First of all, I want to thank you all, for coming out to stand behind my new country America! Let’s give our selves a big hand!

I also want to thank our veterans for putting their lives on the line to fight for our freedom we so treasure, freedom for you and freedom for me! These men and women, our veterans, they are the true American heroes. They deserve highest respect from all Americans!

I am excited and honored to be part of such, a patriotic group of Americans here today. And I thank Captain Tommy Clack for his invitation.

I also want to thanks the members of VFW Post 5290,

People of Conyers! We love you!

Freedom is not free! Nor is freedom cheap!

You and I know and cherish the valuable gift that freedom is.

I want to hear from anyone who thinks that he knows what the cost of FREEDOM really is about!

Well, let me tell you! I am here because thousands of brave soldiers who decided to risk their lives to fight for MY freedom.

I saw these brave soldiers during the Korean War. They were there to fight for freedom of Koreans and ultimately freedom of us all!

I was only 9 years old during the Korean War.

One summer day in 1950, I saw a U. S. jet fighter with a trail of smoke taking a nosedive. I saw it crash into a mountain valley where my friends and I were playing.

We all dashed towards the crash site, hoping to find survivors, thinking that we might assist them somehow. Of course, we found none.

50 years later, I still have vivid recalls of the horrible carnage at the crash site.

It was an awful scene, too much for a nine year old to witness up close.

I saw bloody intestines hanging all over tree branches and also found the pilot’s pistol bent 90 degrees from impact. I was standing over a part of the pilot’s body. Why did these foreigners come to our land to fight and even to die in our war?

It took me twenty plus years to finalize realize why these long-nosed, blue-eyed Americans came to Korea to fight risking their young lives.

During the Desert Storm, U. S. government was considering the draft of young Americans. My own son Jimmy, born right here at Georgia Baptist Hospital, would have soon been the recruiting age to serve in the military, and could have been deployed to Kuwait to fight for the freedom of the Kuwaiti people.

At that moment, the horrific scene of the crash site of American pilots came back into my mind along with the thought that, my son Jimmy may not return home alive.

I finally realized the process and the heavy price of fighting for freedom!

Now, as a man who understands this high cost, and as a real American, I stick my neck out to teach others about patriotism, to embrace patriotism. And I am proud it!

I came to America later in my years than many immigrants. But I take backseat to no one in doing my share to live as one proud, patriotic American.

In 1974, I chose to come to America and became an American citizen. I decided to move to this great country because the values I saw which made this country the greatest.

Freedom and opportunity are still on the top of the list.

But I am amazed to see that some Americans take freedom granted.

It is so sad to see some people reaping benefits and enjoying the safety, the security of this land maintained by the efforts of our military, police, sheriffs and EMS personnel.

These are the exact same people who criticize the Whitehouse, who curse our president and march to call our president and our country evil.

Are we already forgetting the nightmare of September 11, when the terrorists declared a war against America? We are not starting a war in the middle east. No! The war already came to America, to New York, to Washington, D.C. and to the hills of Pennsylvania.

How can anyone bash the President of the United States who is trying to fight this War on terrorism, for our own safety and our own freedom?

Yes, we have freedom of speech and we are entitled to use it.

But, don’t let our enemy take away your freedom of speech.

As my good friend Bao Ky Vu, a refuge from Vietnam, said yesterday,

The misguided messengers of misery have bombarded the airwaves and our streets with messages of peace and chants such as “No Blood for Oil”, “Not in Our Name” and “Stand against War”.

I want to share my wisdom with those who still don’t see the value of freedom!

You really want to continue to live in a free world?

You’d better stand behind our leaders and our military and pray for them to succeed in their campaign to rid of those who threaten our freedom and freedom around the world.

You really want to continue to live in a safe community?

You’d better stand behind the police officers and sheriffs and show your gratitude!

You want to have somebody to come to your rescue when you’re involved in an accident?

You’d better stand behind the EMS and thank them!

Some people think that American patriotism belongs to only certain groups of people.

This needs to be changed.

We, every one of us, should take ownership and responsibility of this great land and serve to make our country the best that it could be!

God bless the men and women who, right now, are thousands of miles away from their loved ones, from their children and the comfort of their own home, out in the desert, in a strange part of the world, to protect our freedom and our way of life.

God bless our President Bush. We must pray with him that God will provide strength and wisdom for his leadership during these challenging days!

God bless this great country. My Country, my America!