Letters to the Editor
February 18, 2005
Father of the Tet Festival
DEAR EDITOR: The Center for Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement, now renamed the Southeast Asian Community Center, organized Tet celebrations as early as 1977 (“Tet, Lunar New Year’s Vietnamese Style,” Feb. 3).
In 1984, with help from the Mayor’s Office of Community Development, the center purchased its current home on O’Farrell Street. A few years later, the Tet festival was moved to the present site. The inaugural celebration on Larkin Street was jointly organized by the center, MO Magazine and Local 2, all longtime and still very active residents of the Tenderloin.
The Vietnamese Community Center of San Francisco essentially took over the festival in 1997 and continued it to today.
I wish the VCCSF continuing success with this community event, but to claim that “it all started back in 1997 … ” is tantamount to declaring that Abraham Lincoln was the first president of this country.
Vu-Duc Vuong
San Francisco, Calif.
David Wong is No Vincent Chin
DEAR EDITOR: While David Wong (“Wrongfully Convicted in America,” Dec. 16, 2004) might have been framed for murder, he was convicted of robbery and had to serve an 8- to 25-year sentence. So he was not “ … serving 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.” I am glad that people cared and helped this guy. He should not be blamed for something that he did not do, but this case pales when compared with the Vincent Chin case in 1982.
Ed Yee
via e-mail
DEAR EDITOR: I would have gone on a rampage if someone convicted me of a crime I didn’t do and if I stayed in jail for 18 years when evidence proved I was innocent.
Jen Vue
via e-mail
Happy New Year!
DEAR EDITOR: My family and I celebrated the arrival of the 2005 new year by attending the San Francisco Community Center orchestra concert held at the Mission Dolores Basilica, a beautiful and historic church in San Francisco.
Our family thanks the Community Music Center, an outstanding school of music located in San Francisco’s Mission district, for bringing the message of peace and love to our community, our nation and our world as we ring in the new year.
Mihn Jeffrey Anh Lee
fifth-grader
San Francisco, Calif.
It’s The Red Koban
DEAR EDITOR: That observer (“Alleged Missing Kiosk Spotted,” Feb. 3) who “photographed the alleged kiosk on the property of Pak ally and permit expediter Walter Wong” should have been more observant. That kiosk has been sitting in Wong’s parking lot for months and months. The signs stenciled on it in Japanese and its shabby, run-down condition should have been a clue to your unobservant observer that he was looking at the koban that formerly sat in Japantown, not the “newly refurbished” kiosk from Chinatown.
Paul Barwick
via e-mail
Insightful, Maeley
DEAR EDITOR: A very informative and insightful article (“Capitol Watch: My Ordeal With a $178 Billion Political Hard Ball,” Jan 28). Kudos to Maeley Tom.
Dr. Luke Kim
via e-mail
Editor’s Note: Two kiosks were on Walter Wong’s property. The red kiosk or koban that allegedly was missing from Chinatown is pictured on Page 8.
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