National mass shootings hitting close to home for Salisbury residents

SALISBURY, Md.- Roughly 20 mass shootings this year alone, taking lives in Atlanta, Boulder, California and D.C.

“It’s horrible, I don’t understand how people can do it, I don’t see violence ever being the best option for anything, but especially when you are targeting people for being who they are,” Lindsey Baynard, a Salisbury University Freshman, said.

In the Atlanta shooting, 8 people killed, six of them being Asian.

Sufang Lin, the owner of Manna Asian Cuisine, said seeing people of Asian decent targeted in this situation is painful.

“It’s difficult to not feel angry and sad, and also disgusted,” Lin said.

She said right now she’s afraid of what is going on, especially for her culture.

Adding, when she locks up her business at night she’s taking extra precautions.

“In the parking lot we have to watch as well, it could happen anywhere right now,” Lin said.

Lin said as an Asian American one of the hardest parts of all of this is trying to explain to her children what’s going on, and why people say and do hateful things.

“They go home and ask me why people say “Go back to your country,”  it happen to me, for me in Salisbury a long time ago,” Lin said.

During the interview, Lin shared that social media and politics may play a role in how Asian Americans are treated.

But she said she wants people to understand that they too are a part of this country.

“We all are the same we are not different, why do we have to feel this way, I always ask myself,” Lin said.

And going forward Lin, as well as others, want to see change.

“We have to spread the love not the hate and it’s supposed to be that way, we are not asking,” Lin said.

“We all deserve to be safe, like accepted in our own countries and communities and I’m just really hoping that we really see a change soon and that it does get better,” Delaney Quillen, a Salisbury University Freshman, said.

Lin said it doesn’t matter what color, gender, or race we are, she said we are all humans.

She said as a business owner it’s nice to see her restaurant bringing people of all walks of life and enjoying food and each other’s company.