| City of Bowling Green Resolution 2005-1:
RESOLUTION NO. 2005 - 1
RESOLUTION OF THE BOWLING GREEN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS RECOGNIZING THE FLAG OF THE FORMER REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM AS THE OFFICIAL SYMBOLIC FLAG OF THE VIETNAMESE AMERICANS RESIDING IN THE CITY OF BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY
WHEREAS, the United States’ ending of financial assistance and withdrawal of its armed forces from Viet Nam dramatically led to the bloody, 1975 invasion and occupation of the Republic of Viet Nam by the Communists of North Viet Nam, the latter being strongly and consistently supported by China and the Soviet Union; and,
WHEREAS, since the collapse of the Republic of Viet Nam, the people of South Viet Nam have lived under constant threat and fear imposed by a totalitarian one-party police state; and,
WHEREAS, the whole country has gradually become a huge prison that detains for undeclared periods of time all former civil servants and military officers in the so-called “re-education camps” located in remote areas, to force them to do hard labor, and to die gradually because of mistreatment, hunger, and miasma; and,
WHEREAS, the South Vietnamese, who were determined to preserve freedom, refused to submit to the regime which installed itself against the will of the people; and,
WHEREAS, they formed instead, from every corner of society, a wave-after-wave exodus of people to flee the persecution and reprisals; and,
WHEREAS, part of those who fled, at least 500,000, referred to as “boat people,” variously died on the high seas of starvation, piracy, rape, murder, and drowning; and,
WHEREAS, the United States has received and provided political asylum to nearly two million Vietnamese refugees who settled and scattered in almost all states of the United States of America; and,
WHEREAS, with time, thanks to their hard working habits, these refugees have succeeded in organizing themselves as social and cultural communities which actively encourage themselves to integrate into the mainstream of American society, and have become American citizens who proudly call themselves “Vietnamese Americans;” and,
WHEREAS, the United States government has established diplomatic relations with Communist Viet Nam, and is in the process of pushing Communist Viet Nam to make improvements in the fields of human rights and religious freedom; and,
WHEREAS, like any other ethnic minorities in the United States, the Vietnamese Americans, including those residing in our City of Bowling Green, are spiritually attached to their ethnic roots and their cultural traditions; and,
WHEREAS, such roots and traditions are symbolized by the yellow flag bearing three red stripes, the national flag of the Republic of Viet Nam; and,
WHEREAS, it is now called “the flag of liberty” that voices up the sacred freedom value of the Vietnamese Americans in American society; and,
WHEREAS, within the above factual setting, states and cities have taken turns to officially recognize the yellow flag bearing three red stripes as the symbol of cultural ethnic roots and traditions of Vietnamese Americans.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City of Bowling Green, Kentucky as follows:
1. We, as a city, acknowledge our remembrance and gratitude for the sacrifice of the Republic of Viet Nam refugees, and that of the American soldier who fought there.
2. We vow and declare our appreciation for the current hope and aspirations of the Vietnamese American citizens of this city.
3. We hereby formally recognize, on behalf of all the citizens of Bowling Green, Kentucky, the yellow flag bearing three red stripes as the formal national flag of the former Republic of Viet Nam, the official flag of the Americans of Vietnamese origin, and the unique, spiritual symbol and banner of the Vietnamese Americans of Bowling Green.
4. We further resolve that the City of Bowling Green joins with its own Vietnamese American citizens in prayer to the Almighty God for a Viet Nam which is once again free and at peace:
“So grant it, thou Lord of Hosts, our Father, our Redeemer, whose name is from everlasting to everlasting.”
SPONSORED BY: Mark D. Alcott, Commissioner, 08/10/2005, 8:30 a.m.
Resolution No. 2005 – 1 was revised 8/16/2005, 9:30 a.m. and resubmitted for consideration at the August 16, 2005 Board of Commissioners meeting.
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