"syang05's" responses to "ctj" and "pao" about the death tolls of
Hmong involved in the secret theater during Vietnam, during the
resistent movement, and gvp's DO-NOTHING to stop Hmong from using the
New Year holiday for commercial purposes may have some implication if
not any merit. however, the issues are beyond reach for "ctj, pao,
and syang05" or anyone-else in this forum if we seriously wanted to
discuss. hmong issues are not a fixed set of binary codes like 1
equals "On" while 0 equals "Off." it is easy for anyone to single out
vp for the down-side of the hmong with respect to the social and
political aspects because no one-else has shouldered the Hmong burden
like he is. and yes, many lives have been lost including those
unaccounted for during the secret war and the movement of the
resistent forces. but, if we are going to discuss the issues, let's
be fair. If gvp were to bear all of the burden of the hmong, who then
gets to bear the fruits? what about all of the beautiful homes, great
jobs and businesses we possess, ph.d's, md's, pastors, ministers, and
all of the free to do will of what Hmong want in the U.S. let's not
suggest that hmong are not capable of making progress without gvp;
hmong are smart people. dyd, pao, gary lee and few others didn't need
to become refugees to acquire their ph.d's or md's. and so does "pao
down-under and syang05" without gvp and the elders' involvement in the
war that granted us an entrance to the west. they are smart and can
make it any-where on their own. but, what about the not so smart
majority from the hills of Laos, whose only skills prior to 1975 were
"slash and burn" forest for crops, and whose education was primarily
made of retelling oral folk tales - and "who could not read a letter
the size of a water buffalo (ntawd luaj twm nyeem tsis tau)" - an old
cliche. what would the lives of our majority be like today?

"syang05" brought up a good point about the Hmong New Year
celebration. these days in america, instead of priding ourselves as a
people with a national holiday like the Irish with St. Patrick's Day
and the Jewish with Hanukkah, we are sort of lost and found among a
together but rather scatter parade of new year celebrations across the
50 states from late Summer to the Winter with the exception of two
main events that come marginally close to the real new year in Fresno
and St. Paul. gvp certainly can place some kind of influence over
these events, but I'm not sure if he wants to be casted as a cultural
dictator given when his effort of uniting hmong is seeing as anything
but a dictator. uniting hmong new year by gvp will be like inviting
more injury, wouldn't you say?