UPDATE: January 17, 2009 The art exhibit at VAALA which is disrespectful to the Heritage Flag of the Vietnamese Diaspora is coming down. The event was visited by 400 people in southern California who expressed their dismay at the exhibit. VAALA cancelled the exhibit after one week. UPDATE: JANUARY 21, 2009. LETTER FROM Michelle Phương Thảo to Tram Le attached A MESSAGE FROM VIET ART Friends of Viet Art, Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! Happy New Year! VAC cordially invites you to our upcoming Before New Year Celebration - Mừng Tất Niên on Friday evening, January 16, 2009. We hope you will come to join VAC and the other Vietnamese organizations bidding farewell to the momentous 2008 (politic, economic, Olympic…), year of the Mouse and welcoming a hopeful 2009 (politic, economic, Special Olympic…), year of the Buffalo. As Executive Director of Viet Art Center, I am inclined to respect as well as to avoid commentary in regarding to the works of the other art organizations. However, a Vietnamese-American Art Organization, named VAALA, decided to spoil the New Year Celebration of their own Vietnamese community, in the name of ...Art and ... Freedom ... as they so claimed: (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vietarts10-2009jan10,0,4389762.story). Since this is the first Vietnamese-American art and culture organization officially exhibiting the most notable symbols of the Vietnamese Communist regime (ten years ago, it was a reckless and want-to-be-famous individual, Tran Truong), I am making an exception to voice my opinion regarding this matter. After all, ART is POLITICS as VAALA confirmed as one of their main reasons to create F.O.B.II. Below are my messages to VAALA executive members and the organizers of “F.O.B.II: Art Speaks”: In regarding to Freedom: THE SOLDIER Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. So I add: It is the South Vietnamese soldiers, who have suffered years in re-education camp, not you, who while in and out of prison, have persistently, sacrificed their life to teach us the truth meaning of freedom. It is your parent, not you, who has risked their life to bring you to this country, so that you grew up in freedom. In regarding to your “Arts”, “liberalism”, and your accomplishment in education: Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain.” (Unknown) It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. (Robert G. Ingersoll) You can get all A's and still flunk life. (Walker Percy) So I add: A Ph.D. in school does not automatically grants you a Ph.D. in life. In regarding to your actions, here my last but not least words: “Thou art a cat, and a rat, and a coward.” (Miguel de Cervantes) I wish that you would take appropriate actions to remedy the pain that you have caused to our elders. Peace and Love, Michelle Phương Thảo ****************************************************************************** On the Vietnamese Heritage flag -- a lesson to the California Curriculum Board from the organizers of Journey from the Fall by Ham Tran: Kim-Oanh Nguyen-Lam explained the importance of incorporating a lesson that highlights the issue of the Vietnamese Freedom and Heritage flag. “The flag has been used as a collective identity for Vietnamese American refugees,” Nguyen-Lam said. “Our children who were born [in the United States] do not have the same connections. So it is important for them to have an understanding and respect [for the elder generation] – whether they agree or not – [and] do not look down on their parents. [It is also important] that their teachers understand why the community feels so sensitive about [the flag]. … In order to build relationships, we need to know each other and respect each other’s past.” The lesson nurtures awareness that “the disregard for this flag is also a traumatic reminder of how [Vietnam’s] histories of war, exile and political disenfranchisement have been silenced and rendered invisible in the years since 1975 in the U.S. The insistence on the usage of this Republic of Vietnam flag is an attempt to reinsert this Vietnamese American history into U.S. history and to give Americans a more comprehensive understanding of the Vietnam War and its legacy.”   more »