Hell will freeze over before I would vote for the offensive individual who made that disgusting comment regarding COVID19. In my native Australia, there is the equivalent of that disgusting individual in Pauline Hanson.

The Australian Prime Minister, in 2019, was campaigning in a shopping mall, and tried and failed to demonstrate a multicultural image by greeting an Asian woman with "Ni hao," and she replied, "I'm Korean."

I can speak Japanese and elementary Chinese, and I enjoy having a conversation with one of the pharmacy assistants, if I go to collect my parents' medications, and at my own pharmacist, when I collect mine, who are Japanese.

The difference there, however, is I know the pharmacy assistants are Japanese by their names, the Prime Minister was assuming that an Asian woman was Chinese and committed a microaggression, when "Hello," would have been better. And another pharmacy assistant told me that the assistant actually appreciates being able to speak to someone in Japanese.

I would like to say this, though. If someone would like to tell their story, I love listening to and reading stories. I remember, I was fascinated to read the story, but picked up microaggressions from the reporter, about a man whose great-grandfather was Chinese (no, not the one in one of my other stories), who arrived in Adelaide, in 1856, and walked over 1000 miles, along with numerous other men, many of whom died from hunger and dehydration, to Bendigo, to search for gold. His great-grandfather stayed and married an English immigrant, and they had a child who married another European, and the reporter said that he, "... looks like any other Australian man...." I would have said, "Max Brady would like to tell the story of his great-grandfather, Wong Ah Sat, who arrived in Adelaide, in 1856, and walked over 1000 miles to Bendigo, as Victoria had a racist policy requiring Chinese passengers to pay a ten pound disembarkation fee. His grandfather was lucky to have survived that walk, as many of his fellow travelers did not. Sat converted to Christianity and married an English immigrant and established a shop in Australia. They had this number of children, one of whom was Max's grandmother."

I feel a strong connection to Asian people and spoke up for an Asian hairdresser after an Australian man came into the shop with a sore throat, demanding to know if she'd been overseas. I thought, "Okay, the first thing to do is get a COVID19 test. (this was prior to contact tracing) and don't go randomly accusing people."

You may count me in as an ally.