Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Fort Hood, TX (follow up)

Mike Benge, one of the cast members for our film (about the Montagnard people who allied with the U.S.A. during the Vietnam War), sends me emails regularly about what is happening in the community. He has been passionate about their plight for so many years, and you can hear the injustice against the Montagnards in his voice when he speaks.

Moments ago, I received an email from him about the Fort Hood, T.X., shooting. One of the victims was a Hmong-American. Here is a press release with more information: http://media-newswire.com/release_1105606.html.

"Private First Class Kham Xiong has accomplished his honorable service to our great nation, the United States of America, I salute him and his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood killed in this terrible shooting," Colonel Wangyee Vang said on behalf of Lao and Hmong veterans from Minnesota and across the United States.

(Media-Newswire.com) - St. Paul, Minnesota, Fresno, California, Fort Hood, Texas, and Washington, D.C., November 10, 2009 - The nation’s largest ethnic Hmong and Lao veterans organization is saluting Private First Class Kham Xiong and the other 12 victims of the Fort Hood shooting in Texas. Memorial services will be held in Texas today for the shooting victims attended by their families, President Barack Obama, the First Lady Michelle Obama, and Members of the U.S. Congress, including Rep. Betty McCollum ( D-MN ) of St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Lao Veterans of America, Inc., Lao Veterans of America Institute, Center for Public Policy Analysis, Lao Hmong Human Rights Council, Hmong Advance, Inc., Hmong Advancement, Inc., Laotian Community of Minnesota, United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. the Center for Public Policy Analysis and a coalition of Lao and Hmong veterans and non-profit organizations have joined with Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt in honoring Pfc. Kham Xiong and expressing condolences to Mrs. Kham Xiong and his surviving children and family.

Private Kham Xiong and many of his family were natives of Minnesota's Twin Cities where there are large Lao Hmong communities in both St. Paul and Minneapolis. U.S. Army Private First Class Xiong was a Hmong refugee born in Thailand following the communist takeover in Laos and Hmong exodus at the end of the Vietnam War.
The press release continues here: http://media-newswire.com/release_1105606.html.

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