Friendship and the Sad Days of Summer Snow

“If you want to scare the vampires you simply drag them into the light.” Michael Franti.

Heading out of Vietnam I passed a beautiful tile mosaic wall dedicated to next years’ 1000 year anniversary of the founding of Hanoi. The city breathes with old and new. It’s perhaps this long continuum that adds to its strength and resilience. No where was this more evident in the efforts of the Friendship Village - a home for the vets and their offspring whose neurological systems and DNA flow with the chemical known as Agent Orange.

I was torn about going to the Village. I had seen the film produced by a Japan filmmaker that she dedicated to her husband - a Vietnam Vet who was caught up in the blanketing of miles of Vietnam with Agent Orange and had succumbed to Cancer. I was against the war and its crimes but felt I might not have any more juice or understanding, especially when it comes to the poisoning of children. I have filled up on both love and horrors these past few weeks. I began to think I might be feeling a little numb? Was there something to be gained by seeing the victims in order to understand the impact of war on people?

Meeting with Director of Village and head of the Victims of Agent Orange Association
The children, often with deformed faces, missing limbs etc - birth defects as a result of their parents exposure to the Toxin - remains the vestiges of a war that lives on in the bodies of its victims and is passed to the next generation. From 1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed Vietnam with Agent Orange, which contained large quantities of Dioxin, allegedly in order to defoliate the trees for military objectives. Dioxin according to the World Health Organization is a carcinogen (causes cancer) and is identified by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects). Between 2.5 and 4.8 million people were exposed to Agent Orange. 1.4 billion hectares of land and forest - approximately 12 percent of the land area of Vietnam - were sprayed. The countless birth defects and injuries are staggering.

But how often we don’t want to face the sad history of our use of violence and our historical efforts from Wounded Knee to Korea and onto Vietnam, to wipe out mass groups of people through massacres, carpet bombing and chemical weapons (depleted uranium weapons in Iraq) in the name of peace and progress. But as we walked into the first classroom my apprehension slipped away and I knew why I was here. I quickly got down to the side of their table and began to talk with them, touch and play. I remembered what I had learned from Fred Donaldson’s Creative Play class. Don’t touch the heads and get down to their space. It was transformative and their smiles infectious. I was so grateful I came.

It is important to experience the casualties of war if only to put a human face on it. These children have been medically linked to Agent Orange decades later. According to the World Health Organization, only 1 - 4 parts per trillion (PPT) of Dioxin in breast milk can cause severe deformities in fetuses and even death. But up to 1450 PPT are found in maternal milk in Vietnam. Dr. Jeanne Stellman, an agent orange expert, says that "this is the largest unstudied environmental disaster in the world (except for natural disasters)."

The US courts threw out the Agent Orange case brought by some fellow Guild lawyers and friends Jeanne Mirer and Jonathan Moore on behalf of some victims of Agent Orange and their association. The court concluded that Agent Orange did not constitute a poison weapon prohibited by the Hague Convention of 1907. The Supreme Court refused to review it.

US veterans had successfully sued the chemical companies Dow and Monsanto (now bringing us GMO Food) who settled out of court for $180 million. Later the vets received $1.52 billion per year in benefits from Congress. Despite promises from Nixon of unconditional aid and clear liability, no assistance has been made for the children or the other victims in Vietnam. Will we ever truly heal until something is done and ackowledged?

The U.S. government and the chemical companies knew that Agent Orange, when produced rapidly at high temperatures, would contain large quantities of Dioxin. They also knew that the Bionetics Study, commissioned by the government in 1963, showed that even low levels of Dioxin produced significant deformities in unborn offspring of laboratory animals. The report was suppressed, Agent Orange continued to be sprayed until after the report was leaked in 1969. Furthermore the Eco-damage wiped out significant forests, made species extinct and still contaminates parts of Vietnam. No US funds have been paid to clean up the mess.

In order to continue the struggle to Congress to get some funds for the victims and their families a Court of Conscience was called in Paris in May by our group IADL and the findings are astonishing and stark reminder that the breadth of destruction left by acts of war go far beyond the “target..” You can read the decision of the International Judges at our site at www.nlginternational.org. On my visit to this Friendship Village I learned that this fellow I met ( pictured below ) had had several children but they all died as infants (an all too common event for parents exposed to Agent Orange). He had been in the areas blanketed with Agent Orange during the war. The Village lets him come for rest and to work with him, as he has difficulty with mental functioning. 

Can we even imagine such a trauma to a family? Today I had my new grandson’s 1st birthday party.....Unimaginable.

I recall vividly in 1971 on the steps of the Capital, Peter Paul and Mary singing that deep refrain “when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?” It pains me that forty years later we still are duped into believing that war is an answer for anything. I think of the millions of Iraqi families scarred for life and for generations.

In the end it is the smiles, songs and faces of the children from Friendship Village that will stick with me forever.
We are creative beings with unlimited potential but we cannot be silent in the face of those who cling to the past ways of relating and solving problems. I hope all of you reading will find a small way to let your congressperson know that they should support a Victim Fund for Agent Orange victims in Vietnam and you can make a donate to Friendship House (www.friendshiphouse.org.) But also find something in your life that supports a move to peace in our world. On March 18, 2002, Vietnam Friendship Village Founder George Mizo died at his home in the village of Hofen, Germany. His wife Rosi and son Michael sent out a message of love for George: "Peace is giving something to life...Your spirit is living in our hearts and in the Vietnam Friendship Village. --With love, Rosi and Michael Mizo, Hildegard Hohn, and all the people you have touched with your life."

Eric Sirotkin
Ashland Oregon

PS - Thanks Marjorie Cohen, one of the Judges of the Court, from some of the stats above. Read her full article on Agent Orange on our site also at www.nlginternational.org

SHOWING RESPECT

I took off from the photos, film and reporting to simply hold the white Chrysanthemum tightly and feel the hearts around me. Somehow the loss is universal. We lose our innocence at each step. Across the border a nuclear explosion deep underground is heard around the world. How Sad they could not have a waited a few weeks in light of Roh Moo Hyun’s death. How sad it has to be happening in the first place when it could have been avoidable. Yet, hardening those who reach out to you does little good.
The stark contrasts between North and South reveal themselves deeply on this trip. Last time I was here I was looking for the commonality, but now little remains. I did thought think I saw Mr. Bong, my DPRK ping-pong nemesis, on the street a few times. The stark physical similarities and expressions still abound. Unmistakably from the same tree, but how different they have been trimmed by circumstance.
I have watched the tears all around me and cannot shake the ocean of tears shed by these people since time immemorial. If someone you respected, who seemed to take on the world (“I’m not going to how-tow to Washington.”- Roh) loses the strength to carry on, what does it mean for me, asks many. Add to it the earth shaking North and peace can at times appear beyond remote.
Yet behind me in line to pay respects stood two small girls with their father. Their giggles wafted above the sorrow and their flowers became not tokens of memorial, but magic wands of delight.
They followed me to the alter, they bowed with their father to the ground, prostrations to the great loss. But for me they held the hope of tomorrow in their smile. On a certain level in this crazy and unpredictable world, peace is that simple.

What we leave for the Seven Generations that follow is our legacy. Restoring the world’s balance is possible. Even when our circumstances may seem unfair - our deck stacked, the wall so high, there remains the sparkle of life, a child’s laugh, or a flower’s brilliance, to remind us that beauty abounds. Hope is as strong as that fear and despair a and just as a accessible to us all. It is what we choose. It may be “the road less traveled,” but without it, the twists and turns of this oft-fragile world can keep us on the path in darkness.

Will there be more suicides, more despair? Or will this death reaffirm that each must move off the habitual and refocus our attention. After WWII we created the UN and its charter of peace and saw a new era of hope merge. Yet, it was moved to the back seat behind geo-political conflicts and we quickly forgot to reach for the best.

We are connected in so many ways. We all live, die, grieve, hope and dream. It’s time to use these events to remember our commonality and build a world that reflects this rich heritage. Model it, live it and yes demand it of our leaders and each other. I will never forget that your humanity is intrinsically wrapped up with mine.

The state funeral is Friday here in Seoul. It might nix my trip south the the TRC excavation site. A seven day funeral begins. But what I am seeing here is more than the death, but a reaffirmation in the streets and and on television of Moo Hyuan’s principles. Who he was and where he came from. People are appreciating that he stood for peace, reconciliation and justice. That he was, why withdrawn to his home in the South and doing some Organic gardening, weathering an attack from his conservative successor’s regime that reminded me of the Hunting of the President (the film about Clinton’s Whitewater/sex days). He was accused of corruption and it had been his life work to challenge it. He was, as two young Koreans told me last night, our Obama. Not because of race, but really class as he did not have a degree, yet studied and passed the hard bar exam to become a lawyer - but never part of the “ivy-school” elite of politics. To them he was a hero. Death happens for a reason and it appears that this death is opening Korea up to deep reflection - a wake up call as powerful as the blast to the North.

posted by Eric Sirotkin from NLG Korean Peace Project Trip to South Korea May 2

REST IN PEACE

My meeting today was substantially scaled back due to the apparent suicide of President Roh (2002-2008). It will likely impact most of the week as there is great shock and mourning. As one friend here wrote: “Waken up in a Saturday morning by a shocking news of a former leader's death, people in this country still find difficult to realize he is truly gone. We are still in awe and speechless for the great loss we have. The whole country is turned into an enormous mourning place, where no one is able to find words to describe the deepest sorrow of loosing a leader who they elected with their own hands and also now about to bury. State of awe continues, Korea is submerged with the silence”

Roh was the most progressive president in Korea. He came up in familiar territory for me. A human rights lawyer whose early representations of demonstrators in 1981 had so impacted him that it changed his legal and political life forever. He had when asked about becoming a Human Rights Activists he described the case saying “When I saw their horrified eyes and missing toenails, my comfortable life as a lawyer came to an end and I became a man determined to make a difference in this world.” He went to jail for three weeks with other demonstrators in 1987 when the big democracy movement reached its peak. He passed the act creating the Truth and Reconciliation commission and sought to build more bridges with the North through exchange and trade. All are saying it was ironic when his family got caught up in this bribe scandal as it was something he fought regularly.

Regardless I met with Professor Bo-Hyuk Suh who has done great human rights and peace work in Korea. Also a few women from local peace groups and PSPD, including the Coordinator of Peace and Disarmament Huisun Kim. I told the group at the start of our meeting: “Let me first begin by expressing great sadness and our condolences to the families and friends and to the people of Korea for the loss of your former President Roh this past week. As a Human Rights lawyer myself who has represented activists for decades and worked for peace I feel great sadness that someone who stood up for people, was willing to lead a courageous march toward Truth and Reconciliation and continued the path toward peace, engagement died prematurely. No one is without their flaws and struggles, and personal demons, but the courage he showed as a human rights lawyer in the struggles of the 1980‘s will always inspire and lead more people to take up the cause of justice. It’s those moments we will remember forever.”

We actually accomplished a lot with discussions about ways in which we can unite our movements in Korea and the US to work for peace. They agreed to a joint Video conference and to share candlelight vigils with ours set for Armistice Day July 27th. Some further educational ideas on peacemaking and a joint project to video people’s stories for historical and film projects arose. We will start with people sharing what peace would mean to them on a joint blog. They agreed to write more letters of support for peace like the one they had written earlier to Secretary Clinton. (Great letter in which they called on the US to move from Peacekeeping to Peacemaking- huge difference). THis type of joint efforts are a big step. It is key to not only speak being an internationalist or support interconnectedness but to model it. It is what this trip represents. One thing we agreed upon was the need for healing on both sides of the pacific, as many families and Vets in the US still carry the trauma of what has gone on here.

I shared with them the words of President Obama “When nations and peoples allow themselves to be defined by differences, the gulf between them widens. When we fail to pursue peace, then it stays forever beyond our grasp.” President Barack Obama Prague April 5, 2009. The goal is to make sure that Obama is seeing his views reflected in his Korea policy. At Notre Dame in May “Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history..” It is time to bring such thinking from the stage in Indiana to the Korean Peninsula. It is Roh’s dream and his legacy.
Posted by Eric Sirotkin