Dear old friend: While waiting for our children to pick us up from our monthly meeting at the Seniors’ Association, you and I had, on several occasions, the opportunity to discuss and to agree on a number of important points. You urged to me to put our thoughts on paper to share with our descendants because, as you said, your hands tremble so much these days that you are having difficulty holding the pen. Moreover, this year marks the 30th anniversary of our self-exile as refugees and we both thought it would be useful to transmit a clear message to our children and especially our grandchildren. During these last few months, I endeavored to accomplish the task you assigned. Today, my work may be considered complete. For ease of presentation, I wrote this article in the form of a letter by a father to his children. Please review it at your convenience. I would very much appreciate any corrections and improvements.

THANK YOU OH SO VERY MUCH!! Don’t be sorry for missing the first act! We love the pictures, or at least I do. Thanks for being able to make it to our show on such short notice! It was a blast. In my first year of being of Presidency of VSU at EVHS, I didn’t know we could've pulled it off… but we doubled the audience from last year! We sold out on tickets and practically all but the last two rows were filled. :D Thanks once more for the pictures. [:

Linda Luu, Co-President
Evergreen Valley High School Vietnamese Student Union

I didn’t know you doubled ticket sales since last year. That is pretty amazing. That should be good for the fight against Hepatitis B, and I commend your club for caring about such an important health issue in our community.

Your posting on the web about the Agent Orange Event: Victims of Agent Orange Tell Their Stories found its way to me and I wanted to write to personally thank you for publicizing your thoughtful reflections of what took place. I appreciate the feedback you provided and agree that "gaining awareness of the issue was a pretty important step." Your posting may have informed another person. From there on, I hope they take the time to reflect as you have done.

Tammy Phan, Co-Chair
Stanford Vietnamese Students Association (SVSA)

When I was a tech intern during the dot-com era, one of my coworkers told me that “Leadership is 10% inspiration and 90% alignment.” To make great change, you had to realize that people already exist out there specializing in different roles and jobs, and one of the great difficulties of being a leader is having them see how their role fits in the overall picture. December 1 marks the second anniversary of Ý Thức, the Vietnamese American student journal that, like its name suggests, raises our awareness of how our efforts fit the bigger picture.