|
Michael Do
www.michaelpdo.com |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall at Cook Walden Memorial Park, Austin Texas June 1 through 3, 2007
|
||||||
|
Opening Ceremony at 10:00 a.m., Friday 06-01-2007 Candle light Vigil, at sunset, Satuday June 2, 2007 Closing Ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday June 3, 2007 |
||||||||
|
Left: The Replica of the Vietnam Wall at Austin draws tens of thousands of visitors during the weekends Right: Trang Abels on Austin American Stateman Saturday June, 2, 2007, Cick the link below for more photos http://www.statesman.com/news/mediahub/media/slideshow/index.jsp?tId=22546 |
||||||||
|
Speech by Trang Abels, the 2nd generation Vietnamese American at the Opening Ceremony
Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for giving me this opportunity to express the gratefulness of the second generation Vietnamese American to those who have been involved and affected by the Vietnam War although it was over 32 years ago. More than 58 thousand American soldiers and more than a million Vietnamese soldiers from both sides lost their lives during the War. The Vietnam War ended on April 30th 1975. A lot of people thought that the American and the South Vietnamese lost the war but I don’t think so. The communists won the war but they failed to win the faith and trust from the Vietnamese people. Hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers along with many educated civilians such as teachers and doctors were put in prisons by the communists. Millions of people fled our homeland to find freedom in other countries. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in the sea trying to flee Vietnam. The Vietnamese who stayed lost their freedom, their future, and most important,: their hope and belief. Today, 32 years after the War, the Vietnamese are still struggling for their democracy, freedom and human rights. That is why I strongly believe that the American and the South Vietnamese soldiers were fighting for the right reasons: FREEDOM. Memorial Day is a time to honor the soldiers and I would like to thank the soldiers of American and South Vietnamese who fought in the Vietnam War. Vietnamese people are always thankful for the sacrifice of American soldiers. Our hearts are with the families whose sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters gave their lives for our freedom. As a US citizen, I would like to thank our soldiers who fought, gave their lives and are still fighting to protect the freedom of our country. Please accept my deepest respect and appreciation to the American and soldiers and their families.
Before I finish, I would like to read a small part of an article that I read from Bobby Ross. As a daughter of a South Vietnamese Veteran and a wife of a Desert Storm Veteran, his writing has really touched my heart and I would like to share it with you:
“Memorial Day offers us the
opportunity to express a moment of solitude where each of us can
personify in our own way what we feel. I only speak for my myself,
as one who has bared his soul to the dread of war. So my father did,
and his father's father before him, and their souls float amongst
the multitudes. My mother and her mother held their Veterans after
they returned from war, tears streaming down their cheeks in
gratitude for their safe return. And there were those in my ancestry
who did not return from war. And their mothers' tears soaked the
pillows on beds for generations to sleep upon. Their souls are the
dreams that drift amongst the floating, gathering at the end of May
in the breeze of summer's coming, in the cool glass of lemonade at
the child's street side stand, in the cheers at the ball game from
the crowd rooting their team to victory and By Bobby Ross.
Thank you and may God bless you.
|
||||||||
|
Trang Abels, Representing the 2nd Generation of the Vietnamese Americans, made a touching remark at the Opening Ceremony |
The wreath of The Vietnamese American Veterans Association at Austin |
Representatives of 5 US Armed Forces branches and Vietnamese Community at the Wreath Laying Ceremony |
||||||
|
Table of Remembrance symbolizes the soldiers who are still missing |
Austinites visit the Wall |
Vietnamese American Veterans Assn.
|
||||||
