Assembly Concurrent Resolution
No. 220
CHAPTER 74
Relative to Black April Memorial Week.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
May 26, 2004.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 220, Correa.
Black April Memorial Week.
This measure would proclaim April 23 through April 30, 2004, as Black April Memorial Week, a special time for Californians to remember the countless lives lost during the Vietnam War era and to hope for a more humane and just life for the people of Vietnam.
Digest Key
WHEREAS, April 30, 2004, marks the 29th anniversary of the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, to communism; and
WHEREAS, For many Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans who were directly involved in the war and Vietnamese Americans who have settled in the United States, the Vietnam War was a tragedy full of great suffering and the loss of American, Vietnamese, and Southeast Asian lives; and
WHEREAS, Fifty-eight thousand one hundred sixty-nine people were killed and 304,000 wounded out of the 2.59 million people who served in the Vietnam War. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam became a casualty of war; and
WHEREAS, After the fall of Saigon, over 135,000 Vietnamese fled to the United States, including former military and government officials and Vietnamese who had worked for the United States during the war and their families; and
WHEREAS, Thousands of people took boats in order to leave Vietnam in the late 1970s to mid-1980s. The successful ones reached refugee camps in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, while approximately one-half of the people fleeing Vietnam perished at sea; and
WHEREAS, According to the United States Census for 2000, 447,032 Vietnamese live in California, with the largest concentration of Vietnamese found outside of Vietnam located in Orange County; and
WHEREAS, We must teach our children and future generations important lessons from the Vietnam War, including how the plight of the Vietnamese refugees following the end of war serve as a powerful example of the values of freedom and democracy; and
WHEREAS, We, the people of California, should actively rededicate ourselves to the principles of human rights, individual freedom, and equal protection under the laws of a just and democratic world. Californians should set aside moments-of-time every year on April 30 to give remembrance to the soldiers, medical personnel, and civilians who died during the Vietnam War era in pursuit of freedom; and
WHEREAS, Vietnamese American communities throughout California will commemorate April 30, 2004, as Black April, a day of remembrance; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That in recognition of the great tragedy and suffering and lives lost during the Vietnam War era, April 23, 2004, through April 30, 2004, shall be proclaimed Black April Memorial Week, a special time for Californians to remember the countless lives lost during the Vietnam War era and to hope for a more humane and just life for the people of Vietnam; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.