Vietnamese Hit Back at Remark by Councilman

Angry Vietnamese community leaders Saturday began printing posters of a Westminster city councilman who advised Vietnamese veterans to “be Americans” or go back to Vietnam, and preparing petitions for his recall.

The efforts were part of a mobilization plan developed at a Friday night meeting. The plan included a general shutdown of Bolsa Avenue businesses if the city does not allow them to hold a veterans parade on June 18.

At a council meeting Tuesday night, the first one shown on cable television, the council voted 4 to 1 to deny a parade request from South Vietnamese military veterans after Councilman Frank Fry Jr. said, “If you want to be South Vietnamese, go back to South Vietnam.”

Flurry of Anger

The remark touched off a flurry of anger and accusations that Fry is insensitive to Orange County’s ethnically diverse population.

At the Friday meeting, about 65 Vietnamese community leaders voted to form the Ad Hoc Committee to Deal With Councilman Frank Fry Jr. In a statement, the group said: “We regret that the parade permit was denied, but we strongly protest the racial discriminatory slur made by Councilman Frank Fry Jr.”

“As an elected official I think it was not appropriate for him (Fry) to make that kind of statement,” said Chuyen V. Nguyen, a spokesman for the new committee. “I want to tell him that his statement hurt not just Vietnamese people, but all people who love freedom, and the rights of the Constitution of America.”

The councilman could not be reached for comment Saturday.

The new committee’s six-point plan calls for:

Plastering the Little Saigon area in Westminster with posters of Fry and his statement. The posters, which might be up by the end of today, are in the Asian tradition of letting the community know that someone has wronged you. Being the subject of a poster “is tantamount to a loss of face,” said Arthur Suchesk, a spokesman for the veterans group.

Passing out flyers in Vietnamese in shopping centers and neighborhoods explaining the incident to all Vietnamese.

Circulating recall petitions. Young people will begin manning tables today at shopping areas and some will go door to door. Another “petition of protest” will be available for anyone from other cities, as well as Westminster, to sign.

Asking the American Civil Liberties Union to investigate whether the committee should take legal action against Fry.

Asking the Orange County Human Rights Commission to hold a special meeting for representatives of the various ethnic groups in the area so they can draft a joint letter protesting discrimination and Fry’s remarks.

Organizing a forum for young people of various ethnic backgrounds.

Suchesk said the last suggestion came because there was concern that Fry’s remark reflects a deep-seated misunderstanding among the races in Orange County. They also said they want their children to know that they can succeed in this society without losing a love of their culture.

“Some of those at the meeting said, what about in 10, 15, 25 years, when we are no longer here, what will our children do? Let’s get this issue settled once and for all,” Suchesk said.

Seek Reconsideration

The veterans committee will also ask the Westminster City Council to reconsider its vote denying the parade permit. If they fail, the committee will seek another host city and will ask Little Saigon merchants to close down their businesses for the day in protest.

In Little Saigon, in the shops along Westminster’s Bolsa Avenue, it was evident Saturday that Fry had struck a nerve.

Inside a modern, air-conditioned building of Asian architecture, several people sat at fast-food restaurants and read Vietnamese newspapers with Fry’s picture and his statement on the front page.

Kien Nguyen had spent the day shopping at the mall and now sat at one of the tables with her sister and her in-laws. Tears came to her eyes when she recalled Fry’s remark that Vietnamese should go back to Vietnam if they wanted to remember their homeland.

“I wish my country were free so I could go back, but I cannot,” she said. “This really hurts my heart that he says such things.”

Kien Nguyen, an electrical engineer, and her sister, a systems analyst, said they had discussed the matter in the car on their way to the shopping center.

‘Were Very Mad’

“We were very mad this morning,” Kim Nguyen, the sister, said. “He shouldn’t have said that. Doesn’t he know this is a melting pot? Why can they have St. Patrick’s Day parades here?”

Kien Nguyen said remarks such as his reflect little understanding of the struggle Vietnamese have had to go through since they fled their country because it had fallen to communism.

“We work hard, we try to put our hand out to help others, we’re good employees,” she said. “We pay our taxes, we obey the laws. What else do they want from us?

“When you go to another country you miss your own, that’s just normal, that’s human.”

Mimi Nguyen, 18, who was working behind the counter of her family’s Anh Minh Fabrics store, said she was not so upset by the council’s decision to deny the parade permit, but by what Fry had said. His comments, she said, belittled immigrants who want to remember the culture of their homeland.

“That hurt,” she said. “I lost my country, and I really want this to be my second country. . . . But the way he’s talking, it makes me feel like it’s not my country.”

Other young people said being American does not mean having to forget the past.

“He offended a whole lot of people,” said Son Dinh, 21, a student from Santa Ana who was at the shopping mall with several friends. “I still care deeply about my country.”

“If we could go back to South Vietnam we would go back,” said Du Nguyen, who works as a clerk for Orange County. “But in this situation, we can’t.

“Of course we want to contribute something to this country, but at the same time, we cannot forget.”