Sunday and Monday were days of connecting with friends... A main purpose of our visits to Temecula.

After saying goodbye to Leslie, I met up with Suzanne and Nancy, two of my 39-year-old's 6th grade teachers. We were a trio of women whose conversation never stopped. What fun!
After lunch, Suzanne and I ventured to the Temecula Valley Museum for its current exhibition, Am I An American or Am I Not? which asks visitors to think about examples of unfair treatment from our country’s past and present in order to protect the American promises of life, liberty, and justice for all.
The exhibition’s title comes from Fred Korematsu, who famously challenged the mass imprisonment of over 125,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. When faced with criminal charges for not following the military orders to leave his home without due process, the U.S. born citizen remembered his Constitutional rights and asked, “Am I an American or am I not?"
Developed in partnership with the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, the exhibition draws on timeless themes to bridge past and present, highlights stories of connection, and encourages civic participation to stand up for equal rights. It features stories of loyalty and resistance, belonging and othering, and solidarity and resilience. It explores how fear, discrimination, and government actions led to the violation of Constitutional rights during the war and how this history relates to the experiences of other communities, including Native Americans and African Americans.

Importantly, the exhibition addresses stories of other historic and modern-day events that parallel aspects of the incarceration of Japanese Americans to encourage visitors to take action today and stand up for the rights of all Americans.





We were directed to walk in a specific direction with exhibition sections titled: Immigration and Citizenship: Who gets to be an American?; Othering: What does it mean to be an American?; Loyalty and Resistance: What do you stand for?; Resilience and Solidarity; and How do you respond to injustice? The Conclusion poses the question, "How will you make a difference?"
Fred Korematsu and Rosa Parks were two iconic ordinary citizens who sparked pivotal moments in American civil rights history. Both defied unjust, systemic discrimination and bravely took their fights to the highest levels of the U.S. legal system, ultimately reshaping the landscape of civil liberties in the United States.After the heavy history lesson, the mood was one of frivolity as we met David and Karen at Cougar Winery for Karen's birthday fête.

Monday, after a very crazy day of medical commitments (another reason we are in Temecula), we dined at Lynne and Scott's to celebrate her 80th birthday!