Hello Oklahoma   Hello Oklahoma

Liberty

 If, after having visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center, one does not appreciate the betrayal of a man who terrorized his own America; perhaps one will never comprehend the ultimate sacrifice in which American Vietnam veterans fought and died for Freedom and Liberty of this great land, the U.S.A.

Meditation

I desire no Heaven

I yearn for no Hell

I just want to not betray You Lord

For you give me air to breathe

Water to drink

Fire to warm my heart...

Linh Duy Vo

(The Boy in the Poem) 
May 3, 2002 ©

Subj: Gratitude, Honor, Love
Date: 12/11/01 3:53:28 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: AlanLesdelice
To: poet@gratitude.org

Vo: I happened across your touching website and thought to write to you. I am 58 years old. I was in my 20s when war tore your homeland. I am most touched by your words. 

I have grown up in America, where though we are not the most perfect land, we have many freedoms that we kind of forget at times. Your writings are a wake-up call to me. For it reminds me of the sacrifice of others that bought this land its freedoms and also the blood spilt to preserve those freedoms. As an American, I am thankful that we come to the aid of other lands...guess you would call me a hawk, though I detest war as much as the next person. But my homeland never knew war in my lifetime. I am to give a talk at my Church this coming Sunday...the topic is Gratitude. I will use some of your thoughts in my talk. What makes America great, Vo, is not money, nor might, but the many peoples from many other lands that fuse together in this melting pot we call America. We have our differences, we have our ethnic cohesion which at times make us seem a distant part rather than a close part of the American fabric, but what we have: freedom, honor, commitment, ...these are what draws us all together. And of course the ability to go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober.....it is a right here, for you and me as for all other Americans. 

Thanks, Vo, for your wake up words regarding your fellow Americans. That pilot who befriended you......I feel in my inner most core that you WILL SEE HIM AGAIN. All we experience here is not meant to end...the good that is. At this upcoming Christmas time I say unto you that we are all meant to return to that Heavenly Home from whence we came at our birth here. Our Heavenly Parents await us there and when your phase of existence ends here, perhaps your "Papa-san" will meet you to walk with you back to both your Heaven Father.

Alan Tompkins