Chapter 12-American Civic Association, Binghamton, NY

Send us Fan MailHoang Duc Lam had already lived several lifetimes: surviving a rickety boat while watching his family being swept overboard; having the good fortune of being taken in by a young Vietnamese couple who survived that same boat; discovering his love of cooking; opening a successful Manhattan Vietnamese fusion restaurant. But nothing prepared him for the ESL class he'd be attending with a Vietnamese girl who he'd helped into the food industry..."Somehow this has become routine! The reporting is routine, my response, here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it, we've become numb to this. We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charlestown. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun."  President Obama, 10/01/2015, after Umpqua Community College shooting