America 2020

An Open Letter to My Friends.

It has been a very hard week for most of us, here in the US and perhaps beyond, to say the least. There is nothing I can share with you that has not been already said by others in the press, on TV, by political commentators, social psychologists, ethicists, and historians already at work writing the next chapter of the US civil right movement - or already pointing to another stone anchoring the free fall of the American empire.

Yet, I can't help reaching out to you, my dear friends, in moments like this, if only just to unload my heavy heart and troubled mind. How can we humans be so cruel to each other, to kill someone as if his life is not even worth that of an animal, or to watch someone be murdered in cold blood and not lift a finger to stop the crime? How could our supposedly transparent democratic values be so hypocritical as to allow the persistence of systemic injustice and racism? How many more deaths, how much more denial, or political stunt shows, empty speeches and tweets of fallacies, and just plain, despicable photo-ops?

I can only hope that the horrible death of George Floyd will be the final catalyst for real change in the fiber of our society. Yet in these troubled times, it is so hard not to ask: Why does such a country blessed with so many good natural and human resources allow itself to fall into such a pitiful trajectory? So many good and dedicated healthcare workers, and yet such a dysfunctional health care system? So many great teachers and researchers, brilliant engineers and innovators, and yet for many of us, failing schools, falling bridges, broken sewage lines, and retarded information technology services? So much national wealth in calculated GDP, and yet a widening income gap, a struggling middle class and a sinking poor mass? So many kind and generous people, so many wonderful artists, musicians, writers and journalists, and yet a nation still searching for its soul?

I see so many paradoxes in our society that are built in the qualities that once "made America Great". The Pilgrim morality that sought religious freedom only to reclaim that their Bible is better than others' spiritual beliefs. The pioneer character that launches adventures and instills self-reliance, and the entrepreneur competitive drive for new opportunities, and but somehow along the way these principles have been used to grab land and destroy native cultures, to justify the worshiping guns to "defend liberty" and the exploitation and degradation of other human lives in past slave plantations and modern overseas sweat shops. Have we allowed our Jeffersonian "pursuit of happiness" - an undeniable right enshrined on the American Declaration of Independence, to become just an open ticket for some to seek power and wealth at the detriment of those less fortunate? Are these traditional values we were raised to admire and pursue the cause of our wealth and health inequities, and of the mad chaos in our streets and the pain in our hearts?

Perhaps the wide scope of the current demonstrations indicates a definite wake-up call for America. So many faces young and, so many different skin colors, so many hands reaching out and holding on to each other, so many voices chanting the dawning of hope after the initial burst of outrage. No, there cannot be a going-back to the old "normal".  Changes are not optional, they are a matter of life for all of us. A better life for all of us, actually.

But until then, I can only share with you the questions asked by Bob Dylan in 1965, albeit with a few different strokes. As lyrical as it may sound, we have listened to the wind for more than 50 years, but have found no answer there. If I twisted the verses and ended up saying "The answer, my friends, is in George's dying breath", I only meant that George's last breath may not be "the answer" either, but it may be the breath that, paradoxically, would light rather than blow out the candle in our hearts.

Please stay well, and let's continue to reach out for each other, Covid-19 or not.

Yours,

Chinh

June 7, 2020

"Blowin’ in the wind"/ George Floyd remembered

How many roads must a man walk downbefore you call him a man?
Yes, and how many seas must a white dove sailbefore she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs flybefore they're forever banned?

       (How many times must the assault guns fire, before they're forever banned?)
            The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind,
            The answer is blowing in the wind.

How many years can a mountain existbefore it is washed to the sea?

        (How many years must a glacier exist before it is washed to the sea?)
How many years can some people existbefore they're allowed to be free?

       (How many breathes can any one man take, as he dies under someone's knee?)
How many times can a man turn his headpretending that he just doesn't see?

     (How many times can other men turn their heads, pretending that they just did not see?)
               The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind,
                The answer is blowing in the wind.

How many times must a man look upbefore he can see the sky?
How many ears must one man havebefore he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knowsthat too many people have died?

 The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, The answer is blowing in the wind.

(The answer my friends, is in George's dying breath, 

The answer is in George's dying breath.)