July 2, 2017
By Mai Do
It's 2:00AM on June 30. I am writing a poem. I check Twitter in case of news updates from Hong Kong or Southeast Asia. I am prepared to see images of protests, or to see more images from Marawi City, or to see reports of the Rohingya crisis. I am not prepared to see The Seattle Times report that Tommy Le, a young, twenty-year-old, Vietnamese American man, was shot and killed by King County police without solid reason on June 14. The reported reason for shooting Tommy Le? He was allegedly carrying a knife, but in actuality, he was carrying a pen. Tommy Le was fatally shot while carrying a pen.

June 30, 2017
In an effort to stop a potential Trump Executive Order that would impact lives of immigrants who are admitted to the United States legally, 38 nonprofit organizations, government officials and academics serving Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are uniting to increase public awareness of an ominous executive order, leaked earlier this year and foreshadowed in public statements again just last week, that threatens immigrants with deportation if they use federally funded public benefits, and indebts their sponsors with repaying such benefits.

June 27, 2017
By Tung Thanh Nguyen, MD
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan government agency whose analyses of the effects of federal legislation are generally accepted to be the most accurate, has issued its assessment of the Senate Health Care Bill. The CBO analysis confirms the general perception that the bill is tax reform masquerading as health care reform.

June 12, 2017
Welcome to the Young Vietnamese American Voter Survey!
The purpose of this survey is to gather information on what young, Vietnamese Americans care about in relation to social issues within their communities. The PIVOT Young Vietnamese Americans (YVA) Committee will use this information to create resources and implement programs that will empower young people to become more civically engaged. 

Terms of the incentive for completing the survey:  To thank you for your time, upon completion of the survey, you will get a chance to enter in a weekly raffle. Each week for the next four weeks, a winner will be drawn from our survey pool for a chance to win a $25 gift card. You may prefer to not participate and have the option to remain anonymous.

May 31, 2017
By Tung Thanh Nguyen, MD
People used to talk about America as the melting pot, which sounded either scary or unappetizing. Immigrants were supposed to assimilate, which meant becoming white. I call it the bleaching of America. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month means we can celebrate what makes us different. The diversity, not the singularity, is what makes us stronger. As a scientist, I can say that this is true. Species that do not have diversity cannot adapt, and will become extinct.

PIVOT (The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization) endorses Bee Nguyen as State Representative for the 89th District in Georgia.  Nguyen currently serves as the Chief of Staff for State Representative Sam Park, a Korean-American whom she helped to defeat a three-term Republican incumbent to be the first openly gay man to serve on the Georgia General Assembly. Nguyen is also the founder and Executive Director at Athena’s Warehouse, a nonprofit that helps educate and empower underserved teenage girls, many of whom are immigrants or daughters of immigrants, in the Atlanta community.

It is now more important than ever to elect a woman of color, and the first Vietnamese American, to the Georgia legislature.  Nguyen will use her platform to further expand progressive causes in Georgia that are aligned with PIVOT’s, including mobilizing minorities and young voters, and taking a relentless stand in support of immigrant and refugee rights.

May 15, 2017
By Kimberly Ngo
This year is a pivotal moment in my life, as I transition into medical school. At age 23, I am now the same age as my dad when he arrived in America almost 40 years ago. Although the world’s memory may only recall the images of people cramming onto boats or into overflowing helicopters after the fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975, our Vietnamese diaspora never forgets our refugee history or how it impacts our lives today.

Thus, as we celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM) this May, I want to honor my family’s journey to America and reflect on how their struggles and successes have shaped my own identity as both a Vietnamese American and an Asian American woman.  

May 14, 2017
By Anh Thu Bui, M.D.

Mental illness sounds like a curse, something horrible, inescapable.

We have a hard time talking about it, perhaps because the symptoms of mental illness are bound to expressions of speech and behavior, and at times, almost indistinguishable from one’s personality, or that we cannot help but respond negatively when we see the human mind, the organ of consciousness, lost in the grip of such fearsome ills.

May 9, 2017
What do we call people who create a plan that may lead to our bankruptcy, threaten our health and the health of our loved ones, and that will eventually kill some of us? Surely, not our leaders because they don’t represent our best interest. On May 4, 2017, there were 217 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to do all that to Vietnamese Americans and all Americans in order to give a tax cut to the very rich by passing the American Health Care Act (AHCA).  The Vietnamese have a well known saying that “health is gold!” because we know that good health is invaluable. The 217 representatives who voted for the AHCA also believe that our health is gold--in the sense that they cashed in our health to make actual gold for billionaires.