THE “HIJACKER”

                         In remembrance of September 4, 1992

                     Ly Tong parachuting into Saigon.

Have you ever heard, read or thought about hijackers

Who elude punishment or persecution in the place left behind?

They force unexpected landings against pilots and passengers,

In the newly chosen destination, pardon or safety to find.

Pirates, plunderers, smugglers, kidnappers or murderers

Would escape to the “third world”, as neutral zones to hide;

Or terrorists, saboteurs, rioters, traitors, and deserters

Would retreat to their comrades’ den on the opposite side.

The Unites States succeeded in persuading the Soviet Union

To compromise to prosecute and sentence those that deserve.

Then the international community began to act in unison

Against hijacking, travelers to protect, and travels to preserve.

But, when a human rights activist, Vietnamese-American citizen

Just for the Just Cause managed to disseminate from a plane

His appeal to the people for a change to liberate his brethren:

He was captured and has been maltreated by the inhumane!

He faced neither punishment nor persecution in America to flee!

He compelled no itinerary change; he acted no sky sacker!

He got no behind-the-bamboo-curtain chiefs to receive or agree!

No!  a thousand times, a million times, he was not a hijacker!

You, who have safeguarded Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights,

And sacrificed your blood to fight each foe even in his cave,

How could you have the heart to tolerate the evil and its blights

And to not help, justify, and emancipate Ly Tong, the brave?*

                                              THANH-THANH

*Owing to various U.S. legislators and diplomats to whom the author had sent this poem, Ly Tong was consequently released on September 01, 1998.