WOW!!!!!!make sure you read every word of this.
Subject: : Viet Nam Vets -- and friends
On Saturday, July 24th, the town of Prescott Valley, AZ, hosted a
Freedom Rally. Quang Nguyen was asked to speak on his experience of
coming to America and what it means. He spoke the following in
dedication to all Vietnam Veterans. Thought you might enjoy hearing
what he had to say.
35 years ago, if you were to tell me that I am going to stand up here
speaking to a couple thousand patriots, in English, I'd laugh at you.
Man, every morning I wake up thanking God for putting me and my family
in the greatest country on earth.
am living the American dream. I was asked to speak to you about myI just want you all to know that the American dream does exist and I
experience as a first generation Vietnamese-American, but I rather
speak to you as an American. If you hadn't noticed, I am not white
and I feel pretty comfortable with my people.
get it, waiting in endless lines, but I got it and I am very proud ofI am a proud US citizen and here is my proof. It took me 8 years to
it. Guess what, I did legally and it ain't from the state of Hawaii.
I still remember the images of the Tet offensive in 1968, I was six
years old. Now you might want to question how a 6 year old boy could
remember anything. Trust me, those images can never be erased. I can't
even imagine what it was like for young American soldiers, 10,000
miles away from home, fighting on my behalf.
35 years ago, I left South Vietnam for political asylum. The war had
ended. At the age of 13, I left with the understanding that I may or
may not ever get to see my siblings or parents again. I was one of the
first lucky 100,000 Vietnamese allowed to come to the US. Somehow, my
family and I were reunited 5 months later, amazingly, in California.
It was a miracle from God.
If you haven't heard lately that this is the greatest country on
earth, I am telling you that right now. It is the freedom and the
opportunities presented to me that put me here with all of you
tonight. I also remember the barriers that I had to overcome every
step of the way. My high school counselor told me that I cannot make
it to college due to my poor communication skills. I proved him wrong.
I finished college. You see, all you have to do is to give this little
boy an opportunity and encourage him to take and run with it. Well, I
took the opportunity and here I am. This person standing tonight in
front of you could not exist under a socialist/communist environment.
By the way, if you think socialism is the way to go, I am sure many
people here will chip in to get you a one way ticket out of here. And
if you didn't know, the only difference between socialism and
communism is an AK-47 aiming at your head. That was my experience.
In 1982, I stood with a thousand new immigrants, reciting the pledge
of allegiance and listening to the National Anthem for the first time
as an American. To this day, I can't remember anything sweeter and
more patriotic than that moment in my life.
Fast forwarding, somehow I finished high school, finished college, and
like any other goofball 21 year old kid, I was having a great time
with my life. I had a nice job and a nice apartment in Southern
California. In someway and somehow, I had forgotten how I got here and
why I am here.
One day I was at a gas station, I saw a veteran pumping gas on the
other side of the island. I don't know what made me do it, but I
walked over and asked if he had served in Vietnam. He smiled and said
yes. I shook and held his hand. The grown man began to well up. I
walked away as fast as I could and at that very moment, I was
emotionally rocked. This was a profound moment in life. I knew
something had to change in my life. It was time for me to learn how to
be a good citizen. It was time for me to give back.
You see, America is not a place on the map, it isn't a physical
location. It is an ideal, a concept. And if you are an American, you
must understand the concept, you must buy into this concept, and most
importantly, you have to fight and defend this concept. This is about
Freedom and not free stuff. And that is why I am standing up here.
Brothers and sisters, to be a real American, the very least you must
do is to learn English and understand it well. In my humble opinion,
you cannot be a faithful patriotic citizen if you can't speak the
language of the country you live in. Take this document of 46 pages -
last I looked on the internet, there wasn't a Vietnamese translation
of the US constitution. It took me a long time to get to the point of
being able to converse and until this day, I still struggle to come up
with the right words. It's not easy, but if it's too easy, it's not
worth doing.
Before I knew this 46 page document, I learned of the 500,000
Americans who fought for this little boy. I learned of the 58,000
names scribed on the black wall at the Vietnam Memorial. You are my
heroes. You are my founders.
At this time, I would like to ask all the Vietnam veterans to please
stand. I thank you for my life. I thank you for your sacrifices, and I
thank you for giving me the freedom and liberty I have today. I now
ask all veterans, firefighters, and police officers, to please stand.
On behalf of all first generation immigrants, I thank you for your
services and may God bless you all.
Fw: Viet Nam Vets -- and friends
10/12/2010 11:58:00 AM
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Key Words:
VIETNAM,
VIETNAM WAR
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This entry was posted on 10/12/2010 11:58:00 AM
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8 comments:
From the welcoming of him into this country as a refugee to the (presumably) free educational opportunities afforded him as a poor immigrant, it sounds like socialism worked out pretty well for him.
Huh? I've got a great idea. Let's attack Mexico, just like we attacked Viet Nam. After all Mexico these days has as much or more illegal drugs as Viet Nam did back in the day (where the CIA made out like the filthy bandits they are).
Then after bombing Mexico & killing some 100s of thousands of their citizens, we can *welcome* the survivors here in the USA, north of the border.
Problem solved on several fronts:
1. The CIA can make out like the filthy bandits they are on drug sales & gun running,
2. The Military Industrial Complex (aka the Oligarchs) can keep making money for the super rich by taking all the tax dollars to support their cash-cow industry,
3. Conservatards get to thump their chests and feel like "big men" because Team USA USA USA is out there gunning down, droning and bombing dusky-hued people (eg, not us whities),
4. Once Team USA USA USA decides to be "done" with the "war," then we can *welcome* said dusky-hued Mexicans to our nation as "refugees," and they can become citizens.
Case closed. Perfect solution (except for the Mexican citizens and US military who get killed or maimed, but seriously: who cares about that??? Why bother worrrying about them? They're all cannon fodder, so that's their fate, and they deserve it).
And then later, WHITE Americans can invite former Mexican resistance fighters, now their gardners, to come *thank them* at some luncheon or other. And the WHITE Americans can feel all humble and thrilled and happy with themselves because they're such *good Americans."
There's so much wrong with this it ain't even funny...
Marc w/ a C nailed it on how well socialism worked out for this guy.
"I am not white and I feel pretty comfortable with my people."
Ah, here we go - the Model Minirity! Everyone knows Asians are more HARD-WORKING and FAMILY ORIENTED than those damn you-know-what's!
"I did legally and it ain't from the state of Hawaii."
Have we decided to start hating Hawaii this month? I wasn't aware. I thought we hated San Francisco, Massachusetts, Chicago, Vermont (when we remember to hate Vermont), and maybe New York City (NYC's a got a great tradition of being reviled, but it's gotten a bit harder since 2001, as we have to exploit the city for 9/11 every September). But thanks for the heads-up on hating Hawaii.
"I was one of the first lucky 100,000 Vietnamese allowed to come to the US. Somehow, my family and I were reunited 5 months later"
Uh...I thought we were letting TOO MANY immigrants in? And that the whole family unity thing was a crock?
"It was a miracle from God."
Either that, or some liberal immigration policy.
"I finished college. You see, all you have to do is to give this little boy an opportunity and encourage him to take and run with it."
Bet the free elementary and high-school education, not to mention the financial aid and student loans -all funde by us American taxpayers - didn't hurt.
"the very least you must do is to learn English and understand it well."
This is what this is about? Really?
Do these people realize we've been screaming about people not learning English since the "other" languages being spoken were French, German, Italian, Polish...yet somehow, every immigrant group learns English anyway. Then you have to move on to hating a NEW group for not speaking English well enough!
"Take this document of 46 pages..."
While we're at it, can we get the Teabaggers to read it too?
"I now ask all veterans, firefighters, and police officers, to please stand. On behalf of all first generation immigrants, I thank you for your services"
Enjoy the thanks! It's all you're going to get! Because I vote Republican, so that your unions can be busted, your paycheck, benefits, and pensions cut, and fundign for your safety equipement taken away! But here - have a round of applause instead!
Take this document of 46 pages -
last I looked on the internet, there wasn't a Vietnamese translation
of the US constitution.
Here's the Vietnamese Wikipedia page on the U.S. Constitution. The link to the translation, on the U.S. Embassy site, is broken, but it took me a whopping five minutes to get that far, and I don't even understand Vietnamese.
The depressing thrust of this e-mail is that in 20 years, we might see people defending the Iraq War the same way -- here's a guy who escaped our devastation of his country as a child and, with a lot of help from the government, became a U.S. citizen who thanks the military for his opportunity.
Good for him, but what about his countrymen who stayed behind to rebuild? What about American hopefuls who don't get the help provided to a war refugee? Or legal, older American citizens who didn't have his lifelong American education?
Yeah, anon....that was the money quote for me:
"Guess what, I did legally and it ain't from the
state of Hawaii."
Hawaii thanks you, Quang.
Where did they dredge up this Quang dude? Seriously? He isn't from Hawaii? Sorry for the devastation he and/or his family may have suffered during the Viet Nam war, but: what a jerk-wad.
This is so knee-deep in the disengenous stupid that I don't know were to begin.
Thank Quang for being a 2-bit whore for the RepubliKKKans who are out to screw you out of that hard earned Soc Sec that you've contributed to all your working life. And do clap and cheer for the firefighters and PD right away because if the ReThugs that you're sucking up to have their way, you won't see them around much longer, nor will kids have a public school to learn in and a public library to borrow books from... and then you'll really be *on your own* even though you probably speak English well. If you bought the English language "fable," then sorry, chum, but you've been fooled. These whities really don't give a stuff whether you speak English, Viet Namese, pig-Latin or something else. That's just a clever ruse.
And come back again and tell us how *great* this country is when you no longer have a job and these whities are spitting on a gook like you and telling you to go home. Because if jobs get seriously tight: dude you're gonna be in for a seriously rude awakening. Good luck, though, with all that lavish praise of your oppressors....
Whoa... Quang is suffering a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome, isn't he?
And/or the Koch brothers' PR person had a really *great* idea, which sends loads of tingles up & down white conservatives legs.
Imagine that! THANKING the people who Agent Oranged & tried to bomb your nation back into the stone age. And then to get them to blurt out T-party dog whistles like the Hawaii reference. uh-huh; I really believe this... sure... pull the other one Quang or Quong or whatever your name is...
Actually, I think fershitz might be on to something with the invade Mexico solution. It solves all sorts of problems. And, unlike the darkies from Iraq, the darkies from Mexico are Christian (do Catholics still count to contards?), so they'll be welcomed with open arms (or at least open memial labor.
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