Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Regal Passing: It's Complicated

You probably heard the news this week about the passing of King Sihanouk in Cambodia.

There will be a ceremony at City Hall Saturday morning at 9:30, which I plan to attend in order to listen, learn, and observe.  One thing I want to mention in the meantime is that there are a lot of intense feelings about King Sihanouk among Khmer-Americans living in Lowell, and not all of those feelings are warm and bubbly.  I asked my father-in-law about it this morning over the phone as I boarded the train...the conversation started in Lowell, ended in West Medford, and included maybe five or so words from my end.

I'm not schooled enough in Cambodian history to fully understand what King Sihanouk's life meant, what his decisions in the 1970s meant, or what his death means.

But I wanted to write this entry just to let people know there is a lot of sensitivity surrounding the subject.  

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