On Thursday, Lac Tan Nuygen found out why his rival Hung Phuong Nguyen (read here) never followed through on his threat to picket the University of Southern California over its display of the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: It’s usually not a good idea to start a battle you can’t win.
Nuygen (and yes that’s how he modified the spelling of his name) had called for a meeting to take actions against USC, but the president of a non-profit corporation called the Vietnamese Community of Souther (sic) California drew only an audience of a dozen, including media.
So, instead of taking any immediate action, the assembled activists called for the buildup of forces.
Also present at the meeting was OC Supervisorial candidate Hoa Van Tran (pictured; photo NOT taken at the flag meeting). He took time out from his busy schedule campaigning and not amending his financial reports, to make a standing offer to give legal advice any time the activists wanted.
In late February, activists successfully forced Irvine Valley College to take down the flags of all nations hanging outside its international center that included the red-and-yellow-star flag, after a meeting during which Westminster City Councilman Andy Quach, as he told the Reg’s Martin Wisckol here, “explained to college officials what a protest could be like, based on the 1999 demonstrations in his city at Hi Tek Video.”
However, similar efforts in April targeting Mesa Community College in Arizona failed to change the administrators’ mind and the flag many consider communist is still on display there.
People have matured somehow. Public’s sympathy has diminished. Lack of staff and resources. Place of protest is far away from LS base. Lack of good cause. USC is a GIANT institution, not a little individual. Leadership’s morality is in question. And many other things…
Thus, attempt to protest against USC will be in vain and doomed to failure.