The weekend is finally here, which means three days of grilling, relaxing, being active outdoors, grumbling about motorcycle noise, spending time with friends and family, watching sports and, most importantly, remembering those who gave their lives in the service of our country.
We’ll think not only of the recent veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan but, with Rolling Thunder in town, of veterans of earlier foreign wars like the Vietnam War. Thinking about the Vietnam War and how it’s remembered in Arlington, the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery might first come to mind. But one can also think of Clarendon.
The county-produced video above covers the May 9 “Echoes of Little Saigon” history program, which explored the 1970s and 1980s in Clarendon, when the neighborhood was home to many Vietnamese refugees and the businesses they started, following the fall of Saigon.
Most of those businesses have since been displaced due to ever-rising rents, but their creators and customers who fled the war in Vietnam have largely gone on to raise families and successfully integrate themselves into American society. One could consider it a happy legacy of the war and a tribute to the cause of freedom and democracy that American service members fight for.
With that, feel free to use the comments section to discuss any local topics of interest this weekend. We’ll be back on Tuesday with more local news and notes.