January 9, 2021

On January 6th, as part of the insurrection that attacked the heart of American democracy, we saw the disturbing sight of the yellow flags with three red stripes of the Vietnamese Heritage flag carried by those attacking the Capitol. This flag has long been a symbol of the Vietnamese American community in the US; yet on that terrible day, it was flying alongside flags that symbolize hate and intolerance.

January 6, 2021

PIVOTers,

Within the last 24 hours, we saw both the promise of democracy and the very real threats to it. We saw that progressives won not one but two Senate races in Georgia, something that would have been unthinkable just 2 years ago. And those wins were driven by local organizations working with communities of color to engage and empower them. That’s real result and that’s real hope. That’s America.

The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization-PIVOT Congratulates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Celebrates our Shared Victory

PIVOT commits to Peaceful Transition of Power and Continuing Work towards a Just and Diverse America

November 5, 2020 -- In an unprecedented election, amidst the looming backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and rampant racism and deception, PIVOT celebrates the hard-earned victory for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. This historic win, with over 100 million Americans voting early and by mail, signals our nation’s path towards a return to humanity and decency.

PIVOT, a national progressive multi-generational Vietnamese American organization formed in 2017 to galvanize Vietnamese Americans to fight for a just and diverse America, congratulates President-Elect Biden and Vice-President-Elect Harris. We remain committed to ensuring that the candidates chosen by the American people take their rightful place in office in January 2021. PIVOT joins over 165 groups that includes SEIU, Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter, Sunrise Movement, and Women’s March coalition, that was formed to protect the results of the election and ensure a peaceful transition of power. As Americans, we must do our part to preserve the nation’s democracy.

November 4, 2020

As of now, the morning of November 4th, 2020, we still do not know who the next President of the United States will be.The expected delay in results from several states is due to the large volume of mailed in votes.This is good news for Joe Biden because the data have shown that he has won mailed in votes by a wide margin.

Disappointingly, although also expected, Donald Trump has already started his effort to steal the election. Overnight, he expressed his wish to stop counting ballots in states where he is ahead and to continue to count where he is behind. He has begun to put out the narrative that he won so anything that happens after 11/3 is a fraud. His campaign manager has stated that they would win if only “legal” ballots were counted.

November 1, 2020
Hieu Le, PIVOT Board Member

The PIVOT fellowship and internship program is an organizing and political program designed to increase civic engagement within the Vietnamese-American and Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. It also is designed to build leadership and experience for those interested in politics, public policy, and government. Our goal is to build a pipeline of more Vietnamese American leaders in politics.

Through partnerships with local c3 and c4 organizations, PIVOT hired 11 fellows and interns working in battleground states to conduct voter contact work in our communities, helping to increase voter turnout in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, and help flip these states blue. According to 538 polling averages, all these states are extremely competitive and flipping any one of them may be the difference between electing an experienced leader and unifier in Joe Biden or suffering and enduring another four more years of an incompetent and divisive Donald Trump.

October 19, 2020
Bich-May Nguyen, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Our first clinic patient with coronavirus came in mid-March with new onset fatigue. He was hospitalized and died quickly. A few nurses who came into close contact isolated themselves at home and survived without complications. Since then, our primary care clinic now provides masks for everyone, face shields for employees, plexiglass shields at the front desk, and video and telephone appointments.

October 14, 2020

While Donald Trump is receiving treatment for his COVID-19 infection, Americans are once again reminded of the vital importance of health and healthcare. As health care workers, we do not want any harm to any patient, and thus we hope that Donald Trump will recover from his COVID-19 infection. As Vietnamese Americans, we know that the Vietnamese proverb “health is gold” is truer now more than ever. Without health, no one can work, love, or enjoy life. The COVID-19 pandemic has made health the number one priority.

October 12, 2020
Ed Bureau, PhD
Phe X. Bach, EdD

Do we need to be gob-smacked by science any more than we have as human beings? As a society? Science has and continues to tell us that we are destroying the earth’s climate and are increasingly imperiled by viruses and microbes. As NASA reports (https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/), the evidence for rapid climate change is overwhelming and compelling, as seen in data on global temperature rise, warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, decreased snow cover, sea-level rise, declining arctic sea ice, extreme climatic events, ocean acidification. As the climate deteriorates, a pandemic daily sickens and kills thousands of Americans. Sadly, we are not alone in this global crisis. Still, America leads other nations in the number of cases and deaths, as tracked by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data).