Remember the opening reception and artist’s lecture for Brian Doan‘s photographs at Cypress College?
The Bolsavik got there just as the lecture was ongoing, but the OC Register’s Richard Chang (pictured) had arrived a couple of hours before, and tells this funny story about what he saw when he first got there.
What he saw was several hundred people assembled outside the galleries.
Protestors? Oh goodie!
Turns out, nope. It’s just a previously scheduled fire drill.
Read Chang’s very detailed story of Doan’s opening reception on the Reg‘s Arts Blog here.
jose, nobody is trying to take away people’s freedom here. Brian Doan has his right & so are the protesters. Just because a few individuals did something wrong doesn’t mean the rest of the protesters have to suffer. Are you telling me that we don’t have a right to protest when we see something that we don’t like? If that’s the case then what make you different than the communist ? And like M&M said if you could exercise what you preached then why don’t you go and educate your people whenever they violated the law in this country? Yah, that’s what I thought . . . So DO THINK before you state your nonsense opinion in this blog because you start sounding like Jung Kim more & more now.
jose licka soloriobutt, evidently we know you are not anywhere near part of our good viet group……….. calling everyone and their pets a communists primarily due to lack of your language motor skills coupled with non functioning sand bag inside of your dull skull is not particularly a good excuse.
Get lost idiot!
coward: a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; a timid or easily intimidated person.
Jose, if you are danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; then YES I’m a coward for not stating my REAL name in this blog. Be real & quit making me laugh, wouldn’t you!
Under the current freedom of expression controversy, the following story of the Village of Skokie, Illinois, may shed some light. In 1977 the American Nazis planned to march through the mostly Jewish (40,500 of 70,000 people) Village of Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in defiance of the Jewish refugees and survivors of concentration camps. Of course, the Jews were extremely angry and many Jews threatened violence against the Nazis. Four days before the scheduled march, The Village of Skokie brought a lawsuit to prevent it. Guess what? A Jewish attorney went to court to defend the rights of Nazis and he won! (However, the Nazis abandoned the march through Skokie and held its rally in Chicago) Who was that courageous attorney? Mr. Aryeh Neier , former Director of ACLU, who was born in Berlin in 1937 of Jewish parents and at two years old escaped with his parents and sister to England; most of the rest of his family was lost in the Holocaust. “By attempting to deny the Nazis the freedom to speak, Skokie itself served the Nazi cause!” – Aryeh Neier
freedom of expression, what do you mean “my people”? are you refering to latinos? in that case like ive said before, when do you see latinos defacing other peoples art? trying to close art exibits,restaurants,newspapers? recalling elected officials over a damn street name? sadly that only happens here with the viet community. theres no excuse for it. and m&m, you also brought up the mexican flag in an earlier post refering to me. i’m not from mexico i was born in america and america comes first. it just shows that you and whoever freedom of expression is are just racists.
That show how to ” s ” you are jose, like I said when come down to it your name is still jose sanchez and you’re still a M&M no matter how you try to forget your own root .
And another thing jose, do you ever wonder why your parents named you jose sanchez instead of john smith ? There’s a reason for that, go ask your parents if you don’t believe me.
jose licka soloriobutt, sounds a lot like idiot anti viet Art Pedroza.
M&M, the familiar name jose sanchez usually belong to mexican people working for many viet business around town.
joe licka soloriobutt, Mexicans can’t protest due to fear of existing warrants for arrest (commonly but not limited to ; illegal status, unpaid traffic violation fines, domestic violation ie wife beating, drug problems et.)
Oh, they also face termination from the viet employers.
jose, if you can try not to look at it when you see people burning our country flag or using it to wipe their arse because you respect the freedom that we have here in America then you need to do the same when you see people protest because they all have the same right as you & me. And since you indicated that you’re an American, then why don’t you go educate the ” skin head ” or the ” KKK” about racism, I’m sure their crimes are far more worse than those protesters, don’t you agree ?
@All: Just thought I’d add my view.
There’s protest, and then there’s protest.
By law, you (and I don’t mean “you” personally – just a figure of speech) are allowed to protest anything you want, and protest for any reason you want.
(A) If you protest to bring across your point, that’s one thing.
(B) If you protest to shut down different ideas and opinions, that’s another thing.
Both are legal and allowed, but (B) means you are not lovers of freedom and democracy like you claim you are.
Real lovers of freedom and democracy do (A), not (B).
Doing (B) means you either are a communist/fascist or are on your way there.
Like I said, both (A) and (B) are allowed. You are allowed to act like communists/fascists if you want – that’s the beauty of democracy.
People who protest to shut down different ideas and opinions may not be communists, but they are certainly immoral and are serving the communists’ interest.
I rather like to see no protest…… only because there is no reason to protest.
I am just walking to the past with this simple thought…. if Bastard Brian was little more sensitive to our viet community’s heart or has taken his dad’s request into his own heart….. it could have been a wonderful viet art exhibit.
** The Bush administration hunted down and arrested anti-commie groups with the label of terrorist cell (June 2007)
U.S. prosecutors charged 10 people, including an ex-Laotian general, on Monday with seeking to topple the government of Laos in what they described as a dramatic cloak-and-dagger plot thwarted by an undercover agent posing as an arms dealer.
“These defendants had developed an audacious plan to overthrow the government of Laos, and were seeking to arm themselves with automatic rifles, rockets and surface-to-air missiles,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said.
Most prominent among those charged is Vang Pao, 77, a southern California resident and ethnic Hmong. A general in the Royal Lao Army before the Communists came to power in 1975, he led a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-trained mercenary army during the war in Indochina.
Yah, since we know that & so do the communists… That’s why they took the advantage of the freedom that we have here to promote their communism. Why do you think they tried to shut down the religion in VN is because they once took the advantage of ” the freedom of the religion ” and have their people came in pretended to be monks and we allowed that because we support the freedom of the religion.
Attention every :
M&M wants to communist to stop taking advantage of freedom, so let us stop practicing democracy until M&M toppling down the communist regime in Vietnam.
Stop practicing democracy here until democracy is practiced there.
M&M, are you just a like one of those WWII Japanese solders still hiding in the jungles in Indonesia.
Seriously, you need to seek therapy Country First !
M&M
Stay on the issue, do not pound on the table to prove your point, it only hurts your hand ! ! !
If you’re still not in therapy since last time you posted your comment, you ought to be. I’m not wasting my time debate an issue with a unreasonable person like you. Please go back and review all the comments that you’ve posted, if it made any sense to you then please take my advice and seek therapy.
Hello everyone.
I am curious to know if all of you are correct in your logic and no one is wrong.
Can we circumvent any future misperception problems by advising any artist who wants to be taken seriously to present their work in a manner where their message cannot be misunderstood without compromising the content?
If the content has to be presented in the fashion that may offend the community, then the work should be displayed away from regular viewing section to ensure the viewer’s full consent. Then, any protestor would have to explain themself the reason for going out of their way to view a controversial piece of artwork and complain about its content?
Or is this too complicated to carry out?
Another Viet friend,
I did state be4, Brian Doan s explaination and his picture doesn t match well…And some fool named Kiet Dylan came in and talked crap to me?…My mere suggestion of a stack of napkins under the bust to show the common public that the bust s simply a paper weight because well……the majority of viewers are simply not taking art class.
He intends to show his works to the everyday joeblow public right? Is there any signs in the VAALA front door saying: You The Viewer Must Have An Artist Degree To Enter And Understand Our Displays?…No?..
So he fails miserably at communicating to his intended audience, or maybe he s so smart like that chick Huynh Thuy Chau, taking advantage of the negative publicity to promote his name?….
Sonny,
You were right, and sometimes, it takes time for people to see your view. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt; we all make mistakes. You have to admit that his view is as valid as yours, artistically speaking.
As for the bust, some people would go as far as to say that it is unnecessary to be in the picture to deliver the same message. It is the combination of the bust and flag that did it.
Again, let’s give B. Doan the benefit of the doubt that he is not trying to promote himself. There must be a simple solution to eliminate this problem in the future for the sake of the community.
See the definition of Art s so vast nobody can guaranty the interpretion, even the artist himself….And that s the beauty of it. You can screw up all you want, anybody critisizing it just simply doesn t appreciate art, or doesn t have the vision. You eat spoiled food?..Instant diahhrear. You cheat your wife and got caught?..Instant divorse. You drive reckless?..Instant accident. You talk back to mean cops?..Instant tazer. You don t pay mortgage?..Instant homeless….But you show bad taste art works?..Can i say instant protest?…
Up to date, you still think that Mona Lisa s smiling, laughing, gigling or trying to cover bad teeth?..Nobody knows for sure…..But one sure fact s the painter s laughing his ass off under his grave.
Sonny, what is your proposal to eliminate this problem again?
Wassup Little Saigon, i hope you got good intention asking me this.
Again, not a proposal but just an idea of the current situation, protest and things….
Supposed i was to take the picture to reflect Brian Doan s explaination of mocking the Communists with all his ingredients, the bust and the girl with that red tee?..Remember what i just said, supposed……
Then i would put the Ho Chi Minh bust on top of a… let s say a stack of books or paper or napkins..ect….and i d have chosen a model with a country look, like no sharp eye browns or make-up….Why you ask?…Because his 99% intended community audience doesn t know jack about fancy art interpretion, but they can see clearly the instant degrading intention of those Communist symbols?..
Howabout that same tee shirt on a homeless filthy skinny Vietnamese kids?..We got a lot of those in Vietnam.
Now you can also see why so many people love to call themself artists?..
If you are a doctor and people got sicker after they see you?…Then you are not a good doc, simply a black and white issue.
If you are a lawyer and your clients lose more than you told them?..Then you are not a good lawyer.
If you are a hairstylist and your customer look like a retard after they had their hair done at your salon?…Well, bye-bye that customer and forget about tip.
If you are a football quarterback and you throw more interceptions than touch downs?..Then no NFL contract for ya……and so on.
But if you are an artist?….Holy moly macarony cow poop…..If you make some weird looking picture?…Anybody saying good thing about it, you call those educated opinions, but any objections?..I think, according to the current situation?…You can call them Protestors?..
Not funny i guess?..
Sonny.
Only good intention behind the line of questioning.
Another Viet proposed one solution. I was hoping that there would be more proposed solutions, so we, the Community, can choose the most effective way to eliminate more art protests in the future.
From what I can gather, both symbols, the red flag with the yellow star and the bust of Uncle Ho are a couple of no nos in the Viet-Am community. Do both appearing together signify something the people don’t like or one or the other? This way, artists can to present their art work in OC.
If the community does not, then these artists will use their discretion to display their work, and that is directly dependent on their background relating to the VN War, not knowing the community’s sensitive spots.
The Viet-Am community defined the Heritage Flag, then we need to set conditions how the two symbols can be presented.
Does this seem possible and viable?
Too bad we don t have a Henry Kissinger in our community…
Really hate to see a mini version of Jews-Palestine in this little Orange County….But mixing communism with refugees is like……..how can i put it?…Water and oil?..
Do the local governmental leaders have to get involved? Why can’t the Viet-Am art galleries have a self imposed sanction on the criteria of the produced artwork or how the pieces will be shown to eliminate protests?
I don t know much about art but….take this Brian Doan s work for example.
Did you ever see his first piece The Unforgotten Ones?…How noble of what he did. I bought 10 books the very first day it came out. I almost bust in tear seeing those pictures…..One main reason s i was in that situation, in Palawan for 4 years….That hell hole used to hold up to 30 thousands refugees?…Gotta give the US and Philippines folks the credit, but now?…
There re countless topics outthere, why chose a provoking one?.Especially the topic hurting your own family?..Does he intentionally do this to promote himself?…I really hope not.
Sonny, I did not, but honestly, I found his Echoes pieces much more appealing than the couples and love portraits. The one Viet couple in Newport Beach was bordering on pornography.
These damn local officials are out to gain votes man, don t buy into their bs…They should not be behind any of this stuff, period.
But then again, compared to other communities like Cubans in Miami, they really can t be convinced to accept the Communists symbols that easy either?..And as far as we know, Fidel Castro s much much less cruel to his country than our Ho Chi Minh?..
Anyway, you think this President Obama have any vote from the KKK?..No?..But we still live under the same sky right?..
Oh to reply to your last comment?…When it comes to porno?..Believe me, no one in this whole wide world rivals Hollywood….
The KKK are represented by David Duke who clearly showed his displeasure for the new Republican leader. He said that 90% of the Republicans will leave the party soon. Hahaha; that’s funny.
Sonny, I like your suggestion regard putting the same t-shirt on a skinny, filthy, homeless kid . . . now that would be the truth about communism.
Dear Mr. Burr:
I very much agree with the man who wrote you the email. His opinion is very true because I have the same painful feeling just like him when I see that red flag. That flag is the representation of the evil, and vicious tyrant that brought endless misery to my country and my people for the last 60 years and untill this day. I forgive you for your ignorant and insensitive action because you are not Vietnamese and can not understand our agony and our painful experience with that flag.
You know Communist Vietnam absolutely does not have freedom of speech then why did you wear its red flag to promote freedom of speech? This fact can tell you that your mind was empty and your action was ignorant. Freedom of Speech is our first amendment and we all enjoy it in America. The people who protest the flag not because they are against freedom of speech but because of the horror of that flag brought in their lives.
The man said that Vietnameses and South East Asians have below average intelligence is nothing you should concern about. English is not our first language so sometimes because of language barrier it is hard to fully express ourselves.
Regards,
“That flag is the representation of the evil, and vicious tyrant that brought endless misery to my country and my people for the last 60 years and untill this day.” 60 years ago was 1949. Give or take a few years, let’s say 1945-46. During WWII, French troops did not resist the Japanes military oocupation of Vietnam. The collaberationist Vichy Government ordered them not to. One of the only forces resisting the Japanese occupying Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh and was assisted by airdrops of munitions and supplies by the USA. At the end of WWII, the Vietnamese resistance declared independence from France, using the US Declaration of Independence as a model for their statement. Unfortunately, Britain, France and the United States cooperating to thwart Vietnam’s independence and helprd return it to colonial dominantion by France. The French-Indochina War ensued. A minority of Vietnamese fought with the French against the majority of Vietnamese who sought the end of colonialism, the end of any foreign domination and the independence and unity of Vietnam.
The French-Indochina War was lost by the French and its minority Vietnamese allies with the final battle at DienBienPhu. Before the end, some military leaders in the USA (particularly Admiral Radford) demanded the use of nuclear weapons to delay the inevitable defeat of colonialist France. This would have resulted in death to many more millions of Vietnamese, which was of little or no concern to hard-core American military leaders of the time. Eisenhower vetoed the idea. The US State Department, under JFDulles, did everything possible to sabotage the Geneva Accords of 1954, which were meant to bring peace, independence and unity of Vietnam. The elections scheduled for 1956 under the Geneva Accords were prevented by the USA. Inn Saigon, the French puppet, Bao Dai, was overthrown by the Catholic, mandarinistic, autocrat Ngo Diem Dinh, who had sat out the French-Indochina War living at the estate of Cardinal Spellman in New York. Ngo brothers ran the secret police and the archdiocese of Hue. Then, the military junta under Thieu took over until the farce ended in 1975. None of these ruling bodies were democratic. Don’t kid yourself.
Press censorship _1973 Vietnamese style :
The government of South Viet Nam has assumed the power to put print media out of business altogether. Last week the number of daily newspapers in the country stood at 29, after 13 folded from failure to meet strict new financial requirements imposed by President Nguyen Van Thieu.
Thieu announced in August that every newspaper would have to put up a $47,000 “deposit” in order to publish. From this fund would be deducted fines of up to $12,500 per infraction for “undermining national security,”
Among the papers forced out of business were six of the eight opposition dailies; the two anti-Thieu survivors had both folded earlier.
Freedom of the press has never existed in Vietnam, then and now.
Jenny Nguyen,
60 years of tyranny, that goes back to 1945.
* An estimated 2 million Vietnamese died because of 1940-1945 famine. Death was everywhere, every street corners, under every trees, and every family. Street sweepers picked up corps as trash every morning.
* From 1941 to 1944, Vietnam supplied 700,000 to 1.3 million tons of rices and maize to Japan, while Vietnamese people did not have enough to eat.
* Vichy France, still in charge of administration, shipped all tax money back to France.
* All Vietnamese must remember the 2 million death in the 1945 famine.
Excerpts
In March 1945, Japan overthrew French authorities, iprisoned French officials, giving Vietnam an unique occasion for Emperor Bao Dai to declare independence and form the first Vietnamese sovereign government in 60 years naming scholar Tran Trong Kim as Prime Minister. Five month later, Ho Chi Minh’s communist party used the confusion and vacuum following Japan’s surrender to seize power by attacking government building on August 17, 1945, which gave a communist term as the “August Revolution”, beginning the long 30 year war between nationalist who tried to keep foreign influence out and communist who were determined to bring the power of Lenin and Stalin to Vietnam.
In fact, the struggle between nationalist and communist began in 1925 when Ho Chi Minh betrayed Phan Boi Chau by selling him out to the French for a large sum of money which Ho Chi Minh eloquently explained that the sacrifice of one person for a just cause is justifiable in itself.
To be continued
Excerpts
In 1945, from the outset, even when the coalition government was still in existence, Ho proceeded with eliminating nationalist combatants. In North Vietnam, the first victims were members of the Vietnam Cach Mang Dong Minh Hoi, the Vietnam Quoc Dan Dang, the Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang. Even the vice-president of the government of which Ho was president was hunted, but Nguyen Hai Than managed to escape to China. In the South the Hoa Hao Buddhist followers were the first to be attacked followed one month later by members of the Cao Dai. Also, Trotskyite leaders such as Tran Van Thach, Pham Van Hum were assassinated. Ta Thu Thau, a well known Trotskyite was invited by Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi for a meeting but was arrested and killed while on his way.
Afterwards, Catholics in the North became the target of systematic oppression. As a result, Catholic followers in Bui Chu Phat Diem villages had to stand up and defend themselves at great sacrifices. With the 1954 Geneva Accord giving North Vietnam to communist rule, thousands of Catholics had to leave the very village they had so dearly defended, and moved to the South.
To be continued
Excerpts
The Republic of Vietnam in the South was founded in October 1955 with Ngo Dinh Diem as President. Through the First and Second Republic, the Vietnam army had grown to a strength able to stop Communist advances thanks to US appropriate assistance. The Vietnamese nationalist soldiers fought valiantly and had kept the communist at bay throughout the war. However, US cut of assistance had forced them to fight with rationed ammunitions against an enemy with unlimited supports from Peking and Moscow.
The 1954 Geneva Accord terminated the era of nearly one hundred years of French rule, but it also cleared the way for the communist expansion. North Vietnam became the takeoff base for Ho Chi Minh and the Soviets to prepare their next move, the takeover of the whole Vietnam as it happened on that day of April 30, 1975, followed later by Laos and Kampuchea.
Historians may correctly record that the battle for independence was bravely fought by the whole people moved by a high spirit of patrotism, but they should also underline the fact that the Vietnamese patriotic revolution was “hijacked” by the communist as a historical clarification.
April 30, 1975: Freedom Gain and Lost. (Vietnam studies group)
….
The Geneva Conference convened in the summer of 1954 ended hostilities throughout Indochina, partitioned Vietnam at the 17th parallele pending election for reunification by mid 1956. The whole Vietnamese people would enjoy the fundamental freedom guaranteed by democratic institutions established as a result of free elections (quoted from Geneva Final Declaration)
The South and the North Vietnamese authorities were to work in creating favorable conditions for 1956 free election. But it was obvious that those conditions could not exist in the communist-controlled territory. In North Vietnam, the Communist Party launched the most brutal social movement in the history of Vietnam: the 1956 Land Reform Program which expressed goal was to eliminate the landlord class. Robert Turner in his book “Vietnamese Communism : Its origin and development” estimated that about 50,000 people had been executed and perhaps hundreds of thousands more had died of starvation or had committed suicide during the land Reform program.
Excerpts from “The Vietnam war: a point of view from a former combattant”
Excerpts “Peace on the Grave”
….
It was no secret that Ho Chi Minh killed hundreds of nationalists in 1946 and over 50,000 peasants after coming to power in North Vietnam in 1954.
It was no secret that the National Liberation Front assassinated over 35,000 local South Vietnamese leaders and systematically used terror tactics against civilians.
It was no secret that Communist forces killed nearly 5,000 people in their month-long occupation of Hue during the Tet Offensive.
It was no secret that Hanoi’s forces deliberately killed far more civilians by shelling them as they fled the fighting in Quang Tri during the 1972 offensive than our bombers accidentally did during their attacks on North Vietnam in December 1972.
….
Communist troops brought peace to South Vietnam …but it was the peace of the grave.
Excerpts from “No more Vietnams” by Richard Nixon
Jenny, thank you for the history lessons. Context is everything. Any asymmetric presentation of facts and statistics can make any participant look like the villian or the hero. It always depends on “where you are coming from”. There is no disputing the fact that HCM, NVA, VC and their supporters in Peking and Moscow were violent and killed a lot of people. There is also no disputing the fact that events of the last 100 years in Vietnam included class warfare and the violent transfer of wealth. There is no better example of this than what comes under the general description of “land reform”. European-style mediaeval lordships with serfdom, and American plantation ownership and slavery existed at one time and nolonger exist as a result of violent transformation to more current arrangements of land ownership and employment rather than abject servitude. The land ownership situation in Vietnam into the 20 Century was something like Mediaeval Feudalism or American Slavery. Of course, the landowners were reticent. “Land reform” hardly ever happens peacefully. But, societies resisting the worldwide trends opposing colonialism, serfdom and slavery were inviting revolutionary wars. Wars are, by definition, violent. Neither side can possibly win unless it is willing and capable to kill people on the other side. War is ugly. It is meaningless to point out isolated events. By the way, MyLai was not an isolated event. Americans and their RVN allies slaughtered innumerable Vietnamese south of the DMVin the process of their “search and destroy” missions with the primary goal of establishing “body counts”. In other words, any deceased VN man, woman or child added to their tabulations. The political affiliation of these KIAs was unimportant. If the VNs wore black pajamas, they were likely VC. Many were shot by helicopter gunners flying overhead. Sure, some of them were VC, at least temporarily when they had to be to survive. And who knows how many Vietnamese were killed as a result of the “1 mllion sorties” over Vietnam north of the DMV. There was nothing like the precision bombing of today, which is still really not that good. Bridges, railroads, highways, etc were targeted. Where in Vietnam is there one of these without housing right next to it. War kills people. It is meaningless to point out that the victors in war killed a lot of people.
Until Bush 43, Nixon was the worst President in the history of the United States. He was a pathological liar. Everything he wrote was an attempt to improve his own personal historical legacy. Whatever he says in his books should be considered false until proven otherwise. He created his own sense of legality and his own sense of truth. From his own perspective, anything he did as President was legal, and anything he said was the truth, no matter what were otherwise the facts. He was a criminal and probably psychotic. Quoting him gravely risks your credibility except among the small number of probably Republican, possibly psychotic and Nixonian like-minded individuals incapable of recognizing the truth.
Every year, tenth of thousand Vietnamese American from Southern Ca visiting Vietnam, they all seeing Ho Chi Minh image and the Red Flag where ever they look, from airport to local restaurants and none suffering with “flash back of bad memories”… go to Youtube and search for Viet travel to see how they enjoying their stay in Vietnam while surrounding with the “Red Flag” and Ho’s image. And yes, these are the same people claiming that they risk their lives to escape the evil communist regime, and now they are going right back to that same evil regime to spend their hard earn money, to show off their luxury, to exploite the poor local people. Don’t try to defend it by saying they are back to visit their love ones, some, but not all, we all known that many go there because of cheap living expenses, prostitute, inexpensise plastic surgery …..Be truthfull, dont tell me that the South Vietnamese people were not suffering during the first two regimes of the Republic of Vietnam with the dictator Ngo Dinh Diem and the cowardly Nguyen Van Thieu. There are hundreds of video clip of Vietnam today post in YouTube which recorded by various tourist from over the world, many from Little Saigon, Orange County, do you see anything like the protest of Thich Quang Duc in 1963 and the execution of prisoner of war in 1968.
Dear Mr. Michael Burr,
Thanks for wearing the Vietnam Flag T shirt, like you, I also an American (Vietnamese American), like you, I also pay taxes and abide all the law of the state. But not like you, I m not enjoying the freedom of expression, I can not wear the same T shirt, because some fanatic Vietnamese will label me commies, call me name and threaten me with violence. As a Vietnamese, I apologize for those Vietnamese who called you names, they are uneducated and igorance, I m sure they are not doctor, lawyer or engineer …. they are, mostly, sore looser, who only enjoy living with the past memories when they still wearing the uniform of the ARVN, but what did they do while wearing those uniform at that time? Were they fight bravely against the North commies even after the Vietnamrization…hmm, let history speaks for itself. In the late of April 1975, I saw many ARVN colonels, generals and high ranking officers in a refugee camp in Guam, and the war was not over yet at that time, hmm, who do the fighting then in South VN, hmm. Many of them are now wearing uniform and show their faces at Tet’s festival and community events boast how bravely they fought during the war. I m sure, some of my own people will label me commie or commie lover or commie wanabe… Thanks again Mr Burr for practice the freedom of expression, the freedom which I also have but can not practice in the most democracy country of the world, thanks to those fanatic, low intelligent, cowardly Vietnamese.
@susieq, even though I totally agreed with you about several factors you’ve mention in your comment, still I don’t think you have any right to make an apology to Michael on behalf of those Vietnamese who called him names because they are only doing exactly what Michael is doing, speaking out their mind. I still don’t understand why is it so hard for you, especially as a Vietnamese American to understand the sensitiveness of the whole issue behind the image of the flag. As a human being, we also have common senses, feeling & compassion. So not everything that we do in life have to be either wrong or right, or looking at any matter in black or white . So if you truly like to wear the shirt like Micheal did for whatever reason then DO IT but don’t do it because you want to provoke somebody. And another thing, because we’re living in this great country with all the freedom that we have, we also have to understand that if we have a right to speak our minds, other people also have the same rights.