A Tết Message from our PIVOT Board President: Enter the Dragon
/February 2, 2024
On February 10, we celebrate Tết, the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. Dragons hold a special place in Vietnamese culture because our origin story goes back to Âu Cơ, a fairy princess, and Lạc Long Quân, a lord of the dragons.
As descendants of a fairy and dragon, we are people who manifest our dreams, overcome adversities, and value our freedom and independence above all.
Legends aside, we Vietnamese Americans are powerful embodiments of the American Dream. We and our parents risked our lives to travel across thousands of miles of sea. We not only survived but thrived to build our lives and our communities. We are con rồng cháu tiên.
Yet the freedom we sought and found in the U.S. is under threat. Democracy has been weakened by disinformation and insurrection, and the people who were responsible are back in the 2024 elections. The rights of women have been restricted. Our safety is threatened by anti-Asian hate and the proliferation of guns.
In 2024, PIVOT will be organizing across the country to defend democracy, build a strong economy, protect women’s and other civil rights, build safe communities, and sustain hope for the future by expanding accessible high-quality education and addressing the climate crisis.
In the Year of the Dragon, PIVOT will expand our work to fight disinformation and engage voters by giving them the information they need in English and Vietnamese through our nationally recognized VietFactCheck program. To help with intergenerational communication, we will launch our VietAm Stories project. We will expand our highly impactful digital and traditional ethnic media campaigns. Our PIVOT Fellows will engage Vietnamese American voters where they live.
We need young and old, fairies and dragons, dreamers and doers. We need caring Vietnamese Americans to step up—from donating funds that you can afford to sharing your time and skills to help us reach Vietnamese American voters.
Join our Elections team by visiting our elections webpage, donate today here, and come to our virtual March into Action event on Saturday, March 9 at 10 am PT.
-PIVOT Board President, Dr. Tung Nguyen