Living Up to the Promise of America

Floor Speech

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Mr. LICCARDO. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Black April.

As Pulitzer Prize-winning author and one of San Jose's favorite sons, Viet Nguyen, has written: ``All wars are fought twice; once on the battlefield and a second time in memory.''

On this day, 50 years ago, fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers looked out across a vast ocean as Saigon was falling behind them. Among them was Helen, my constituent, who watched as her aunt boarded a boat, and days later she would also follow the path of Vietnamese refugees on to San Jose in my district, which proudly boasts the largest population of ethnically Vietnamese people of any city in the world outside of Vietnam.

Helen's journey was filled with horror and hardship, but rooted in hope, hope for a life with freedom and opportunity. We must honor her hope by living up to the promise of America, by fulfilling our democratic values, and by embracing those who come to America from around the world earnestly seeking freedom, as she did.

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