By Mai Ho — America is about to celebrate another Independence Day, and many of us are making plans to celebrate the holiday. Some will travel, some will get together with family and friends, and some are deciding where they want to view the spectacular fireworks shows. I will spend this day remembering to count my blessings for the liberties that my family and I are so grateful to have experienced since coming to America and living the American dream.
Thirty-three years have passed since the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. I still vividly remember the painful escape that my husband and I took 26 years ago in search of freedom. That search began on a wooden boat, as we were trying to escape from our war-torn homeland. We were “boat people,” like thousands of our fellow Vietnamese countrymen, and like them, we risked our lives in search of freedom without fear of the uncertainty or the unknown future. It was a painful journey. Some of us made it, some vanished or were buried in the unforgiving stormy sea, some were slaughtered, raped, or tortured by pirates, and others were caught by the Vietnamese Communist government and sent to “re-education camps.”
For those of us who survived the escape, we were still bereft with mixed emotions. Here we were, in a new land, but was the price of freedom too high? We had lost husbands, wives, children, parents, relatives, and friends. We had lost our homes. We had lost everything we had ever known and loved. No words can describe the terrifying and painful ordeal boat people endured and suffered in the name of “Freedom!”
Mai Ho and her husband Quyen Phan visit the Capitol during their recent trip to Washington D.C.
It is that Freedom that made us desperate to leave our homeland where we were born, raised, loved, and surrounded by family, friends, and neighbors; where the memories of childhood were engraved deeply in our minds, our hearts. Despite a painful escape, we hold it close to our heart. It reminds us every day that Freedom is priceless and precious – indeed!
It is that Freedom that 58,000 Americans, alongside millions of Vietnamese people, sacrificed their lives fighting for.
It is that Freedom that we’re indebted to the thousands of uniformed men and women who continue to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect that intangible privilege we enjoy each day.
America has opened her arms and welcomed us to begin our new life in Hawaii. “There were hearts that warmed our hearts; there were hands that reached out for our hands.” We feel so blessed, so fortunate, and so grateful for everything that we have each and every day, and that we are in the greatest country of the world.
Happy Birthday America – with love and gratitude! From a very proud Vietnamese-American!
RSS
Email Dr. Kelley
