Raising Your Voice

I held back for a period of time to read the responses to the different views about why we should support Bloc 8406 or why we shouldn’t. I believe it is a very healthy conversation for all of us to share our thoughts, ideas and perspectives and by all mean, lets keep these thoughts coming.

However today, I want to share with you my thoughts after a long and unexpected day for me. I don’t intend to write this with any politic mindset in mind nor try to educate you about history and throw jargons out to sound like I know it all. I don’t and always eager to learn more. But I write to convey an experience that happened and wanted to capture it in writing before I move on with daily things in life.

I received a phone call from a friend of mine at 4:30 pm , April 18.2007 telling me that there was a delegation from Vietnam that was granted permission to speak in tomorrow’s senate hearing. Immediately after the phone call and I made a couple of calls to local radio station, friends and family and quickly devised a plan on what needed to be done. The following morning, 8:30 am on April 19. 2007, 15 people showed up at Senator Lou Correa’s office waiting for the Senator to come in.

Dressed in the suit, he rushed through 4 people waiting for him to talk about issues and accommodated us to give us an update on what was going to happen on the senate floor in 10 minutes. Rushed but focused and determined, he led us to the guest level of the senate floor hearing and directed us to sit on the right side where the camera would aim. He had already prepared a letter and printed the photograph of Father Nguyen Van Ly, that many of you have seen, to be delivered to each and every member on the senate that day.

“Lou, we printed a bigger photo of Father Nguyen Van Ly, a colorful one, please take it” one of delegate said.
“Thanks, I will present this on the Senate floor, if they decide to speak”, Lou responded as he slipped the photo into his vest.
“I don’t know how they (VN delegation) gotten past us” he expressed in a bit of frustration. “But we will try to stop them” he added.

The senate convened and we read the Pledge of Allegiance. The first statement after the formality was given to a senator from San Francisco, LeLand Yee.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am would like to acknowledge the present of a delegation from Vietnam today.
Immediate after, another senator asked permission to speak and so he did, clear and concise, he stating his un-approval of having a VN delegation on the floor as he read a scroll human rights violations and condone the government.

Lou asked to speak right after, requesting to have a vote to whether or not we should even have them present. That was not seconded by another Senator and thereby, dropped. After senator asked to speak thereafter and spoke in favor of the VN delegation. Then two others to senator to follow with similar views, one stating that economics ties and other stating her vacation trip to Vietnam.

Lou ask to speak again and wanted to represent the Vietnamese communities of California, stating that last year the Governor signed to past the Vietnamese Flag resolution (SCR 17) , the flag that represents freedom and aspiration the Vietnamese American communities in California and today there is no freedom like we know it, reciting prosecutions of Father Nguyen Van Ly.

Soon after, Lou Correa and couple of Senators walk up to the front of the floor and respectfully exited the senate floor, which I hear is very unusual for senators to do to one another, especially on preliminary issues, like that of the VN delegation. Finally, Senator Lee was granted to speak to finish up what it wanted to say and just like that it was over.

We didn’t hear anyone mention any names from the VN delegation. We didn’t even hear what they had to say. Many of you may ask why not? Why not let them talk? Why not let them present their views? Thought we later found out that because they couldn’t remove a decision that was made to have the VN delegation there, the senators negotiated that if the VN delegation were going to speak, some of the senators would make a big deal. However, the fact of matter is, in this society, we are allowed to speak out freely and against anything we don’t like or like. Senator Lou Correa, Senator Tom Harman and couple others championed there way and THAT changed everything.

This goes to show that righteousness will prevail and honorable men and women of an open society will acknowledged and awarded.

I sat on the top floor, holding photo of Father Nguyen Ly and our heritage flag in preparation to react in case the VN delegation wants to send a small token of appreciation by ignoring our voices, belittling our efforts and mocking our liberty and rights.

We organized an on-site a lobby trip around the State Capitol offices and visited Senator LeLand Yee office to express our unsatisfactory feelings toward his inappropriate gesture toward a free Vietnamese-American community by neglecting to show the truth about human rights violation in Vietnam. To my surprised, our lobby trip and incident at the senate floor must have been effective because I received a personal phone call from Senator LeLand Yee today at 6:30 pm, requesting to talk about the issue. He wants to meet with us face to face to talk about the lack of equality, liberty and human rights abuses in Vietnam. So we have some work to do from now until next week. If you may not know, one of the Vietnamese Consulates is located in San Francisco, hence, the senator close ties. Nevertheless, we have an opportunity shed some insights about the crackdowns in Vietnam.

Many of us may wonder, wow this is too political, but it is not. We exercise our rights daily - when we vote, when we speak up, when we for this or against that and in this case, our present at the senate floor and the lobby trip. We exercise our rights to simply help better the lives of our brothers and sisters in Vietnam, not given these privileges.

Today, as I was listening, watching and roaming the floors of the state capitol, I felt even more so what it is to be free and understand more the power invested in people.