Michael Nguyễn SVD
July 4: Independent Day
I arrived in the US in May 1984 as a Vietnamese refugee. Vietnam since the Fall of Saigon in 1975 had been governed by the Vietnamese Communist Party. As a common policy among the Communist regimes in the world, the Vietnamese Communist leaders rule their people by fear and hunger. When people are constantly exposed to fear, they have no other choice but to become mentally handicapped. When people face hunger daily, a bowl of steamed rice is all they can think about; self-respect as expected becomes a luxurious item. The fruit that comes out from the union of a mentally handicapped and a no-self-respect person is, certainly, low self-esteem. When I fled Vietnam in 1982, I belonged to the group classified as mentally handicapped, having low self-esteem and lacking self-respect. These characteristics dominated my soul and thus directed my daily behaviors. I carried these rotten fruits with me al the way to the US. Nevertheless, in the new land, I picked up for myself a new key of success: self-esteem.
The Americans assert that if a person believes in his/her ability, this individual can achieve almost whatever he/she dreams of. Concerning the cultural values: good, beautiful and true, self-esteem is one of the good values of the American culture. Having lived and worked in the US for 21 years, I no longer fear as I used to. I can tell that low self-esteem has been eradicated out of my inner being. Above all, I have become a person with dignity. All these three, the courage, the self-respect and the self-esteem, have been ingrained in my blood. For this newness of me, I am indebted to the American culture, undoubtedly. The American sociocultural environment has indeed transformed my individual being.
Views: 0
