Leftovers of War

I visited the Lao National History Museum today with the expectations that it would be fairly interesting, but not that it would bring me to the brink of tears. The exhibition went through the prehistoric times, era of Dutch exploration and trading, French occupation before leading up to the time in which the "American Imperialists and their Puppets" had a presence (mid 60's - early 70's). The photos on the walls depicted people killed,affected by Napalm,children missing limbs, temples destroyed, beaten up prionsers of war, etc. Of course I knew a bit about this history and how all of the country's actions were rationalized as part of preventing the "domino effect" spreading of communism within this region. However, knowing the story and seeing the reality are two entirely different things. I walked out feeling a mixture of shame and sadness, yet grateful that there are musuems like this to preserve history. However, it's not all just in the past as there are people still living with the physical and emotional scars as well as bombs (dubbed UXO's or UXB's) in this region still undetected which pose a horrible threat to the people here. This article explains more on the subject. I don't completely agree with the comment of our ambassador made in the article. While I agree that it makes more sense to spend time dealing with cleaning up the problems versus pointing fingers, I do believe a sincere apology should be given to the innocent people who, to this day, are being impacted. That is essentially the message that I left in the guestbook as I left the museum this afternoon.

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