September 14, 2020

This year’s Lễ Vu Lan was like no other

September 14, 2020/ Josie Nguyen

September 15, 2020
Vien Nguyen, PIVOT member

This year’s Lễ Vu Lan was like no other. This most beloved Buddhist celebration of the year is a time of remembrance of parents and ancestors. My mother and I drove to her chùa to visit the nuns and receive gifts of food. We greeted the nuns from the other side of the screen door and bowed with clasped hands, smiling and exchanging Mô Phật, the universal Buddhist greeting. There was no incense filled room crowded with children and young people pinning red, pink and white roses on the lapels and áo dài of their elders. But this year, like all other years since my grandmother passed away sixteen years ago, my mom and I reminisced about her mother.

September 07, 2020

DONALD TRUMP IS HONEST BUT HIS SUPPORTERS REFUSE TO LISTEN

September 07, 2020/ Josie Nguyen

September 7, 2020
Thang Do, PIVOT board member

As a man of paradox, Donald Trump’s lying nature is legendary. The Washington Post Fact Checker has documented his 20,055 lies in 1,267 days in office. He can lie without qualms, from inconsequential matters such as the crowd size at his inauguration ceremony, to intentionally defaming others such as his conspiracy theory of Obama being foreign-born. He can turn black into white, then deny, like when he said he never dismissed the danger of Covid-19 (for many weeks, Trump said it was a hoax and not something to worry about).

August 27, 2020

Observations From PIVOT President, Tung Nguyen

August 27, 2020/ Josie Nguyen

August 27, 2020

I finally took my Dad to church with proper precautions. It became clear that his faith was more important than dying from Covid.

While I was there, a woman helping at the Vietnamese church asked if I wanted to sign a petition to remove Governor Newsom. I said no and seethed that they allowed political work at a church—it is forbidden due to its non-profit status.

And then I thought, yeah, some of my Vietnamese people are a bunch of hypocrites and law breakers, always have been.

June 10, 2020

A message to older Vietnamese Americans from PIVOT's President

June 10, 2020/ Josie Nguyen

June 8, 2020
Tung Nguyen, PIVOT president

I've tried my whole adult life to stay out of the lightning rod in Vietnamese American communities of talking about the emotions and politics of the Viet Nam War. Partly because that has always been personally painful. Partly because I know it is much more painful for those who went through it and lost friends and family. But mostly because it is just a topic that begets a lot of arguments about the past that infects the present and usually does not lead to anything positive for the future.

June 01, 2020

AMERICA, WE NEED A DIFFERENT PRESIDENT

June 01, 2020/ Josie Nguyen

June 1, 2020
Thang Do, PIVOT board member

I am writing these lines shortly after hearing that San Jose, the largest city of this region, just announced a curfew from 8:30 pm to the following morning for an entire week, to avoid the protests that have led to the destruction of property and violence.

In the past few days, there have been protests and violence everywhere including San Jose, after a white policeman in Minneapolis killed a black man by holding him down on the street pavement and pressing his knee against the man’s neck. The policeman stayed in this position for 8 minutes, prompting the victim to shout out: “I can’t breathe.” 3 other policemen, one Asian and two whites, were nearby but took no action to rein in their colleague’s excessive use of force.