A great aspect of a campaign, I meet so many interesting people. Here’s Bien’s story told to me last weekend at a fundraiser for Bill:

“With the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) pouring into the city, we were able to leave Vietnam the day that Saigon fell to the communist regime (actually even a few hours after the famous photo of the airlift off of the US embassy building).   A close friend of the family who worked at the port had advised us that he could get us onto a fleeing boat if we could get to the port immediately.  We gathered as much of the family as we could (though many were left behind) and went to the port.  There remained one South Vietnamese ammunition boat whose captain had not yet left because he was waiting on his own family to arrive.  They started to load the children on the boat.  My sister, who was three years old at the time, was put into the boat first.  However, the NVA fired artillery at us which landed in the water nearby, and the boat took off with my sister on board.  For several hours my mother and grandmother cried hysterically as they did not know what would happen to my sister and wondered how they would ever see her again.  However, the boat eventually had to turn around due to the NVA firing shells into the water to prevent boats from escaping.  When the boat came back, the rest of my family got on board, and we eventually maneuvered our way to the Pacific Ocean where we were picked up by a US aircraft carrier.  We were then taken to a refugee camp in Guam and given the choice to go to France or America.  At the time, we knew so little about America that we thought we were going to be given forty acres and a mule.”

“Though my parents did not know much about America, they knew one thing: it was the land of opportunity, a place where their children would have a shot at a better life.  And they were right.  We arrived in the US with little more than the shirts on our backs, with no real marketable skills or any idea of how to live in this new foreign place.  But we were greeted with unforgettable charity and compassion.  From the US soldiers who operated the refugee camp in Pennsylvania to the Lutheran church in Columbus, Ohio who sponsored my family, to the single man who took a family of strangers into his home and sheltered us until we got on our feet and moved out several months later.  These were not rich people.  They were working-class people who could ill-afford to give as much as they did, but they did so because that was what was in their hearts.  That was our first impression of America.  That kind of impression does not fade.  In fact, it becomes part of the very fabric of who you become.  That is why public service is so important to me.”

“The investment this country and its people made in my family has resulted in this:  My sister obtained her Juris Doctor from Cornell, my other sister earned her PhD from Columbia, and I received my law degree from Duke.  All this on the salaries of two immigrants working as a mechanic for Metro and an employee of Target.  In return, we have spent our lives trying to give back to this country, to fight for the principles that made its beacon shine so brightly to refugees half a world away.  These are not the accomplishments of my sisters and I. These are the accomplishments of a country that invested in down-trodden refugees and inspired them to become productive citizens dedicated to giving back to their new country.  This is why its so important to me to fight to continue improving my community and my country.  This is why I support Bill White. Because I believe that he stands for those principles that make America a place worth risking your life to get to.  I believe that his leadership will make Texas a better state.”

With supporters like Bien, Bill will win, I know it.