Wichita’s population, like the nation’s, has grown more diverse — and that diversity enriches the community. Witness, for instance, the Vietnamese Community Association of Wichita’s announced plan this week to privately fund and build a Vietnam War memorial in a Wichita park that would honor both American and Vietnamese soldiers who died in that war.
Many of the founders of Wichita’s Vietnamese community came to America as refugees from that conflict. Many left behind or lost family members. Some fought in it alongside American GIs.
Wichita has a Vietnam memorial (in photo), but one that honors only American soldiers. Another memorial that expresses the shared sacrifice of American and Vietnamese, and the intermingling of cultures here, would be fitting.
As parks director Doug Kupper said, "We’re a diverse community, and we embrace and rejoice at that diversity. The Vietnamese people are a big part of our community and the city is supportive of that."
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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37 Comments
The people I know who know about demographics say that Wichita is as diverse as America, whereas the rest of Kansas is not. We should see this diversity as a strength. I applaud this memorial.
Can we have a statue commemorating the carr brothas, please?? I think I shall CELEBRATE DIVERSITY by blowing up a staute of that scumbag john brown!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
A statue commemorating all the hippies Johnny Darr popped in the sixties and seventies. A statue commemorating Johnny Darr for all the same hippies he popped.
A memorial wall listing all the great bars since closed. A wall listing all the bars that should be closed.
A statue commemorating the great day Connie Morris was voted out.
Our friendly reverse barometer has spoken. You know if Ian is against it, it is RIGHT!!!
Thank you for fulfilling your vital mission, Mr. Santiago. Couldn’t do it without you.
And Dusty,Vern Miller, busted a lot more hippies than Johnny Darr was able to even think about.
“Captain Bobby Stout done found me out, and I owe the Man 1 more year”
??
It was some wild times in the Vern Miller, Johnny Duh years. Made for interesting newspaper reading.
A memorial for Vietnamese?
One word.
“NO”
Come on XXX!
We could have it in Diversity Park. Next to the Nazi storm trooper memorial and near the tribute to all of the Chinese that gave up their lives fighting in Korea.
I can see it now. A row of flags like in front of the UN, a tribute to every country that has met us honorably on the field of battle.
Hank
X,These are not Viet Cong fighters,if I understand correctly.
Given I am right on that, what is the basis of your objection?
The header is not clear as to what Vietnamese would be honored. It DOES mention refugees and “soldiers who fought alongside US troops”.
I know you have reason to do so XXX. But maybe a little better understanding before summary judgement?
The thing IS privately funded.
I see the dean of the Price Institute of Xenophobia (PIX) has spoken.
I would like to hear reasons people object to this memorial.
Are these people not members of our community? Did they not also make sacrifices in Viet Nam? Do they not add to our resources here? How many of their kids are in advanced placement classes at USD 259 – and making straight A’s?
Yeah, these are people we don’t want around here.
Kansas, as bigoted and inbred as you think.
I’m A Viet vet, and I have no problem with the site for South Vietnamese soldiers.
XXX – since I assume it would represent ARVN I would be interested in knowing your reasons for objecting. I tend to be with gster on this but would definitely respect your viewpoint as well.
XXX, ya kinda threw me on this one as well. What gives?
Mr. C: Were you missing in action last night on your usual talk show?
Xenophobia is healthy and natural. Xenophilia is sick and perverse! The mindset of guilt-ridden, self-hating White neo-Babelists has always been unfathomable to me. Can someonen please enlighten me? Thanks.
Ian T. Santiago ( White, Christian and Proud!)
I’m giving Randy some reps.Being on the air 6 times a week can be a little much when you’re a one man band.
It might just as likely list V.C. and N.V.A. dead. But, I guess the died for their country too, just not this country.
Boy talk about a wound that must run deep, reading of a memorial that would honor the Vietnamese that dead during the war. Suddenly I felt a shiver and a bit of resentment, the feelings I felt during the mid to late seventies came back and there was a flash of anger. Before I formed my thought on reason and not emotion, I can honestly say the only real feeling of prejudice was toward the Vietnamese. All the stories of two columns one U.S. soldiers and one South Vietnamese walking down a road. More then one Vietnam vet had told me of suddenly finding them and their comrades alone on that road. The Vietnamese soldiers were simply gone! The next second all hell would break loose, fire coming from everywhere and you would be fighting for your life and the South Vietnamese country too. As their own soldiers having sensed that an ambush was near had ran off! We were there not fighting for the United States but for the people of that country. And they ran off at the first sign of danger, there seem to be a great deal to hate them for.
But then reason came into my thought process, the fact that many of the people of Vietnam had known nothing but war for three generation. The concept of a forty five year war is not something we in the U.S. can even grasp. Then I finally met a Vietnamese, I had seen them more at a distance but I had no choice one day at a job interview. He had been a Doctor in the South, but his credentials were left in Vietnam when he fled as such he could not prove his claim. Now he was forced to seek employment of manual labor, at least till he could gain some proof of his profession.
I had the chance to work closely with two men who served on U.S. Navy river boats. Both told stories of their serves in Vietnam and explained why they felt they needed to be there. Oh they hated it and at first they hated being sent there. But soon learn of the real need for someone to try and stop the horrors committed by the V.C.
Time and knowledge tends to heal all wounds, perhaps it would be a good thing. Those that tend to die in war are not the ones that start the war. They are the one called upon to fight and die in the war.In a prospective, of those in my extended family some fought in WWII, but the only memorial that has my family name on it of those who died in the war, is in Germany.
Do the women and children get flags too, they’re just as dead.
“Xenophobia is healthy and natural.”
The assistant dean of the Price Institute of Xenophobia has spoken. Hank, you have some real great staff at your unthinking tank, now don’t ya?
Doesn’t being part of Ian’s hate compact make you terribly ashamed? It should, IMHO.
“Hate compact”, Steven? don’t you think that you are overstating your case a bit?
V.L.R.B!!
Ian:”Hate compact”, Steven? don’t you think that you are overstating your case a bit?”
No, Mr. Santiago, I am understating much more than I would like to.
No problem, I expect ever more shrill hysterics and hyperbole from the neo-Babelists as the great multiracial experiment crumbles to dust.
I gather that the big feller has some splainin’ to do?!?! :)
Viva La Revolucion Blanco!!!
“No problem, I expect ever more shrill hysterics.”
Ian, you are up kinda late aren’t you?
My friend, if I can call you that, the tower of Babel, will crumble into dust.
Sorry, you won’t be there to witness it! It will be a glorious sight!
desea vivo la raza diversa
I earlier questioned XXX his opposition to this memorial.
On further thought, my take is that he is a veteran of that conflict and I am not. I am thus poorly qualified to the feelings such a memorial might hurt among veterans of that war.
I call any attempt to honor the dead in war and an effort at peace a good thing. But even if this is a privately funded memorial it is to stand in a public park.
Local Vietnam veterans should be consulted for their take before this public memorial is allowed.
Of course, JR, we should not buy Hondas or Nissans. Or Sony equipment, etc.
This is, without doubt, the silliest thread we have been subjected to.
God save us from this type of B.S.
We call it the Vietnam War.
The Vietnamese call it the American War.
“Of course, JR, we should not buy Hondas or Nissans. Or Sony equipment, etc.”
A lot of WW2 veterans don’t.
Everyone, lets take a vote, post a yes if anyone actually cares about anything that our ethincally confused latina friend Ian posts?
“YES”
“Yes”
I also apologize for implying racism as a motive for anyone’s opinions here.
Yes
Except, I don’t apologize to Ian who openly acknowledges his posts are motivated by racism.
Steve DavisI agree with you, finally!Many Vietnamese fought bravely in South Vietnam.Not to put words in your mouth, but the mass migration of so many South East Asians to America brands the Communist propaganda against the US and the West as a pack of lies.We will always debate the wisdom of the “hot” battles of the Cold War.However, I believe that our intentions in Vietnam were admirable and that the Vietnamese who came to America actually vindicated our motives, even if the war itself was poorly waged.The West won the Cold War.The Vietnamese people suffered greatly in that ideological struggle and we should honor their contributions.
“Steve DavisI agree with you, finally!”
That is kind of scary to me, at least.
My teenage son is a computer geek. He has a lot of Asian friends, and though he tries to hide it from me, he has been interested in various Asian girls.
I respect their culture of achievement and their value of hard work. I welcome them to Wichita.
However, I don’t know about the issues of the South Viet Nam military and I defer these matters to people who know more than me.
Thanks.