Yesterday (August 2, 2005), the Vietnamese American community in California met with administration officials of the City College of San Francisco to protest the removal of the heritage flag of the Vietnamese diaspora, which is yellow with three orange stripes representing the regions of origin of the people, and its replacement at CCSF by the flag of the Communist regime, the red flag with a gold star representing the forceful takeover of Viet Nam in violation of international agreeement in April, 1975.
Three California public school trustees -- Madison Nguyen, president of the Franklin McKinley School District Board of Education, Lan Quoc Nguyen, vice president of the Garden Grove Unified School District and Trung Quang Nguyen, trustee of the Garden Grove Unified School District -- presented a letter to Dr. Philip R. Day, Chancellor of the San Francisco Community College District, requesting the return of the Vietnamese Heritage flag to the international flag display at the college cafeteria.
The full text of the letter from the three elected school board officials may be found (in Vietnamese) on
Over 125 Vietnamese Americans came from all parts of California to present their viewpoint to Dr. Phiip Day, Dr. Don Q. Griffin, the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Peter Goldstein, the Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration, and "Skip" Fotch, the Associate Dean of Student Activities. It was this Associate Dean who had removed the Vietnamese Heritage flag from the display and replaced it with the Communist flag a few weeks ago. Chancellor Philip Day apologized for the act to the group and promised to return it to the cafeteria (which is closed for summer break) immediately.
However, the Vietnamese Americans present expressed great dismay that the Communist flag would remain at all at the flag display. The removal of the Heritage flag and display of the Communist flag had been requested by International students attending CCSF. The president of the Vietnamese Students Association was present and addressed the chancellor as well, stating that the substitution of the flag was not at the request of the organization, but by individual Vietnamese students whose tuition and expenses are paid by the Communist regime and who are children of government officials.
Vietnamese Americans attending the meeting with the school board officials (a bus with thirty-three people had driven from Garden Grove that morning at 4 a.m.) made it clear to the CCSF administration that the people in the room were taxpayers and citizens who attended community colleges in California and paid for them. When the chancellor suggested that therefore their flag should only be that of the United States, he was educated by the delegation as to the meaning of the Communist flag to Vietnamese Americans as an affront and a symbol of atrocity to them. Many spoke of their refugee experience as the first generation in America and what they endured under communism, especially prison. Presentations were made by a Vietnamese Catholic Priest and a Priest of the Hoa Hao Buddhists who are persecuted in present-day Vietnam.
After the Chancellor's apology and offer to return the Heritage flag to the cafeteria display, the community present held a discussion led by Tran Dieu Chan, a Human Rights Activist from San Jose who had translated and articulated the statements of the Vietnamese Americans and the CCSF administrators from Vietnamese to English and vice versa when needed.
After a heated discussion in the 5 p.m. hour, Tran Dieu Chan presented the consensus to Dr. Philip Day and the other administrators: simply returning the Heritage Flag was not acceptable to the group, the Communist flag must come down. Madison Nguyen, originator of the letter, expressed the view that the Communist flag should be removed.
The Chancellor's reponse to that consensus was to promise to talk with the President of the Board of Trustees this morning (August 3, 2005) when they were gathering on another matter. He stated he would have an answer on issue of removal of the Communist flag soon ("by the end of the week") rather than wait for the beginning of the academic year and regularly scheduled meetings of the Trustees as he had indicated early in the meeting.
Congratulations to the Vietnamese American community for engaging the CCSF administration and negotiating this apology and return of the Vietnamese Heritage flag, and a speedy resolution of the issue of the removal of the Communist flag that had been requested by the International students.
PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO PUBLISH THIS ARTICLE.
Jean Libby
Viet-Am Review
