Flag Raising on Vietnam's National Day

For the first time in the history of San Francisco City Hall, the official Vietnamese flag of a yellow star on a red background was hoisted in celebration of Vietnam's National Day of September 2.


The Consulate General Le quoc Hung and representatives of SF city government was on hand for the flag raising ceremony. There were about 3 dozen people present at the ceremony. At 9:30 AM, the flag was rasied from the second floor balcony looking down the main plaza. At the ceremony, Consulate General Hung was given a certificate of recognition from Mayor Newsom declaring September 2 is " Vietnamese National Heritage Day" in San Francisco.

On Thursday 9/28/2008, the general consulate had a reception at city hall to celebrate the National Day with Vietnamese-Americans in the Bay Area.

Now on the same day the flag was raised, a group of anti-communist Vietnamese-Americans found out about it and they formally demanded the removal of the flag with a protest letter. The meeting was held at 3:30 PM in the mayor's office and the flag was removed by 4:45 PM that afternoon.

The official city's policy only allows flag of another country to fly in front of city hall no more than 1 day, in this case as a courtesy of sister city friendship between Ho chi Minh City and San Francisco.

"Punch Them in the Face"

Little Saigon Inside received this in an email chain. It is a press release by South Bay Labor Council:

On Saturday, over 250 labor and community activists gathered at the South Bay Labor Council to hit the streets, letting residents of San Jose City Council District 7 know why the recall of Madison Nguyen should be rejected.

The volunteers knocked on thousands of doors, and discovered a simple fact: overwhelmingly, local residents think recalling Madison Nguyen is a bad idea. Emphasizing Nguyen's accomplishments in office, the volunteers covered every precinct in the Council District, talking to voters in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

At the end of the day, well over 80% of respondents indicated they opposed a recall.

Labor Council Executive Officer Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins said: "To get so many volunteers out on a beautiful summer weekend demonstrates Madison's support in San Jose. And such a high percentage of opposition to the recall shows how deep her support is in the district she represents."

But the real buzz in the comunity was the quote from a woman who introduced herself as Mary, chief strategist for South Bay Labor (showed here in picture). When asked by the volunteers what to do when they come across the recall people, stragegist Mary replied without a blink:" You should punch them in the face."

There was a dead silence in the room. Noticing the Freudian slip, Lamkins took the microphone from Mary and tried to ease the tension: " She was just joking of course."