- This is a picture of my mom.
And if you'll see her hair,
that was her signature was her hairdo.
And that would take her about two hours every morning
to put up and a case of hairspray.
My mom was born and raised in Seattle and at 28
my mother was the first restaurant to be established
outside of the red lining of Chinatown.
It was one of the first fine dining restaurants
back in the late fifties and early sixties.
She was the first person to establish a frozen food dinner
back when Swanson's first started.
She was also the first female County Councilwoman
in the history of the County Council,
and of the state of Washington.
She was tenacity with grace
and she was compassion without pity.
She was devoted to the community so
that the rest of the larger community in Seattle
would be more aware of what Chinese
and Chinese culture is all about.
In order to have institutional systemic change,
there has to be people from the outside
with the voice of awareness as well as the people within
to make the changes.
So that's why I went on the bench in 1990.
I ran for election and had eight terms
and 30 plus years on the bench.
I was the first Asian-American judge
in the district courts for the state of Washington.
At that point in time, 30 plus years ago,
there was no curriculum for gender and diversity awareness
for the judges.
So I helped put together
and I was on the education committee for the state,
to start bringing those curriculums and awareness
to the bench.
I helped establish and pioneer the Mental Health Court,
Criminal Mental Health Court.
My passion came from,
this is a group that gets discriminated
because of their mental health.
And there's nothing they could do about it.
Just as much as I'm Chinese and can't do anything about it.
I think those are the, some of the things I think that I got
from my mom to make sure there are things you can do
for the community.
(quiet upbeat chime music)