Our son and daughter-in-law travelled to Vietnam earlier this year. You could hardly call it a vacation. At one point they lived for days in a village home without running water. At another they were riding in a beat-up vehicle on a goat path along the very edge of a mountain. Yet another and they were forced to walk through darkened Hanoi streets in the early hours of the morning trying to find their travel connection. I knew that they would bring back souvenirs so I made a special request. I wanted something very cheap....made in the South....and sold by someone my age or older. I just wanted a renewed connection to the South Vietnamese people. I received more than I imagined....a bamboo flute and an ink drawing of a Vietnamese woman weighed down with a bamboo shoulder pole, both created as they watched!
I bring this up because their trip generated more than a few conversations between friends and myself. You see, to me it is still Saigon and will never....never.... be Ho Chi Minh City. I guess that my hesitation to embrace Vietnam as it is today shows through in my expressions and probably even in my words. The response that I usually get is..."it's time to get over it." They don't quite understand......the issue is not Vietnam....the issue is Communism. You don't get over Communism!
As I have described previously in these posts....the Vietnamese people did not win their great war for independence, as this communist government now boasts. The people of Vietnam lost any hope for independence, first in the North, and then in the South. The communists butchered their way past France and then past us.....millions died! Their communist comrades worked this side of the globe on the Western news media while their communist leaders from Russia and China supplied them with all that they would need.
Wikipedia begins its definition of cancer with this..."Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body." Communism also comes in many forms as it can show up in aggressive revolution or benign propaganda (scientific-economic or in education). Its cell growth can occur on a college campus, or a union hall, or in inner city community activism, or even in a church denomination or constitutional republic.
Today....in America.....Communism once again plies its murderous trade...stir up division and hatred.....promise 'justice' but deliver injustice....lie and deceive whenever the mouth is opened....ridicule whenever challenged.....and strong arm anyone who gets in the way. The Vietnam War ended....but the struggle with Communism did not.
I bring this up because their trip generated more than a few conversations between friends and myself. You see, to me it is still Saigon and will never....never.... be Ho Chi Minh City. I guess that my hesitation to embrace Vietnam as it is today shows through in my expressions and probably even in my words. The response that I usually get is..."it's time to get over it." They don't quite understand......the issue is not Vietnam....the issue is Communism. You don't get over Communism!
As I have described previously in these posts....the Vietnamese people did not win their great war for independence, as this communist government now boasts. The people of Vietnam lost any hope for independence, first in the North, and then in the South. The communists butchered their way past France and then past us.....millions died! Their communist comrades worked this side of the globe on the Western news media while their communist leaders from Russia and China supplied them with all that they would need.
Wikipedia begins its definition of cancer with this..."Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body." Communism also comes in many forms as it can show up in aggressive revolution or benign propaganda (scientific-economic or in education). Its cell growth can occur on a college campus, or a union hall, or in inner city community activism, or even in a church denomination or constitutional republic.
Today....in America.....Communism once again plies its murderous trade...stir up division and hatred.....promise 'justice' but deliver injustice....lie and deceive whenever the mouth is opened....ridicule whenever challenged.....and strong arm anyone who gets in the way. The Vietnam War ended....but the struggle with Communism did not.
