{"id":8347,"date":"2021-08-07T01:56:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T11:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=8347"},"modified":"2021-08-07T01:56:45","modified_gmt":"2021-08-07T11:56:45","slug":"american-filipinas-historic-gold-but-are-you-feeling-the-olympics-yet-plus-a-covid-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/08\/07\/american-filipinas-historic-gold-but-are-you-feeling-the-olympics-yet-plus-a-covid-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"American Filipina\u2019s Historic Gold but Are You Feeling The Olympics Yet? Plus: A Covid Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo<\/em>

An Asian American Filipina, Lee Kiefer, from Lexington, Kentucky made history at the Olympics.

You couldn\u2019t tell at first because she wore a mask \u2013 a fencer\u2019s mask \u2013 with the American flag on the grill.

But when she took it off, you could see her big smile when she won the Gold \u2013 one of the first Gold medals in Tokyo \u2013 in a sport with a lot more tradition than beach volleyball.

Kiefer won in fencing. The Three Musketeers type. Not the Home Depot type.

Kiefer is the first U.S. man or woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal in the individual foil. The first. No one has ever done that. That\u2019s like fencing on Mars. Let\u2019s see Jeff Bezos do that.

And now I\u2019m sorta glad the games took place in Tokyo.

Yes, it\u2019s our one big American team in all these sports from women\u2019s soccer to the hammer throw but we don\u2019t really know who to root for until it comes up in the headlines. And with all the new sports like skateboarding being foisted on us, well I just didn\u2019t know where I had a rooting interest exactly.

I even know a little about fencing. When my high school football coach wouldn\u2019t play me for not cutting my hair, I joined the fencing team as a swashbuckling youth. I know the difference between a riposte and a parry. En garde!

Kiefer, 27, had been on three Olympic teams prior, never medaled, and has been at or near the top of the women\u2019s fencing ranks since 2017. This was her last best shot at Olympic glory. And now she becomes not just one of the first Americans to win Gold in the Tokyo games, but the first American ever to win Gold in her whole dang sport.

History.

She now joins her husband, San Francisco\u2019s Gerek Lin Meinhardt, another Asian American, who won a team Bronze medal in the 2016 Olympics with the U.S. men\u2019s fencing team. He\u2019s on this year\u2019s team and has a shot to win another.

All Asian Americans now have a rooting interest. For the sake of the Meinhardt-Kiefer marriage.

All good?

But the world is still sick<\/strong>
It\u2019s bad enough that I don\u2019t care for how the competition is sliced and diced for human consumption by NBC and all its channels. The games are best live, but with time zone issues, they are more than likely recorded and delayed, all packaged for the Olympic commercials, not the athletes. And certainly, not the audience.

Which is strange because the Olympics is still all about the money. TV ad money.  And that\u2019s about delivering ads (not games) to a primetime audience. And maybe that\u2019s why beach volleyball is in primetime. And fencers who look like Daft Punk meets the Power Rangers are hard to find anywhere. Unless it\u2019s taped and packaged into bite-sized chunks. The Processed Olympics.

So as much as I like Keifer and Meinhardt, the Asian American fencing power couple may not be enough to change my mind about how I really feel.

Here\u2019s my Olympic spirit: The world is historically sick. More than 4 million people worldwide are dead from the virus. Fans can\u2019t even attend. The venues are essentially TV studios.

Do we really need the games this way to improve the world\u2019s spirits? At the last report I saw nearly 150 people connected to the games have tested positive. Just cancel the games again when the time is right, right?

The Olympic spirit should be about world leadership in crisis. It supposed to be a way to showcase nationalism as a unifier. Instead, it presses on like an athlete against the clock going for a personal best.

Why doesn\u2019t any country or any world leader value a Gold medal in Public Health?

Zooming with Kristina Wong; Asian Americans in new emerging crisis<\/strong>
Your Covid thoughts? Over the weekend, I joined Kristina Wong to take part in a small group zoom \u201csalon\u201d on the topic with Asian Americans from coast to coast.

Kristina, who will premier a new show off-Broadway in November at the New York Theater Workshop, talked about her work getting masks to people. She\u2019s both leading a group of \u201caunties\u201d sewing masks, as well as buying masks and distributing them to all in need. Most recently that was farmworkers and homeless people.

\u201cI learned that I had this weird martyr side that comes out,\u201d she said, as she discovered her way of dealing with the pandemic was to help others who couldn\u2019t help themselves. Like getting unhoused people a washing station. Or getting quarters for laundry. All good deeds. Some are offset by donations, but it\u2019s still frustrating.

\u201cThe thing is you\u2019re literally doing the government\u2019s job,\u201d she said.

Wong is actually an elected local district grass-roots representative in Los Angeles, which turns out is unrelated to what she does as a real humanitarian. It\u2019s the life of a comedian\/actress\/writer who wants to make a difference.

I told the group what I\u2019m doing. (You can hear it on my Facebook Live show at 2 pm Pacific Time, Monday to Friday, or on www.amok.com<\/a>. Look for show No. 100.)

But it was more interesting hearing from the dozen or so folks who assembled.

Serena Lee said she\u2019s spending more time at home with her grandkids, but she\u2019s still upset about all the violence toward Asians due to the pandemic scapegoating of Donald Trump.

\u201cI don\u2019t feel safe to go out,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not about Covid now. It\u2019s about being attacked.\u201d

James Cerenio said the current attacks on women and seniors remind him of how his father from the Philippines, who came to the U.S. in 1927, was attacked in the late 1990s.

\u201cThis is not new,\u201d he said emotionally wondering why more hasn\u2019t been done to reverse the fear. \u201cWhen is our community going to get that respect from the politicians and the media, because (the hate) has always been here.\u201d

The fear and anxiety take a toll on a subject few AAPI like to talk about: mental health.

Lynette Pang spent 17 years in community mental health and is currently a psychotherapist in Seattle. She warned of a real mental health crisis in the broad AAPI community.

\u201cI can\u2019t serve everyone that wants to reach out to work with me and it\u2019s heartbreaking because by the time they reach out, they needed the help yesterday,\u201d Pang said. \u201cThere is just not enough of us\u2026it\u2019s overwhelming for a lot of us\u2026we\u2019re all burning out.\u201d

June Jee of New York talked about the need for more affordable mental health care, among providers who can do it in-language. \u201cMental health is another pandemic in itself,\u201d Jee said.

Tamiko Wong and Tonia Chen are trying to build a conversation network that could empower AAPI around the country. \u201cIf people have these conversations, they may feel more empowered to actually do something,\u201d said Wong said.

Especially when they find others who feel the same way about a variety of issues.

These are real conversations. Let\u2019s start having more of them. Maybe join in yourself.

I\u2019ll talk more about it on my Facebook Watch show and on www.amok.com<\/a>. Let\u2019s connect.

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist and commentator. He was the first Filipino to host a national news show when at NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Things Considered.\u201d Twitter @emilamok  Watch his vlog on <\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>

Read More Candid Perspectives:
<\/em><\/strong>Branson\u2019s Trip? Nothing like My Father\u2019s Journey from Ilocos to America<\/strong><\/a>
<\/strong>An Appreciation for Benigno Aquino III<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo An Asian American Filipina, Lee Kiefer, from Lexington, Kentucky made history at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,20],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=797%2C792",797,792,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=300%2C298",300,298,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=640%2C636",640,636,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=640%2C636",640,636,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=797%2C792",797,792,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=797%2C792",797,792,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=797%2C792",797,792,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=797%2C570",797,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=600%2C792",600,792,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=797%2C715",797,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=797%2C500",797,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=797%2C792",797,792,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=540%2C285",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?resize=375%2C250",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Featured<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lee-Kiefer-color_08072021.jpg?fit=797%2C792","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8347"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8348,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8347\/revisions\/8348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}