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Tending the American Melting Pot
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The class greeted Aguilar's first questions with silence. Slowly, they warmed up. When Aguilar asked why American politicians are accountable to the public, a woman in a pink cardigan murmured, "We elect them, that's why."
Her name was Loc Nguyen, and she had recently become a citizen.
"You can tell she's a citizen. She could run for office," Aguilar said. Nguyen, 60, giggled.
When it came to selling American civic values, it was an easy crowd. All had fled communist Vietnam. Some had been political prisoners; others were the widows of such prisoners.
"I'm seeking my freedom," Gaithersburg resident Mai Tih Mang, 77, said in Vietnamese.
"I came here also seeking my freedom," said Khiem Nguyen, 66, of Silver Spring. He was in the Navy in pre-communist Vietnam, became a farmer after the fall of Saigon and has been a dishwasher, grass cutter and mattress company employee since arriving in the United States 15 years ago. He is scheduled to take his citizenship test tomorrow.
"We're not allowed to do what we want to do in Vietnam, though we are Vietnamese citizens," said Loc Nguyen of Silver Spring. "It's very different here. . . . I am allowed to say whatever I want to say. Those are the key things."
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