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_________________ Home |
A Moment To
Understand A
month ago, a peculiar man Who
was interested in making a name With
malicious intention, he brought back the past Of
terrible tragedies that we tried to forget. In
his store, he put up a flag and
a poster of Ho Chi Minh the
long dead leader of Communist Vietnam If
that was all, all might be well, But
for the man, that wasn’t enough He
couldn’t stand to be ignored So
he sent out a challenge to all of us “If
you are good, then I dare you to
take down my flag, and my hero” We
ignored him as long as we could Until
he finally boiled our blood With
his third contemptuous try Finally,
enough is enough From
that day on, thousands of people Rallied
days and nights to show their resolve “We
don’t accept Communism Nor
any fools who promote them” From
that day on, many things happened The
flag went down, then went up again A
court case done, the First Amendment still
ruled as the law of the land The
man’s actions, however offensive, is
still within his rights, to exercise it That’s
how it goes on the legal front, But
the battle for us, is not yet done. He
has his right of freedom of speech We
have our right to protest what he did And
thus began a long stalemate that
had yet to show signs to abate Our
actions may seem weird to you “Leave
him alone, what else could he do? If
you go away, he would too If
you hate him, then boycott his store, Just
don’t bother us any more!” We
understand your sentiments We
just want to take a moment A
moment to understand The
stories of people from another land Who
are now your neighbors, and friends The
flag is innocent enough from where you sit but
not if you ask people who had lived under it. Ho
Chi Minh is dead, you may say What’s
the big deal? Who cares any way? We
have said many times before, Ho
Chi Minh was a world class oppressor You
may have heard he was a mass murderer, We
won’t repeat it any more But
did you ever understand? The
destruction of people’s spirits in a land, that
America once called The
last stand for
freedom, against Communism, Ho
started the destruction long ago, Did
you ever know the feeling of despair? Watching
those whom you love and care, Your
children, parents, husband, and wife Wasted
away, day by day No
food to eat, no future to see, and
still are forced to loudly praise The
man who took everything you have away If
the world has known what Ho was an
evil being in Stalin’s class Then
we wouldn’t spend days and nights to
scream our heads off to
denounce the lies. “I
don’t care to know”, you may say. “I
care only about America today” We
respect that, but may we ask: If
you think back to 20 years past, when
your young men came home from Vietnam War How
did you treat them? Heroes or
Pariahs? Have
you ever looked back to regret? The
injustices you inflicted. All
because you didn’t care to know who
were the monsters, who
were the heroes. If
you didn’t like the fact, we
open old wounds you’d rather forget about
America’s only war defeat, then
we hope you have understood Our
anger at
having old wounds brought back Further,
may we suggest, it’s not too late, For
those who shed blood in the war to
set the record straight “You
miss the point,” you
will tell us, “It’s
about freedom of speech, you
dumb shit” “It’s
violation of a man’s rights To
express whatever is
on his mind” If
we talk violation, may
we ask some questions “How
many kinds of violation matter
to you? Is
legal violation, the
only thing that rules? How
about violation of our spirits? that
had taken so long to heal. How
about violation of our peace? that
we’ve worked hard to rebuild After
those endless nightmares of the past. If
the man wants to worship Ho, that’s
his choice. But
trouble he had no intention to avoid, Again
and again, he
mocked our pains. Now
tell us, good sir, where
did the violation begin? We
won’t violate the foolish man’s rights We
will readily walk away If
he stops violating our hearts, the
memories of those dear to us. We
will walk away and forget If
he stops violating our peace. You
may understand, and still may say “I
understand, but you have to walk away You
are now Americans, Learn
to think like one, if
you value freedom” We
understand you mean well, We
only ask for time to heal the
wounds of our tragic past If
you say “got to do better than that” We
urge you to go back to your history, and study The
story of Frederick Douglass who
decried the white man’s hypocrisy for
loudly claiming that all mankind are
entitled to “Inalienable rights” And
yet, gave freedom and rights to
only those who were not black. It
took your people two hundred years, A
Civil War, A Freedom March, and
untold lives lost, To
understand freedom as you preach today. If
it took you two hundred years, Then
don’t we deserve some time too? We
thank you for taking a moment A
moment to understand The
people from another land Who
are now your neighbors and friends. Trinh DoMarch 6, 1999
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