From the better late than never department – I read this on Swanblog, a piece from last July.  John was watching a local high school graduation on cable:

… (What, you’ve never been bored?) when they decided to honor the “vast field of diversity that has found its beginnings all over the world.” There were 39 “birth countries” of the graduating seniors. They began a parade of flags, starting with the U.S., to represent each one.

And then, the last thing I’d have expected (or…was it?):

Finally, they got to the letter “v.” The mistress of ceremonies announced, “The flag of Viet Nam.” A student marched in with…get this…the flag of South Viet Nam! Perhaps it was a mistake. Perhaps the parents or grandparents were victims of the communists and held allegiance to the relic from 1975. But it was a nice irony when the school was trying to be politically correct.

Nice and refreshing. And I wonder if it’s a trend. 

In my neighborhood, there’s a Vietnamese auto repair garage.  It’s been there, at the corner of University and Pascal, forever. 

And from the flagpole at the top of the building fly two flags:  the Stars and Stripes, and the pre-’75 South Vietnamese flag.

And I gotta give the guy points for that.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 5:05 am and is filed under History And Its Making, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.