Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You see a lot of lawlessness in Vietnam – big corruption cases involving lots of VIPs, lots of cheaters in the marketplace (from taxi drivers, to venders everywhere, even big companies lying on the packages of their products), everywhere you go you are afraid that someone is cheating you, big businesses do illegal development projects and the poor people in the area have no voice to protect themselves and their environment, people drive motorcycles and cars on the sidewalks, people drive aggressively, impolitely and dangerously… Too many things to list here. You guys and gals know much more than I do.

What is the cause of all these?

We don’t have enough laws & regulations, and police, and courts? We don’t have good leadership? We don’t have good education?

I would say: We have a collapse of morality (sự sụp đổ, sự khủng hoảng đạo đức).

And when we talk about morality, we are not talking about the government and law and institutions – we are talking about each of us individually, because morality is really a personal issue and not a government issue.

Churches, pagodas and temples do take on themselves the job of teaching people to be moral. But in the current collapse of morality, many of those religious institutions have moral problems themselves and cannot lead the mass. And even when you have a good church or pagoda next to you, moral problem is still your own problem to take care of. You simple can’t point your finger to your church or pagoda or anyone else.

Being moral doesn’t mean you have to go to church or pagoda. Being moral means you don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t rob, don’t backstab, don’t badmouth, don’t break any law (from traffic law, to tax law, to any other law), be responsible (keep the street clean, drive politely), be honest with everyone, be gentle with everyone.

The list looks a little long, but they are things you are already doing. Just be little more conscious and serious about practicing them every day.

Morality is a big word, but it contains all the little elements that we all have learned since we were 2 or 3 years old. As we grew up, we became rotten. That’s all.

We just have to go back to the old days when we were in primary school. That’s all.

Nothing is so big or so hard about being moral.

But this is the big deal for the country. For our country to be healthy and strong and growing and rich, everyone of us should be highly moral.

Don’t count on politics and economics or any other way. There is no other way.

Wish we all uphold morality.

With compassion,

Hoành

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