A Legacy for Laos?

 

Dr. Thomas Dooley

Thomas A. Dooley, the late Catholic physician, not the subject of the infamous song, worked in both Vietnam and Laos back in the latter 1950s, before the fallout from the "Korean Conflict," Vietnam and the others would come to the very doorsteps of the shanties within those poor nations. It is duly noted that Dr. Dooley was no ordinary missionary or aid worker. However, it seems to me that his appeal back then lay in his ability to articulate his understanding of the Communist enemy in both words and actions. His was a singularly Christ-like example of living (and ultimately dying) for the sake of others; even those not all or in all ways his friends.

Which brings me to why I've brought up such an esteemed person in context today.

Recently, the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) in Washington, D.C. uncovered additional information about the secret prisons and clandestine gulag system in Laos confirmed (previously) by Australian human rights advocates, journalists and others.

"Thousands of Lao Hmong refugees, and many political and religious prisoners, including Lao student leaders, are being held in secret prisons and detention camps in Laos that are part of a nation-wide network in various provinces," according to Philip Smith, Executive Director of the CPPA in Washington, D.C. in an online press release.

The Minnesota Twin Cities' Hmong Community joined by those from California, Wisconsin and other states is appealing for the release of their relatives held in that very network of secret prisons and camps within the various provinces of Laos.

The account in The New York Times of the forced eviction of 4,000 Hmong refugees just last month by Thailand government soldiers can be found here.

Voluntary repatriation or lambs to the slaughter?

I guess we'll see soon enough.

Perhaps for the moment, at least, more realistically and simply, that song noted previously should be sung once more, briefly, while we all just forget . . . that Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or any of the rest ever happened.

****Visit: Beautiful Laos****

Hmm, maybe . . . not.

"Hang down your head, Tom Dooley, hang down your head . . . and cry."

For more on Dr. Thomas Anthony Dooley and his living legacy read here.