Piney Woods Philosopher: Watching the American dream unfold

By BILL COBBS/Columnist

Piney and She Who Must Be Obeyed had first come to Florida to look after She’s parents. Among the first jobs they had was Piney as director of education for the thousands of boat-people, mostly Vietnamese, streaming in from that horror-war aftermath. She was a volunteer teacher of English.
Piney and She organized a bunch of teachers and churches into classes, and taught English to a polyglot of Viets, Hmong, Cambodians, Chinese and Koreans, but mostly Vietnamese.
They were amazed by the quick learning of their pupils, and also the good reputations they got when given jobs. Honeywell computers asked Piney to send as many Vietnamese as possible to its factory after a trial with 10 refugees.
Now, many years later, Piney and She driving through Tampa and St. Petersburg could see the signs and brass plates of professional Vietnamese lawyers, restaurant owners, bankers and other professionals who had been students or were the children of students.
It was rewarding to think that those refugees from horror had made it in the American tradition, and were contributing to the welfare of their receiver country.

A writer, Bill Cobbs divides his time between Southwest Virginia and Florida.