Posted by
Billy on Thursday, November 25, 2010 11:47:00 AM
As millions of us gather at tables to offer thanks during this
uniquely American holiday (OK, Canada has one, too, but without our Pilgrims),
most will express gratitude to God for freedom and material blessings. This
year, as in every year since 1989 when she escaped with other “boat people” from
communist Vietnam, Kim Vu will offer thanks borne out of a deep gratitude for
what America has meant to her since she and so many others risked their lives
for something they regarded as even more valuable: freedom.
A generation has grown up since the boat people caught the
public’s attention. To many in what has become a self-indulgent generation, it
may be difficult to fathom how anyone could go to such lengths to achieve
something too many of us take for granted.
Vu was 20 years old when her father urged her to follow her
brother, who was the first to escape. She is now 41. Vu says she was not afraid,
though the Vietnamese communists sank boats they could spot and killed many who
tried to escape. Vu tried twice to escape, but pulled back when she sensed
danger. On her third try, she succeeded.
Vu’s father, a retired officer in the South Vietnamese Army, gave
her two gold bars to pay for the journey. She was taken in a small boat that
held no more than three people to a larger boat that waited offshore in
darkness. “We spent seven days on a trip to Malaysia with no food, only water
and the water consisted of three bottle caps each day.”
What does freedom mean to Kim Vu? “It means a lot, because I lived
with communists, who wouldn’t let me go to school. I am very appreciative to
live in this country.” She became a U.S. citizen in 1995.
What would Vu say to her now fellow Americans who might take their
freedom for granted and not appreciate the country as much as someone who once
experienced oppression? “They need to see what other countries don’t have that
we have here. Some people don’t see, so they don’t know.”
(Billy's Thoughts>>> The above is part of a Thanksgiving column that my friend Cal Thomas wrote. Those of us here in the great USA have truly been blessed in so many ways. If you like read the whole column by Cal, Still Thankful and speaking of Thanksgiving you also might want to listen to the radio commentary Thomas did today. If you desire you can listen to it here.)