At one of the Seattle APA for Progress house parties, we cheered for (and tweeted and Facebooked about) all the great speakers on the call, from Kalpen Modi to Rep. Mike Honda to fierce sister Kiran Ahuja.  It was reassuring to hear about so many resources at the national level.

In our discussion after the conference call, though, the biggest issue for us was connecting to other house party participants across the country. As we went around the room talking about the different urgent political issues facing us and how to plan for them, we also wanted to know about the work everybody's doing around the country in their own local communities.

We're all facing similar political challenges at the local level, the same anti-immigrant backlashes, and similar bad measures in our state legislatures or ballot initiatives. It's important for us to know we're not isolated -- as APIs from other communities of color or from each other in different cities and states.

• How can we share information and resources with other groups across the country about strategies for defeating state and local measures that are anti-immigrant (like the Arizona bill)?
• How can we all coordinate our grassroots efforts to support comprehensive immigration reform at the national level?
• How can we support candidates that share our values?

Here in Washington State, we're potentially facing some horrible ballot measures that will disproportionately impact communities of color. We're trying to support progressive API candidates and progressive candidates of color in general, as well as partner with Latino, Native, and African American communitie.  One of the biggest current issues is how best respond to the Arizona law as a community -- support a boycott? Encourage state and local resolutions condemning Arizona's racial profiling law? Or put a similar citizen's measure on the ballot as a way of getting out the vote while simultaneously conducting a public education campaign in our communities about immigration reform?

Most of all, we were interested in what other house parties talked about after the call. How can we connect with you all, learn what's going on in our respective communities, share organizing strategies, and work to support each other?