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.

Viet Thanh Nguyen is a member of PIVOT and the author of “Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War” and, most recently, the short story collection “The Refugees.”

This piece was published in The Opinion Pages of The New York Times on May 2, 2017.

April 30, 2017
Day of Remembrance, PIVOT's Statement on War
April 30th, 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War, a day that ultimately led Lady Liberty, with Lazarus' iconic lines in hand, to welcoming  over 1 million Vietnamese cascading in waves through various refugee and migration policies.  Ripples from that day were felt throughout the world as millions of Vietnamese ultimately sought refuge on foreign shores. 

April 27, 2017
By Uyen Nguyen
“A bomb dropped so close to us that I got very scared and ran off,” my Mom said as she reminisced about her absent-mindedness in the midst of a battle storm. “Only after I ran 30 meters or so that I realized I was holding a pillow, and not you,” she smiled with an embarrassed chuckle. It was around April 30th, 1975, in Da Nang, Vietnam, one of the cities most affected by the Viet Nam War. I listened to her in delight. There was never a second of my life when I ever felt neglected or unloved by my Mom, so the part about being left behind never fazed me. It was always about my Mom running back into the bombed zone, risking her own life to grab her 2-month old daughter that amazed me. This was the first story that I know about my life—a life of a child caught in the crossroad; a life about the unconditional love between a mother and her children; and a life caught in power transition, living out the consequences of war.

April 14, 2017
The Trump administration released a preliminary 2018 budget proposal, which describes many of the changes the president wants to make to the federal government’s spending. Here are some highlights of the cuts and its potential impacts on Vietnamese Americans.

April 11, 2017
By Mai-Khanh Tran, MD
My heart stopped for a brief second.  Then I felt the punch to the stomach, the way I felt when I first heard of the Sandy Hook shooting almost 5 years ago.  Another elementary school shooting?  Another shooting in San Bernadino?  I wept then and I am weeping now.  And despite all the tears and the moving words spoken by our elected leaders, there has been no new gun control legislation since that horrific day.  So no more weeping, this mama-bear has to speak up.