Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We talk about justice a lot. But justice for who? For ourselves? Or for some others?

Let me tell you. If you care about injustice for you, you are in a very bad mental shape, because there are thousands of people constantly throwing dirt and all kinds of rotten eggs at you for no reasons (or for their weird reasons, who knows?), especially when you have a little public name.

Let me tell you some of the things people have dumped on my head over the years, (just some, because we don’t have enough room for me to write them all down).

– One day a friend of mine asked me: “Do you know that guy A?” I said, “Yes, I have met him a couple of times in the community?” My friend said: “That’s all? He said he knew you and your family since you guys were little. Your family and his family lived next door to each other. He and you were very close friends and he knew your parents very well?” I said: “Man, I don’t know why he has to say crazy things like that. I have just known him several months ago through a friend in the community. Why the hell he has to lie like that? It’s beyond me.”

– When I joined some friends in Washington to organize the US-VN Trade Council, to push for normalization of US-VN relations in 1991, my cousin-in-law called me from California: “Anh Hoành, the radio station down here talks about you doing some trade thing and call you a Communist. I tell my friends: ‘Anh Hoành is no Communist, I know him.’ So, what is that?” I said: “I do the US-VN Trade Council to push for trade and diplomatic normalization. You know, they always do that. Whoever does something related to VN, they will call that person Communist. Don’t listen to them and don’t worry about it.”

– In 1992, when I led a delegation of American lawyers going back to VN and teaching US laws at Ministry of Justice to Vietnamese government officials from many agencies (so that they know how the outside world operated, in order to open up the country), I thought the VN government would be quiet about it for my safety. Holy cow! The entire VN media – newspapers, radios, TVs – made it a huge event I had never imagined. (That was the first American teaching delegation ever to teach in North Vietnam, and first American delegation to teach in the South since 1975). I told my wife: “These guys probably don’t know that I may be assassinated after going back to Washington. Why the hell do they have to do it so big?” Of course, by the time I came back to the US, I had become a big name “Communist” in the Vietnamese overseas community worldwide. Very scary for a number of years, but I was ultra careful and, luckily, no assassination.

– Over the years, people have called me Communist, CIA, Commie Intelligent… all big titles I could never be good enough to have.

– On those teaching trips to VN, I taught in both Hanoi and HCMC. In Saigon, I taught at Department of Justice, Economics Institute, and the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre – ITPC. So, the lady, 2nd leader, at the ITPC knew me well. Later, many Viet kieu in the US who wanted to do business in Saigon would come in to see her for help. She usually asked them: “You live in the US, you know attorney Trần Đình Hoành?” They usually said, “Yes, I know him very well. We are friends (Or We have worked together).” She would send an email asking me about that person, and I always didn’t know who that person was. Not even one time.

– One time a Viet kieu lady went with a VIP from the US, meeting with a top leader of VN for potential investments in Vietnam. She also had a lot of writings (I guess she paid for them) about her group on the Vietnamese domestic press. One day I got a call from a friend I knew in Hanoi: “Do you know this lady so and so, going with this American VIP so and so, meeting with VN leader so and so?” I said, “No, I don’t know her and I don’t know anything about this trip of this group.” He said, “She said she knows you very well. You both used to work together for many years. And she said, before this trip, she has shown you her projects and you have told her that they are very good projects.” I said, “Man, this is really crazy. I feel like I am sleepwalking. I don’t know this lady and recently no one shows me any project about Vietnam. But, why do you ask me about these things?” He said, “I asked for các cụ (the elders).” I asked, “What elder?” And the friend told me who the elder was. I said, “Man, this lady has a lot of guts. Lying at the very top level about something absolutely non-existent. You’d better tell our leader not to trust her and her group. Scary!”
…

You can see a thousand other small stories people have dumped over my head over the years. I probably can write a “1001 real fairytales” book.

So, you shouldn’t worry about justice for you, because you will have lies and injustices thrown your way constantly, everyday, from all kinds of people around you. You cannot fight them off, because while you are fighting against 1, 10 others will come your way. The better solution is to ignore them and have peace in your heart.

But, my friends, pay attention to the injustice to the poor, the oppressed, the abused… around you. They need help and you only have 1 or 2 cases to work on, not hundreds of cases attacking you day and night like my examples above.

How you help people fight off injustice is your decision in each case. But the world has a lot of injustices for us to handle. Since I am a lawyer, I choose to write some legal analysis about an unjust event, with my recommendations for the victims and the government what to do.

The gist of the issue is: We will have peace when we choose to help others fight for justice. But will never have peace when we focus on justice for ourselves.

Wish we all be at peace.

With compassion,

Hoành

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