Diễn văn tốt nghiệp Đại học Lincoln tại Oakland, California

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
at LINCOLN UNIVERSITY
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
May 29, 2010

By Phan Quang Tue

President Brodsky,
Distinguished Members of the Board of Trustees,
Distinguished Members of the Faculty,
Parents, Families, Friends,
And especially, Graduates of the Class of 2010,

I am grateful for the honor accorded me to address this wonderful assembly. I am humbled to be in the company of past commencement speakers such as Mayor Willie Brown, one of the most prominent political figures in the Golden State. I want to thank Chairman Samson and President Brodsky for inviting me, an obscure bureaucrat of Vietnamese descent whose job would be to send home those whose names, like my own, do not sound American enough under the “reasonable suspicion” standard of a law recently passed in the State of Arizona.

Yet, how fitting it is that someone of my modest stature would be chosen to address one of the most diverse student bodies. Lincoln University, since its inception in 1919, has chosen and become a global educational institution with a multi-cultural student body as well as faculty. The Class of 2010 has among its ranks graduates from 19 countries, four continents. The school is like a miniature United Nations. By inviting me to speak to you, Lincoln University has bestowed upon me the opportunity to speak to the world. For Class of 2010, indeed, you are the world!

At this point, please allow me to make a disclaimer. The views I express here are my own and not those of the Executive Office for Immigration Review nor of the United States Department of Justice.

Like most of you in this audience, I was not born here. Thirty-five years ago, I stepped onto the American soil for the very first time as a political refugee. Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but mine was still deeply rooted in Saigon, which has been forced to bear an infamous name since that fateful last day in April 1975, much the same as Leningrad for St. Petersburg at one time. With me were my pregnant wife, and our two sons, nine and four years old. We were among the last to evacuate, carrying with us a few clothes and 50 cents. We arrived in this country, bringing with us the images of a lost war the United Sates wanted to put behind. Our path took us from the East coast to the golden plains of the Midwest, and the redwood forests of the West coast.

We had to move often during the first few weeks in the U.S. After moving about four times in the Washington, D.C. metro area within the first six months, we finally got our own place in Gaithersburg, Maryland. We lived there two years. It was there that I lost my first wife to cancer after she gave me a third son. I named him Thai, which means Peace. Thai is with us today, sitting right here in front of me. Thai is the first American born in our family. I remarried a year later to a young woman who was willing to suspend her college study to help me raise my three sons. We have been married now 32 years and my wife is also here today, seating next to Thai.

In total, we moved about 12 times. Along our journey, we met a wide range of people. Some people would suggest we should go home. But we also encountered many Samaritans God placed in our path. Things just balanced out.

The first few years, both my wife and I would accept whatever jobs available. We fully realized that we were not in a position to be too selective. I returned to law school at Drake University at the age of 41, one among the five oldest students in the class. In the group, one was a physician who went to law school to learn how to defend himself from medical malpractice law suits, another a mother and a housewife who later became Attorney General for the state of Iowa, and then a member of the Clinton Administration. And there was me. I joined a small study group of law students so that I could participate in and learn from case law discussions. The percentage of aliens in Iowa was, and still is I believe, less than one percent of its population. It’s amazing to think that this is the same state that would many years later send Barack Obama to the White House. It was during this same period that my wife resumed her college study and graduated with a bachelor degree in business administration. A fourth son was born. We both worked full time to support our family of 4 growing boys.

After completing law school, I spent three more years in the Hawkeye state, working as an Administrative Law Judge, then as an Assistant Attorney General. When the first Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed in 1986, I applied with INS. For my job interview in San Francisco, my wife bought me a new suit. She thought that it was important that I look cool and smart. I went to the interview in my new suit, with my wife sitting-in, and got hired.

I was wrong thinking that from that day on, it was going to be down hill. When the evaluation time came for promotion, the local management would approve my annual promotion, but the management at the regional level would stall. This is known as “good cop, bad cop,” a favorite administrative technique. I was not even given a reason for the delay or the denial so that I could appeal. After waiting two years, I decided this was the time for me to change course. I took an examination for administrative law judges with the state of California, passed with high colors, and was immediately hired to work as a State Administrative Law Judge. Two years later I was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as an Immigration Judge in San Francisco and have been in that position since.
That is, in a nutshell, my story, my journey, my life. But we all have our own story, yours in the opening chapters, mine in the closing.

Where will you go from here then? Now that you have earned a college degree, you all have to forge better lives, to fulfill your dreams whether your plan is to stay here or to go back to your home country. We live in a time of unprecedented interaction between countries, continents, and cultures. The impact of political decisions, economic trends, and social and environmental issues extends more broadly than at any time in human history. Today, we are all global citizens. Wherever you choose to be, I have some rules to propose.

In the spring of 1831, Alexis De Tocqueville began a nine-month journey through the United States. He was 25 years old. Four years later he published Democracy in America. He wrote the following: “If there be a country in the world where the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people can be fairly appreciated, where it can be studied in its application to the affairs of society, and where its dangers and its advantages may be judged, that country is assuredly America.” His predictions turned out to be truthful all along the history of America.

Consider all of the debates that just took place all over this nation during the last primary elections. Only in a representative democracy could such debates take place without repression, chaos, or bloodshed. If anyone still questions whether democracy is the best political system, just compare the recent situation in the United Kingdom to that in Thailand. The U.K. had its elections on May 6 and resulted in a hung parliament, the first one in 65 years. But a new cabinet was formed within 5 days later in beauty and dignity! In Bangkok, demonstrations went on for over two months, causing more than 12 deaths, with several injured, street battles in the center of the Thai capital, and with the risks of civil war on the horizon.

First rule, be active. To live in a democracy, you need to actively participate, be involved, and make choices. What is the point of having freedom of speech if you don’t speak out? What is the point of living in a democratic society where participation is paramount if its citizens sit on the sidelines? If you choose not to participate in something beyond yourself and the immediate circle of your loved ones, then you are just a fence-sitter. Democracy is not for you. You have sentenced yourself, your children, and your grandchildren to a self-imposed gulag dictated by those who choose to participate. Democracy, freedom, justice, and opportunity, are things that each generation has the duty to infuse with action to keep them alive for the next generations.

Be an actor in your own life. Not a spectator. Make your own future. Build and lay a foundation. Wherever you go, I urge you to take action in all aspects of your life and the lives of others. There is an old poem that I would like to share with you. It goes like this:

When a man had no freedom to fight for at home
Let him fight for that of his neighbors
Let him think of the glory of Greece and Rome,
Then battle for freedom wherever you are.

Be yourself, wherever you are. People will respect you more, although they might not accept you immediately, but you will earn their respect, and more importantly your own sense of self-respect when you remain true to yourself and your own values. In my work, I often have the opportunity to address newly sworn-in citizens coming from every corner of the planet. I urge them to fulfill their civic duties, to be loyal to their allegiance to America. But I also encourage them to enrich this country by preserving their language and culture. Don’t change your name, for example, in order to feel accepted! President Barack Obama himself did not change his foreign sounding name to be elected president!

Be not a quitter. As you move on from here, you will inevitably suffer some setbacks. Disappointment awaits us in all walks of life. Learn from your successes. Learn from your failures. Rudyard Kipling referred to both triumph and disaster as two impostors that should be treated just the same. Failures are only dress rehearsals for successes. Do not fear humiliation, embarrassment, or even being seen as ridiculous. Most people tend to see only the final glory of the moment of victory but ignore the moments of failures it takes to achieve victory.

Be always prepared. Whether you are preparing a small or a large project, involving yourself only or other people, do your homework. Never stop learning, developing, adding, and sharpening your skills. Master the art of writing, speaking, communicating. To broaden the horizon of your view of the world, I urge you to watch the GPS program of Fareed Zacharia and check out the books he recommend. In my opinion, Zacharia is one of the most learned globalist scholar of our time.

Be bold, brave, and live a creative life. Remember that the most difficult chains to break are the ones deep down inside us. Some people would say that is culture. It is not. It is fear that drags the people’s soul, paralyzing people’s mind, rendering them apathetic.

Be not a voice of silence. It was Pope John Paul who called the people of Poland to “Be not afraid.” That was the catalyst that projected the Solidarity movement ahead leading to the freeing of Poland from communism. There is no need for you to join the so-called silent majority. No matter how large a majority is, it is irrelevant as long as it remains silent.

Be thankful and appreciative of your family. We all sit in the shade of trees planted long ago. As you celebrate your achievement, do not forget those whose sacrifice brought you here. Parents, siblings, spouses, children, and grandchildren are road companions God placed all along your journey in this life. I had a younger brother. We grew up together when our father was far away. He would have been 64 years old today. He was a fighter pilot. His plane was shot down on April 6, 1972 over a small village in Central Vietnam. He was only 27, so young, so handsome, so vibrant of life. His picture is on my bedside, in my study, and in my heart. And I have missed him so much ever since. I want you to care for your siblings before they are gone, or you are gone.

Be thankful and respectful to your teachers. I know that I sound rather old fashioned. But I have been always dismayed by the way Americans treat their teachers. Teachers in this country are not respected and appreciated enough. They have to unionize to protect themselves. And this is the only group whose task is to train and prepare the future of the nation. There is a Vietnamese maxim that says literally: “One word is teacher, half of a word is also a teacher.” Before you leave the ground of the University campus, stop by and pay respect to your teachers.

I want to conclude this invocation on a lighter note. Just two weeks ago, my wife and I attended a banquet in San Jose. I went to the men’s lavatory and ran into a doctor. We had a brief conversation. The good doctor advised me that men of our age should stay sexually active. But I have to pause here for a warning. Those among you who think at this very moment that I was going to talk about sex are dead wrong! What I was going to tell you is that you should never, never, miss an opportunity to get medical advice when it is provided free of charge!

So, my friends, here is my last advice coming directly from my bathroom conversation with my physician friend. Be healthy. Stay active. Exercise to keep your body physically healthy. Feed your mind with information and knowledge to keep your brain intelligent and alert. Infuse your heart daily with love to keep it warm. I want to end my address with a quote that I keep in my chambers. It’s from Hillel, a rabbi and a philosopher: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”

Class of 2010. Are you ready? On your mark. RUN.

Thank you to all of you.

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