Out of 17,000 people imprisoned in the notorious security prison 21, this man, Chum Mey, is one of only 12 known survivors and I met him today. I was blissfully ignorant of details Khmer Rouge regime or of the more than 1.7 estimated people who died when they ruled Cambodia. (While I knew sketchy details about the genocide I STUPIDLY thought The Killing Fields was an action movie...) The weight of my stumbling innocence, coupled with the rawness of grief made these words I read at the museum resonate even more in my callowed soul,A society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history. It was an honor to meet this man who openly forgave those captures who tortured him and killed his wife and four children. I love the resiliency I felt when he hugged me and the healing buoyancy of hope.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:42:53 +0000
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