Dear  Mr. Mayor :

We, the Vietnamese-American community in Philadelphia and suburbs, petition that the Vietnamese National Flag (yellow with three red stripes) and NOT the Vietnamese communist party's flag (red with the yellow star) be raised at the Franklin Parkway and at Penn's Landing.

The reasons for this specific petition are as follows:

    1. The Vietnamese National Flag represents the internationally recognized legal, peace-loving, and democratic country of Vietnam; which the Vietnamese communist party, by violating the 1973 Paris Agreement, had illegally taken by force in 1975.

    2. The current Vietnamese communist regime is imposed upon the Vietnamese people. It has NEVER been voted by the Vietnamese people. On the contrary, over 4 million Vietnamese had voted it out by foot . And it is estimated approximately an additional number equivalent to one-third to one-half of those 4 million perished at sea. This exodus and diaspora of Vietnamese people is eloquent evidence of the strongest protest against dictatorship and totalitarianism.

    3. The fact that the City is willing to raise the Vietnamese National Flag demonstrates the courage and moral integrity to recognize that freedom and democracy are essential to human existence and should override mercantile interests. Raising the Vietnamese National Flag also gives back the honor due over 3 million American heroes who fought valiantly, and not in vain, for democracy in Vietnam.

    4. Raising the Vietnamese communist flag is tacitly acknowledging that human trafficking (selling 5- to 8-year old children and young women as sex slaves); banning freedom of speech, freedom of the press; arresting and putting in jail without due process those people who dare to speak up peacefully for human rights; exploiting labor with unbearably low wages; and illegally confiscating land from Churches and peasants for commercial purposes are legally and morally right.

    4. Over 35 cities and States in the United States of America have recognized these facts and have proudly approved of raising the Vietnamese National Flag as a token of upholding the basic and important American legal and moral principles: Freedom, Democracy, and Justice.

    5. Diplomacy is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, not the States, let alone cities. We believe that it would be absolutely inappropriate for the Vietnamese Embassy to protest because when the US raised the issues of human rights, the Vietnamese communist party immediately accused the US of interfering in their internal affairs. How can the Embassy have the galls to interfere in the internal affairs of our politically independent City?

    6. We, over 35,000 tax-paying and voting Vietnamese-Americans in Philadelphia and suburbs, would never believe that the City would bend against the sacrosanct, legal and moral principles upheld by all Americans and we would never feel that justice is done if the Vietnamese communist party's flag were raised anywhere in the city of Philadelphia.

Respectfully submitted.