On Saturday, July 24th, 2010 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.
I just want you all to know that the American dream does exist and I am living the American dream. I was asked to speak to you about my experience as a first generation Vietnamese-American, but I'd rather speak to you as an American.
If you hadn't noticed, I am not white and I feel pretty comfortable with my people. I am a proud US citizen and here is my proof. It took me 8 years to get it, waiting in endless lines, but I got it, and I am very proud of it.
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 re member 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 was 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 aimed 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 re member 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 some way and somehow, I had forgotten how I got here and why I was 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 my 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 just a place on the map, it isn't just a physical location. It is an ideal, a concept. And if you are an American, you must understand the concept, you must accept 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.
Quang Nguyen
Creative Director/Founder Caddis Advertising, LLC
"God Bless America"
"One Flag, One Language,
One Nation Under God"
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
GOD BLESS AMERICA ! This story was passed to me by a friend. I cannot vouch for it's accuracy.
#1
Snopes and Urban Legends@about.com don't have anything, and Besoeker linked to what appears to be Caddis Advertising's website. The website looks awfully real, and has an endorsement from what appears to be a genuine military officer. A proper journalist would confirm that all involved do actually exist in the analog world, but for our purposes I'd say it's confirmed as true enough to be going on with.
#2
Thanks TW. I'm a sucker for stories like this one, as I am very proud to know some of these Southeast Asian survivors rather personally, not to mention a few other who were put out of their native lands or escaped before they were raped and murdered. As many here are aware, the story of Quang Nguyen is hardly a 'one off'. I suppose his story and gratitude adds to my disdain for our current day entitlement and Snap crowd, but I digress.
About the sentences against senior army officers in the supposed Ergenekon plot. Closing graphs:
Monday's harsh sentences were a clear warning to other Turks: Avoid ending up like the alleged plotters. The increasingly autocratic prime minister is apparently still betting that, by showing who's boss, he can revive his presidential aspirations.
Even if he fails, Erdogan's legacy is secure: He managed to replace old secular elites with new Islamist ones. This deep state will rule Turkey for decades to come.
Which makes the sentences another warning to the West: Don't bank on Turkey forever remaining a loyal ally of the free world.
President Barack Obama may not be everything his fans originally hoped he would be, but until recently hes at least appeared easy enough to get along with.
Maybe the frustrations of office are getting to him. These days, he seems to be having just as difficult a time finding friends among foreign leaders and allies as he does with Republicans in Congress.
Even before he cancelled an upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Obama found himself bickering with leaders with whom hed prefer to be on good terms. The U.S. sends Egypt more than $1 billion a year in military aid and worked closely with former president Hosni Mubarak, but on the weekend the de facto military ruler of Egypt hows that for a title? Julius Caesar could have claimed the same one accused Washington of abandoning the country.
You left the Egyptians, you turned your back on the Egyptians, and they wont forget that, said Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
OK, Putin can be a pain, and Egyptians are more than a little volatile these days. But Mr. Obama cant even get along with Canada, which is like getting into an argument with Norway over a chicken recipe. For months the governments in Ottawa and Alberta have been sending representatives to sweet-talk Washington heavyweights on the merits of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would send Alberta crude to the Gulf Coast. There may be valid arguments against the pipeline though Mr. Obamas own State Department has shot down most of them but the negotiations had been friendly and respectful enough until Mr. Obama gave an interview to the New York Times openly mocking the jobs figures put forward by proponents.
Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator, he said in the interview. There is no evidence that thats true. The most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline, which might take a year or two, and then after that were talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 jobs in an economy of 150 million working people.
Two thousand jobs, he said, were a blip relative to the need.
Gee, thanks, closest ally and strategic partner. Friendly countries love to be given the back of the hand when they offer a secure source of energy to a country that needs it.
The Times gave a hint of the reason for Mr. Obamas displeasure: Washington would like Canada to adopt stricter emissions laws, giving him some political cover to approve a project that is opposed by Democrat-friendly environmentalists. But any number of sources suggest his evaluation of the job figures is well off the mark. And Canadians dont react any better to foreign pressure than do Americans. If Stephen Harper has been tardy as he certainly has in introducing tougher standards for emissions, hes hardly going to speed it up if it allows opponents to portray him as a toady to the U.S. president.
Dealing with Canada should be easy compared to the mess Mr. Obama faces in Egypt. When the original rebellion against Mr. Mubarak broke out, Washington was caught between two unhappy choices: continued backing for Mr. Mubarak would put it on the side of an anti-democratic autocracy in the process of violently putting down a popular uprising. Siding with the revolt would mean abandoning a reliable ally in favour of militant Islamists.
#1
Canada humped a very rough assignment in Afghanistan for years and years. Bled and died many of them. Hat tip to the Canadians. I have no printable comments regarding the other fellow.
#2
The Latin term for king was despised by the Romans because of their prior Etruscan masters. That is why the term imperator was adopted by those who gloried as the later rulers of Rome after the Republic. Soon the term President will assume the same connotation as that found in our South American neighbors rather than its original meaning.
#4
..that's why the man is quickly replacing competent field commanders with political appointees. Like most things that those in the administration have in understanding the real world which they don't, the key to the military is the middle grade officers and NCOs.
"The folks at Funny or Die have come up with an ingenious solution to render the NSAs spy program useless. Operation: Everyone Talk Like a Terrorist All the Time. It makes a lot of sense, especially since the government already clearly considers everyone with the ability to think critically a potential domestic terrorist. Short video and really funny. Enjoy!"
h/t Gates of Vienna
This week, after a three-and-a-half-year delay, US Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was finally placed on trial for massacring 13 and wounding 32 at Ft. Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009.
Hasan was a self-identified jihadist. His paper and electronic trail provided mountains of evidence that he committed the massacre to advance the cause of Islamic supremacy. Islamic supremacists like Hasan, and his early mentor al-Qaida operations chief Anwar al-Awlaki, view as enemies all people who oppose totalitarian Islam's quest for global domination.
Before, during and following his assault, Hasan made his jihadist motives obvious to the point of caricature in his statements about the US, the US military and the duties of pious Muslims. But rather than believe Hasan, and so do justice to his victims, the Obama administration, with the active collusion of senior US military commanders went to great lengths to cover up Hasan's ideological motivations and hence the nature of his crime.
On the day of the attack, Lt.-Gen. Robert Cone, then commander of III Corps at Ft. Hood, said preliminary evidence didn't suggest that the shooting was terrorism. Cone said this even though it was immediately known that before he began shooting Hasan called out "Allahu akhbar." He called himself a "Soldier of Allah" on his business cards.
In an interview with CNN three days after the attack, US Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said, "Our diversity, not only in our army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse." I wonder what a man who gave us "A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature's obvious mistakes." would've made of this?
#1
I will always believe Hasan and the Tsarnaev Bros. were being monitored electronically long before they went kinetic. Hasan's connection and electronic contacts with known AQ terrorist(s) is well documented. The release of the Tsarnaev photographs and televised request for assistance in identification by the FBI came a bit too soon and was simply amateurish. Tactics such as those are almost guaranteed [if not designed] to produced electronic chatter and movement. Unfortunately for MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, they certainly did.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
