–George V. Smith, "Remembering
The odes to Dith Pran appearing in The New York Times and the Boston Globe relate a story that is vaguely his, but overwhelmingly, they present a story that is uniquely an American version of truth. Namely, the articles are a continuation of a censored history. Neither recount the conditions that led to the Khmer Rouge regime gaining a stronghold in
It seems a proper memorial would be an examination of genocide as it is happening now. Surely, viewing the truth of genocide includes a panoramic vision beyond the actors of genocide itself, and would include those who create the conditions, perpetuate the conditions, turn their backs on the conditions that formulaically transforms any country into a fertile ground for indiscriminate killing.
Pol Pot emerged from a vacuum created by
The short-cut touched off a spiral of conditions that caused time to be reversed to Year O. Under the Angar Padewat
In 1970, a group of people at
To honor Dith Pran is to awaken to the genocide that is now; to view the cycle in real time; and to do what is in our power to intervene on behalf of those who are suffering the horrors of genocide anywhere.
Laray Polk is an artist and activist who lives in
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