Hell, Yes!

Some time ago I blogged about a decision our school board made to name a new elementary school General Vang Pao School, in recognition of the sizable Hmong community that exists here. This was after soliciting suggestions of suitable names from the wider community on the school district website. The decision to name the school Vang Pao caused immediate negative reaction in our community, because of his alleged drug running and summary executions carried out when he was working with the CIA to fight the Communists in Laos. While those charges are serious, I don't know enough about the man or his history to damn him on those points. But I strongly object to naming a school after him simply because of his military background; one of my friends called it when he questioned why we would name a public school after a warlord.

This is not the first time this controversy has arisen here. General Vang Pao is generally revered by Hmong people and several years ago there was a proposal to name a city park after him. It was ditched when the same allegations were brought up. Unfortunately it becomes an us/them kind of debate, with mostly Hmong people pitted against mostly white people. Very divisive and ugly.

Despite all of this, the school board staunchly stood behind their decision to name the school, and even broke ground for it 2 weeks ago using shovels emblazoned with "General Vang Pao." Fast forward to the revelations this weekend that General Vang Pao has been indicted on charges of allegedly masterminding a plot to overthrow the Communist Laotian government. Imagine the backpedaling that was going on at last night's school board meeting! (I shouldn't sound so gleeful, except that the initial decision was a perfect example of certain people bending over backward not to appear racist and making a decision without ever having done any background research, and in the process creating a huge amount of turmoil and bad feelings. Dummies.)

I took particular pleasure in this delicious little passage, taken from our morning paper:

Cher Peng Her, who spoke in defense of naming the school after Vang Pao, said later that even if the charges against Vang Pao turn out to be true, Vang Pao is simply defending his own people from a Laotian government that has sanctioned the killings, rapes and persecution of Hmong.

Her said President Bush used similar rationale for overthrowing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "Should we bring charges against our president for doing exactly what Vang Pao is alleged?" Her asked. (To which I yelled out loud -- in the teachers' lounge -- "Hell, yes!")

Well, it's bound to get curiouser and curiouser. I'll keep you posted.