United States- May 21st, 2087
You are sitting at home, relaxing just watching tv after a long day of work or school. When you hear a knock at the door, and without thinking much about it you get up and go to the door to answer it. You open the door expecting to find your best friend, but instead of her, there is 4 fully armored military police officers standing there. Before you can even get a word out of your mouth to question what is going on, the police grab you, and force you to the ground, kick you around a little bit before they slap handcuffs on you, and as they pull you up they finally tell you that you are getting arrested, and to keep quiet.
You try to ask what you are being arrested for, but one of the officers punches you and tells to keep quiet, and before you know it you are being thrown in the back of a truck, heading to an undisclosed location, and your fate is uncertain, but in the end it’ll be death, and later you find out that your only crime was that you are what the police called part of the intellectual class.
In today’s mindset, you may be thinking “wow, there is no way that could ever happen especially in the USA, as there is no way one could be arrested for having a good job or being a student.”
But in reality the scnerenio mentioned above, really did in happen in human history, only the country was Cambodia, and the years were 1975-1979 & the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge led by their leader, Pol Pot.
In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical program that included isolating the country from all foreign influences, closing schools, hospitals and some factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, and collectivising agriculture. Khmer Rouge theorists, developing the ideas of Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan, believed that an initial period of self-imposed economic isolation and national self-sufficiency would stimulate the rebirth of the crafts and the country’s latent industrial capability.
The Khmer Rouge government arrested, tortured and eventually executed anyone suspected of belonging to several categories of supposed “enemies”,[48] including the following:
- People with connections to former Cambodian governments, either those of the Khmer Republic or the Sangkum, to the Khmer Republic military, or to foreign governments.
- Professionals and intellectuals, including almost everyone with an education and people who understood a foreign language. Many artists, including musicians, writers, and filmmakers were executed including Ros Serey Sothea, Pan Ron and Sinn Sisamouth.
- Christians (most of whom were Catholic and the Catholic Church in general), Muslims and senior Buddhist monks. The Roman Catholic cathedral of Phnom Penh was razed. The Khmer Rouge forced Muslims to eat pork, which they regard as forbidden (?aram). Many of those who refused were killed. Christian clergy
Think of all of the people you know and love, Do they fall into at least one of these categories? Most likely the answer is YES.
As I kneeled on the ground after having said a prayer for the souls that may not be at peace, surrounded by the killings fields & the S21 prison, I couldn’t help but think of the above question as my answer would most definately be yes, and I thought about myself as I would have 3 strikes against me from the beginning as I am a college graduate who is a Christian and used to work for the government.
Besides me, I also thought about everyone else that has been in my life from my friends and their families, my parents and the rest of my family and family friends, and even down to all of my squadmates and their families, and what their fate would have been, and the thought of all of them being killed by the regime.
Wow that is powerful to think about.
The Cambodia Genocide Museum was such an emotional visit for me, and most likely will be one of the hardest places that I have ever visited,and I have visited some pretty intense historical locations in my life so far, but it was so important for me to do so as a historian. Sure I got to cross another historical place off of my bucket list, but to me it is so much more then that.
I could feel, see, hear, even smell the history that had taken place at that location. It was eerie, and I was moved by the whole experience. One of the things that really hit home to me was seeing all the skulls inside the memorial especially the ones marked 20-40 years old & on the 1 shelf there was 37 skulls & the first thing I thought of was my squadmates as it kind of put things into perspective.
So yeah it was so hauntingly awesome to be about to visit & pay my respects as it is something that I’ll never forget.
Til next time your fellow sister in Christ,
Bonnie
Team SC
P Squad
Psalms 18:2
YOLO
