Today, sitting here in a place that is not my country, I try to remember and write about the lively images of a Great Festivity on May 18 of a decade ago. As my memories are fading with time, I cannot remember all the details that I once cherished and held lovingly in my heart. But in my mind, all the love and all the contemplation about my country, my Master, my religion, my Holy Land, and the bygone days in my homeland --- all of them have crystallized into my inner life force, which I believe will never fade away...

My heart is gripped with thoughts of my co-religionists who are suffering under the oppression of an atheist regime. So many people have been imprisoned and so many others have died because of their determination to be loyal and devoted to their Master, religion, and nation without giving in to despotism.

I pray to Heaven to bless my too frail pen with more energy to serve my country and my religion, to help me join forces with my compatriots to save Vietnam, so that everyone will be able to live again in such peaceful and prosperous days in this, our beloved homeland.

California, April 1981