us focused spiritually, and it keeps us focused, you know, as a group as well.
Rev. Yoshii:He would always say there's so many things that can distract you from staying focused because the situation is so political, and there's so many things that are going on and so many different opinions about things too. So, and we're just doing a partnership with one small village and so it's something we can feel like we're doing that's positive. If this village continues to survive in the midst of all that is going on against them with settler colonialism, then maybe it also helps shed the light with other villages as well. And in fact, that's something that senator Wells' office wants to pursue. They've been willing to support us because they feel like it's something they could do with this one village, but they also feel like this is an example of what other offices can do too, to help support other villages and and hear directly what's going on on the ground, because there's so much misinformation, particularly on Capitol Hill, there's so much misinformation, and the more others are involved, the more they're well informed, and then being well informed can also inform what they do in terms of any kinds of actions that they're involved in.
Rev. Yoshii:So there's that grain of sand that's that's a piece of hope. Yeah. But we look at it that we're on a big beach and that there's many, many people doing good things as well. There's other people holding a grain of sand, and there's a lot of people around the world right now that are really working on behalf of the Palestinian people, so I think to put it in perspective, we're just one small grain on that vast beach.
Angie:We're very important small grain for sure.
Rev. Yoshii:But we do what we can and just make sure we're part of things so that we don't fall by the wayside or, you know, get distracted or become unmotivated for doing things.
Angie:What are you most proud of in your work as a minister, as a community member? What do you feel most proud about your legacy?
Rev. Yoshii:You know, I like that question, and I'll tell you why. Because, as a pastor, who's been very active in social justice, I think because I've been active and visible with social justice, that's that's like the the persona that I may have for many in the community that I interact with. But I like to tell people that that's just part of what you do as a pastor. I mean, that's one thing as a pastor in a congregation or my work with a larger denomination, but actually pastoring a congregation for thirty two years is probably the thing I'm most proud of because in the life of a congregation there's so much that's going on that's very rich. I mean when you have an intergenerational community, you're talking about, from the cradle to the grave.
Rev. Yoshii:Babies that are being born that you baptize, kids that you're trying to help support the nurture of their spiritual life and their identities, and then the aging process of those who get older and life changes in the last phases of life. But yet there's so much to learn from the elders and elders have a lot of wisdom to give to not only the young people but the whole congregation and so to be able to walk with people in the final passages of people's lives that's much of what we do we do memorial services and funerals, and we're there for people at their bedsides when it's their time to move on. And that's the richness of being a privilege to be a pastor and be part of a congregational life. And so I'm most proud of being able to hold that space over those many years and now because I was able to serve for so many years I've been able to see kids grow up and just like my kids have grown up and have their kids and I'm a grandparent I've seen other people have their kids grow up and their grandparents now and then seeing the little kids, we want to nurture their life and their spirituality and their their wholeness of being.
Rev. Yoshii:And that's really the most, I think, maybe to say I'm most proud of it. I I think I'm proud of that. I feel like, I think I can say I was a successful pastor for thirty two years in that aspect of things, not so much the social justice. Social justice was part of it,
Angie:but
Rev. Yoshii:it was part of a bigger picture of congregational life. That's why I'm happy to be back there, and Pastor Watanai can invite me back means that I can come back, my wife is able to come to worship and our grandkids can come and you know he's saying I want you to bring them, bring your whole family and you know and help me, you know, get back on track, you know, after COVID. And there was another person that we give a shout out to, Pastor Myrna Bernadelle Huie, who succeeded me right in the middle of COVID, and then she served for four years during the transition, a very tough situation, but did a great job, and so from a collegial standpoint, you know, we are three different pastors that serve that congregation at different moments in time, but the congregation now is something that I'm a part of because I'm retired and I can just go and enjoy myself and support the current pastor the ways that he would like me to do so. So I encourage people out there who are looking for a spiritual home, Buenavista, Ten Fifteen Am on Sunday morning is their worship.
Angie:Wonderful, oh my goodness. Well Reverend Michael Yoshi, it has just been such a wonderful pleasure for me to talk with you and just to hear your journey and your work. I knew a lot of it, but not all of it. It's just so good to hear all that you've shared with us. Thank you so much for being here and continue to do the great work in the world, it's so important.
Rev. Yoshii:Yeah, I appreciate you Angie, it's great, I'm just thinking how we loop way back to the things we were co producing together years ago.
Angie:Exactly, well thank you.
Rev. Yoshii:And you're still at it, you're still doing it, absolutely.
Angie:Thank you again, thank you so much for being here and thank all of you listeners out there for joining our podcast. And please do tune in again for another edition of the Island City Beat podcast. Until then, I'm your host, Angie Watson. Hi, Jim. Take care.
Angie:Bye bye.
Rev. Yoshii:Thank you.
Angie:Bye bye. Let's see.
Rev. Yoshii:Recording's off?
Angie:Not yet. Let me see where oh.
Rev. Yoshii:Oh.