The latest controversy regarding the Vietnamese yellow flag with three stripes appearing in a foot bath, published by Ngu?i Vi?t daily newspaper in their 2008 T?t magazine has drawn international attention, yet no one has been able to adequately explain the phenomenal outrage that have not just engulfed Little Saigon, but polarized the overseas Vietnamese’s sense of national pride and ethnic identity.

So far, two opposing views have emerged from this debate, one casting the issue as a matter of artistic freedom of expression while the other alleges that any unorthodox representation of this Vietnamese flag is a desecration and direct attack upon the cultural values of overseas Vietnamese who hold that the yellow flag is the symbol of their Vietnamese heritage and aspirations for freedom.

The two camps appear to be on a collision course with no middle ground to steer them from mutual destruction. Let us be so bold as to wander into these dangerous waters and see if we could save them both from drowning in their own exuberance.

First, it is worth noting that despite a vocal minority that diligently protests, the majority of Vietnamese Americans has not taken to the streets but has exercised other civic rights such as withholding their support for such offensive artwork and by not dignifying it with a response.

These are people who have matured in their sophistication and understanding of first amendment rights to freedom of speech and have grown beyond the point of intolerance.

After all, we do not see frenzy and mass paranoia whipped up every time the American flag is burned or otherwise offended. Such activities may be viewed as hate crimes if they rise to that level and the appropriate authorities are alerted to investigate and criminals are prosecuted as necessary.

Generally, those who commit such acts are held in contempt and the general public should roundly denounce them and move on so that such behaviors would not get the same publicity in the future. Here, the protesters are actually furthering the harm by keeping the issue alive in the news without educating the public about their grievances or offering any solutions or preventions against future attacks upon our beloved flag.

Instead of exploiting such opportunities to win friends, some protesters choose to wage an all-out battle against the media culprit even though they have since apologized profusely to the community for a mistake in publishing such ugliness. This has only served to alienate a valuable asset of our community and has a chilling effect on Vietnamese free press throughout the world.

On the other hand, those who have added injury to insult by ridiculing protesters or defending the artist’s intentions while she has not yet apologized for the pain and suffering she has caused, deserve no praise either.

Perhaps it is best that we look more deeply into the matters at hand and attempt to reach a higher level of understanding of our present situation than what has been aired in the news. It is time to recognize that the Vietnamese overseas community is no longer just a community of refugees but includes those who have gone abroad under other circumstances that do not necessarily share the same cultural heritage and identity as those of us who were born, lived, served and sacrificed under the Vietnamese yellow flag. While to us, the yellow flag is a sacred and living symbol of our hopes for freedom, democracy and human rights, as well as other inalienable values which we attribute to the flag, not all other Vietnamese share the same views.

This does not permit them to offend our flag, but neither does it permit us to insist on eradicating their treasured symbols. Unless we recognize some degree of mutual respect, increased conflagrations on much larger scales are bound to happen, at any moment, anywhere there are Vietnamese communities of diverse backgrounds residing side-by-side.

Those who insist that as overseas Vietnamese, we could only have one heritage and one identity are bound to failure because the Vietnamese people have always been a diverse and dynamic force that resist singularity and value plurality — a hundred children born of a single mother.

What we need are real leaders who can unite us through reason and compassion and not political demagogues who divide us into small camps for their own advantage.

The Vietnamese yellow flag is not just about heritage and freedom, nor does it belong to any one group, historically or at present. It is a symbol of the Vietnamese’s aspiration to unite as a people, even though we are as different as the three main regions of Vietnam for which the three red stripes stand for. Thus, to act divisively is to go against the spirit of the yellow flag and to defeat our own purpose. We need to remind each other to be tolerant and open to other expressions and values not our own, if we are to survive and succeed as an international people. The recent controversies have provided us with just one more opportunity to come together and heal the wounds of past wars, and not to create the seeds for future hostilities.