Addressing the Support of the Resolution #11/2023 2024 at The Evergreen School District 2024/04/18 

Dear EESD Superintendent, and the Board of Trustees Subject: I fully support the Resolution of the Black April Day and believe that the Board's decision today is so important. Dear all, my name is Hoang Hoa, a member of the Vietnamese American Community of Northern California I have attended many events honoring the Yellow Flag (the three red stripes on the golden field) and commemorating Black April 30 every year, but I have never been as emotionally moved as this time. The ceremonies celebrated in many cities such as Milpitas, Sunnyvale, San Jose are as political as the yellow flag is the identity for the communist refugees, and those ceremonies do not have much cultural or educational impact at local schools like this time. Looking at this Flag with three red stripes on the golden field that we often call the Yellow Flag, maybe one day a student will ask, "Teacher, why don't I see any country on the world map that carries this Yellow flag?” Yes, today no country carries that Yellow flag, but it is a noble symbol that the Vietnamese communist refugee community cherished in their hearts when leaving the country called the Republic of Vietnam to settle in many countries around the world. Vietnamese people have a gentle nature and live a life nearby in villages, fields, cities, or places of birth, so they are determined to leave their homeland to settle in another country that they accept as their second homeland is very unusual. Surely, a tragedy happened not unlike the ancient time when the Jews fled the rule of the Egyptian kings by crossing the Red Sea to reach the Promised Land and that tragedy became an indelible wound in their hearts and minds of all Vietnamese refugees from communism. After April 30, 1975, when Saigon fell, waves hundreds of thousands of the Vietnamese people left the country by all means in hand, by risky roads through forests, mountains and streams to camps for the refugees in Thailand, despite all dangers of being killed, robbed and raped in deep forests. They crossed the sea by all means on fragile wooden boats in the waves and storms of the East Sea and they encountered pirates at sea, women were raped in front of their husbands and children, and sometimes killed. There were boats that left without news returned to their families and were considered dead. The boatpeople who left sometimes died of exhaustion before being rescued by foreign ships on international waters off the coast of Vietnam. Some of them were rescued to relocate on desolated Malaysian islands that were set up to receive them, and at the island they died, were buried in cemeteries without seeing their dreams become true. There were hundreds or thousands of war-orphaned children who no longer had their parents and were transported on American planes to leave Vietnam because they would not have a chance to survive when the Republic of Vietnam collapsed. Those who remained, along with more than 200,000 soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam, were sent to re-education camps or to mountainous and forested regions along the Sino- Vietnamese border. They died from being killed, sick or tortured, mistreated here for many years, some people spent 18 years to be released, ordinary people were sent to collective farms, their houses were confiscated. The painful stories of the Vietnamese exodus never ended until around 1986 when all camps for the refugees in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia were closed; however, since 1991 the humanitarian program supported and sponsored by the US government initiated by President Ronald Reagan and many Charity Organizations opened doors for many Former Republic of Vietnam officials who had been imprisoned for at least three years in the communist concentration camps to resettle in the US. The Vietnamese communist refugees left their beloved homeland with empty hands, but in their hearts still cherished the words Freedom and Human Rights and so when they reached the shore of freedom, they tried to learn and build up, stabilize their lives and support places of residence become prosperous. They have not forgotten to care about the next generations going to school or finding jobs to make a living and help society. Today the Yellow Flag is a noble symbol of the Vietnamese communist refugee communities because it is a tradition of hard-working, patient and diligent Vietnamese people studying to help the community and society, but no one can forget April 30, 1975, a tragic day full of loss and pain. Commemorating April 30 or Black April Day is a mourning memorial for 60,000 American and Allied soldiers, along with more than 200,000 soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam who died fighting to protect Freedom and Democracy, and Human Rights for the people of South Vietnam for more than 20 years from 1954 to 1975. Commemorating April 30 or Black April Day is also reminders of a historical memory of the pain of those Vietnamese communist refugees have come to settle in the United States and from there their next generations will join with the younger generations of other communities to form bonds to enrich the American diverse culture. I thank the Evergreen School District for including the Resolution Honoring the Yellow Flag and April 30 as Black April Day on the agenda. I fully support this Resolution and believe that the Board's decision today is so important that it will help students understand the history of the presence of the Vietnamese communist refugee community in the District. Thank you Hoang Hoa 2024/04/17