"Vietnamese security personnel may place foreign visitors under 
surveillance. Hotel rooms, telephone conversations, fax transmissions, 
and e-mail communications may be monitored, and personal possessions in 
hotel rooms may be searched.  Taking photographs of anything that could 
be perceived as being of military or security interest may result in 
problems with authorities. Tourists should be cautious when traveling 
near military bases and avoid photographing in these areas. Foreign 
visitors to Vietnam have been arbitrarily arrested, detained or expelled 
for activities that would not be considered crimes in the United States. 
Visitors deemed suspicious by Vietnamese security personnel may be 
detained, along with their Vietnamese contacts, relatives, and friends. 
Local security officials have called in some U.S. citizens of Vietnamese 
origin for "discussions" not related to any suspected or alleged 
violation of law." - US State Department.

Communism stinks. It is broken and backwards. Although it provides for 
people, it does not provide enough. It builds two types of societies: 
the haves and the have nots. Nothing in between. You are either for or 
against. I also believe in Jesus and I think I'll go in the streets and 
tell a couple people about him. This is my opinion, I say it freely.

 I have not been allowed to say anything for 2 weeks. Not in the 
streets. Not in restaurants. Not in the hotel lobby. Not in the 
elevator. Not in a taxi. Not in a hotel room. Not in the bathroom. Only 
in my mind. The secret police are out there and they are monitoring 
foreigners, especially groups that come to Vietnam as charitable 
organizations. It is impossible to tell who is listening. It could be 
the taxi driver, hotel attendant, waiter, salesman, or store owner. So, 
the best course of action is not to say anything about religion or 
politics, especially if it has to do with the government.

I spent this morning relaxing and filling family members in on the range 
of emotions I felt in Vietnam. I spent yesterday morning at an 
elementary school opening ceremony with a bunch of Communist Party reps 
sitting to my left, teachers sitting behind me, and about 400 young and 
impressionable children sitting to my right. The principal of the school 
was on the stage in front me and ordered everyone to stand up. One dozen 
children marched to the left of the stage strapped to snare and bass 
drums. On cue, they started playing a droning and morbid drum march. It 
sounded like something that would be played right before a firing squad 
did their duty.

Four children came marching out, each holding a corner of the standard 
red and yellow communist flag. Hanging from the flag pole at at the 
front of the school flew the Vietnamese flag. Underneath it flew the 
communist hammer and sickle flag. The children marched up on stage right 
in front of the statue of Ho Chi Minh. Every  government organization in 
Vietnam either has a bust or painting of Ho Chi Minh somewhere in public 
view. The drumming stopped. Their was a couple seconds of silence. A 
unison chant filled the air. I am assuming it was some type of "Pledge 
of Allegiance" in Vietnamese. It was a lifeless repeating of  words, 
very different than the cheer that begins at the end of the "Star 
Spangled Banner" at a Dodgers baseball game.

I watched everyone in that place chant whatever words they were supposed 
to chant. I wondered if they really meant what they said. Did they 
really believe in that hammer and sickle? Were they filled with a sense 
of national pride when they made that pledge to Ho Chi 
Minh/Communism/Vietnam? Do the children know any different? Do the 
teachers and adults, very familiar with communist politics, really feel 
that the government has their best interests? Do people really enjoy 
living in a country that does not allow free speech or a personal right 
to privacy? How many great ideas for inventions, reforms, and solutions 
have been squelched due to national "security"? Security from what? 
Protection from what? Change? A better life? A solution to poverty and 
destitution? Or is it a fear that those who have the money and power 
would lose it and have to share with the millions who have NOTHING? If 
so, how is communism for the people?

Has the government taken a look around? I have over the last two weeks. 
I spent three days with malnourished and exploited street children. I 
weaved through hundreds of people waiting outside a hospital for days to 
see a doctor and receive treatment for cancer. I played hacky sack with 
a bunch of lepers in an outcast society in the middle of a jungle. I 
visited a bunch of desperately lonely elderly people who cried when I 
touched them and begged me not to let go. I smelled the stench of 
deformed and retarded children laying on a floor, some in their own 
feces and urine. I held babies who will die from a curable disease. I 
handed out bags of food to rural poor with no access to medicine, clean 
water, or decent food.

Where are the welfare checks? Where is the foster system? Where is 911? 
Where are the soup kitchens and food banks? Disability checks? 
Unemployment insurance?

I looked up at that flag pole and imagined what an American flag would 
look like. I imagined how much Vietnamese society would thrive if given 
a chance to speak and think what they want. What if people could be 
allowed to help others in their own way without a government having to 
meddle in between? I started to picture what this place would be like as 
a democracy.  Free people. Free speech. I thought of many of the 
doctors, teachers, and volunteers we met who are doing the best they can 
and dedicating their lives to chipping away at a huge problem. How 
utterly excited would people be if they could wake up every morning, do 
what they wanted, say what they wanted, worship where they wanted, and 
not worry about anyone listening? An excitement came over me at the 
thought of such an idea.

Excitement? Thank you, God...I live every day in what I could only dream 
about in that schoolyard yesterday. May I never take it for granted.

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