Stories
Bombing them
Laos is the world’s most budget-friendly destination for 2025. I can buy a bowl of noodles for a couple dollars and stay at a backpacker hostel for $7 per night.
This country in Southeast Asia, however, has endured trauma. Between 1964 and 1973, over two million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos during the Second Indochina War; the equivalent of a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years. Thirty percent of these bombs failed to detonate and are still live. An estimated 20,000 people, mostly children, have been killed or injured by them since the war ended.
Many of us know the Second Indochina War as the Vietnam War. The country that dropped the bombs, well… that would be the United States. Many of us did not know about this “secret war” which also involved Cambodia and Laos.
In a world that is becoming more divided, us against them, some are quick to use violence; our quick comebacks and desire for revenge when wounded. Violence endures and multiplies. The action taken during the Second Indochina War is still being felt half a century later. How will our quick comebacks continue to wound?
Further reading: The Geneva Conventions and Protocols
These are heartbreaking statistics. It’s especially problematic when leaders foster a spirit of divide and encourage I retaliation and violence. We each have to go into the world every day and shine a light of love and mercy in our small corner of the world. And we need to do everything in our power, through peace and persistence to usher In a generation of leadership that is grounded in treating all humanity and our precious planet with dignity, grace and care.